Transcript

[00:00:00] Nicole: Welcome to another edition of the readerly report today, Gayle and I are going to be discussing our bookish pet peeves a long time ago. We did a Festive episode around the holidays where we aired our grievances, I think about particular books, but this is just like our pet peeves in general. So I’m curious to hear what Gayle’s are.

I don’t think I have that many, but I feel like as soon as you start to tell me your.

[00:00:46] Gayle: I have, I have six.

[00:00:49] Nicole: Okay. I feel like I will either chime in or will reminds me of something that I don’t like. Okay. We are so going to be. I don’t even know if we’re concluding this. I wonder if I did it right. So we were narrowing it’s the final two books before it goes up against the champion book, which is the idea of you.

So we have to do that today as well. Okay.

[00:01:13] Gayle: I’m

[00:01:13] Nicole: still reading strangers on the train. It is completely wild. And I see why it has mixed reviews. I wonder what it was like to read it then, because I feel like sometimes when you read books that are set back in the day, they just had a different writing aesthetic writing style that sometimes isn’t the same as what we’re currently used to reading now.

And I feel like there is a remove from me with this book because it seems a little bit old fashioned. Remind me

[00:01:41] Gayle: when that Percocet,

[00:01:42] Nicole: I would think, I think she wrote it in 1953 or something. Yeah. So it would, it would have been set in that time kind of like with that slang and that guy’s an architect, so he’s of course he’s always running around in suits and yeah, I don’t know.

He also seems rather gullible to me, like one of the guys who is involved in this murder, like he meets this random guy on the train and. Who is basically obsessed with killing his father and obsessed with the perfect murder. And, you know, I was thinking that they had both decided to do this together, but one person is basically pursuing an agenda here.

So it’s about how the other guy gets tangled up in that.

Okay. So I’m about halfway through. So probably next time we meet, I will have an update and can say for sure, just what I feel is going on. I could see how people would be obsessed with the plot, but I can’t say that I love the execution.

So a lot of what’s been taking my time is a couple of weeks ago, a couple of shows ago, I had offered a human design reading for people who are listening. You could use Colt readerly and it was through the end of may. So I’ve gotten to talk to a lot of people who listen to the show and kind of go over their human design with them.

So that’s been really fun. So I’ve been reading a little bit less and we still have to do yours on.

[00:03:14] Gayle: Oh my God. Yes, I can’t wait.

[00:03:16] Nicole: Maybe next time. Okay. What does it entail? Well, it’s, it’s astrologically based, so it’s, it’s like birth date and where you were born. Okay. So what about

[00:03:26] Gayle: you? What have you been reading?

Let’s see, I try to remember where I was the last time we talked, I finished the fortunate ones by ed Tarkington, which I think I talked about on the show and I really,

[00:03:36] Nicole: really liked it. I tried to read one of his other books before I didn’t get far. Oh,

[00:03:42] Gayle: okay. It’s interesting. I’ve been curious about the. It was very good.

I did that one on audio. It was fantastic narrator. I really liked it and recommended it. And I then converted a book that I had started in print that I got kind of stalled on over to audio. And that one is take my hand by Dolin, Perkins, Valdez, and I’m maybe. The third way of the way through maybe getting close to half and the audio is very good as well.

So that was a good, a good switch to pick it up on audio. Cause I’m liking it a lot. And then for my book club, We’re supposed to read two books. One of which I haven’t started yet. That’s the new collection of essays by Ann Patchett. And the other book is something called just last night. And it’s by, I’m going to know if I’m going to pronounce this, right.

I think it’s Mary MacFarlane. I don’t know if it’s an Irish name. Let’s say I’m gonna look it up. How you spell it.

[00:04:37] Nicole: I’ve heard of her. I don’t think it’s Mary. I think it’s something else. Maybe though, I’m not sure.

[00:04:46] Gayle: So I’m not entirely sure how to pronounce it. But it’s it’s good. It’s good. It’s, I’m, I’m very engrossed in it and I’m going to finish it probably today and I’d like it a lot, Mer.

Oh, okay. Now here’s how you spell it. This is why I had this wrong. M H a I R I. Mary Mary McFarland. So it’s a good book. It’s like in very engrossing story. It’s about four friends and they’re in their thirties. It’s two men and two women. They’ve been friends since college. Although the two women have been friends since childhood and They are not married.

And there are some sort of complicated interpersonal dynamics between the four that are kind of a secret. And then something happens, which I don’t want to give away. That kind of changes everything and alters not only the way they view each other, but also just how they’re living their lives. And It’s good.

It’s kind of, I guess it’s kind of a romcom, except there’s, it’s a lot of sad stuff in it. So I wouldn’t say it’s definitely not a comedy, but it’s a, it’s a good book.

[00:05:50] Nicole: I was going to say, I think she writes sort of comedic women’s fiction. Like it does have the heavier themes in it, but it is light at the same time, kind of the way.

Jojo Moyes, like towed the line with that. And me before you,

[00:06:04] Gayle: I think that’s a good analogy.

[00:06:08] Nicole: Like, this is funny. This is fun, but it’s kind of sad, but yeah, they’re very sad. Very sad. Yes.

[00:06:15] Gayle: Yeah. So if you’d like judge MOS, I think he might like this one as well. That is so I’ve finished that soon. Maybe I’ll pick up the Ann Patchett after that,

[00:06:24] Nicole: I want to go back to the unfortunate ones.

Like, what was that about again? Can you remind us and why you liked

[00:06:30] Gayle: it? Sure. So the fortunate ones is about a boy growing up in Nashville and he lives with his single mother and kind of like the wrong part of Nashville and an apartment. And then. He’s kind of plucked out of nowhere to go attend this very fancy private boys school for rich kids.

And, you know, he gets a scholarship and he finds himself integrating into this life. That’s very different from what he’s grown up with and he makes a very good friend named arch. And the book is a lot about his friendship with arch whose arch is kind of a golden boy. And the book goes from high school all the way through adulthood and traces their friendship and how his name’s the main character’s name is Charlie.

How Charlie sort of handles this feeling of like always being an outsider in his own home or his own school or community, because he feels like doesn’t really belong, but he’s kind of gets sucked in with. These lives of people living very differently from him. I don’t know. I’ve heard it called like Gatsby ask.

I’m not sure I would go that far, but it. This sort of timeless feel to it because I think the themes that it hits about adulthood and identity and loyalty, they feel pretty universal. And I enjoyed the writing a lot and the narration was just great in that book. So if you’re interested in doing the fortunate ones to try it on.

Okay.

[00:07:58] Nicole: And that’s that? I’m actually listening to a book on audio called the damage done. And that’s really interesting. It’s by Michael land Weber. Oh

[00:08:08] Gayle: my God. I know him. Oh, do you? Yes, I know. I know Michael. I actually read his first book.

[00:08:15] Nicole: Do you know him through reading his first book or? No?

[00:08:17] Gayle: I know him.

Yeah. He’s from DC and our kids are in school together. I read his first book years and years ago, he, you know, he knew that I was a book blogger and he got me a copy of it. It was called God, what was it about this? It was, you know, had time-travel all of his books have this sort of element of science fiction time-travel type.

Yes. Yeah. He’s a really nice guy. I’m so excited to reading that. That’s cool.

[00:08:41] Nicole: It’s good. It had an interesting premise and it’s about this world where all of a sudden, like any kind of violence can no longer be physical. Like, so the president was trying to figure out new ways to wage war on people like bullies.

All of a sudden they can’t actually physically hit you. So guns are going off and. They don’t hit their targets. Like nothing that’s violent will work. So it’s just all about how people start to develop new ways of, of I don’t know, kind of like being violent or being cruel or how they’re manipulating the space where violence once was and the role that it filled in our society.

Like, you know, if you can’t hold a gun to someone’s head or stab them or whatever, it’s just like, well, If that was your modus operandi, I guess, how would you do it now?

And it’s just like a bunch of different people who find themselves. Like one is a social worker who was in an abusive marriage. One is like this little kid who’s been bullied. Like I said, the president is trying to figure out a way to wage war. Yeah. So I’m, I’m, I’m curious to see where it goes. I’m like in the beginning parts and the little boy who’s being bullied he’s been, has been chased home and he’s expecting to get this beating and you know, of course the bullies don’t know why what’s going on, but of course there’s this element of fear.

So it’s really interesting.

[00:10:09] Gayle: The one that I read was called a, we w E. And it was a time travel. I think I was his first full length novel, or maybe the first published novel. I don’t know cause this, he does this on the side. Like it’s not his, I guess maybe now it’s his full-time job. Right. But I feel bad because I have seen him on Facebook post other books that he’s published and I haven’t, you know, sort of reached out and said, Hey, let me re read it and review it just because it’s, they tend to be a little outside of my comfort zone of books.

Right. So. So excited that you have discovered them.

[00:10:44] Nicole: Yeah. I think that this one is more. I think it would be within your realm, just because besides the fact that you have to accept that you’re living in a world where people can’t be physically violent, it’s still the regular world. So it was kind of like this question, navigating violence and how we use violence in our lives.

And when you know, physical violence is no longer a possibility, what do you do? Interesting. You know, unfortunate people don’t decide to not use violence. It just becomes more emotional or. Just thinking of different ways. 

[00:11:15] Gayle: So, right. 

[00:11:17] Nicole: So I think  that that would not be too bad for you. Alright. So our next order of business is we have, we kicked off March madness where Gayle and I do a tournament and we try to find the best book that we have both.

Not both red because this year it’s different. The best book that we’ve read over the course of the last year. So that would be 20, 21. This year, the vote is up to our listeners and we are down to our final pairing before. So we get to see what will advance and take on the idea of. And they are who advanced one of my books made it.

And so after getting everything out, I still have a chance that it won’t be, you know, both Gayle’s books going for the number one slot. So The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano will be up against At The Wolf’s Table.

[00:12:09] Gayle: Nice. Okay. Do you want to make the case? I mean, it’s hard because we’ve talked about both of these books now, probably four times, three times, as we’ve gotten to this point, let’s not

[00:12:18] Nicole: talk about them in the same way.

Like, what are the things these books have made it, they’ve made it to the end. Like, I think there’s no shame for any of these books now that they have made it this far. I would say, what do you think are the themes? Something about these books have resonated to keep pushing them forward.

[00:12:37] Gayle: Women and agency, you know, women having control over or no control over their destiny and their choices.

Oh, that seems like the, yeah. Those themes emerge on both of those books. And I wonder if they’re resonating right now because we’re living in a time where we’re seem to be rolling back. A lot of the freedom that women have in this country.

[00:13:00] Nicole: Right. I would say that’s accurate just as a really brief reminder at the world at the Wolf’s table by Rosella poster.

Reno is set in world war II. It’s about a woman whose husband has gone off to war. She goes to live with his family. And she is, I don’t know, I guess co-opted or invited to be a taste tester for Hitler. It’s an invitation that you can’t refuse and you start off going a couple of days a week and may not a couple of days a week, a couple of times a day, they go and they have to test their food.

So there’s all this tension about. What might happen because you’d be never know, like, if something is poisonous, will you be ill? I think that puts it on edge. You know, these women are getting to know each other all are from different circumstances and all don’t necessarily have the same type of politics.

So it’s about what happens when they are put in even further close quarters doing this dangerous work when they’re no longer allowed to go home and they have to stay in the dormitory. So like you said, just a lot about agency and. Navigating gray spaces and trying to, I don’t know, find a place of freedom in, in really dire constraints.

[00:14:17] Gayle: Rossa Positano is about the freedom to decide whether or not to become a parent. And it’s about a woman who decides she doesn’t want to have kids, even though she and her husband who were initially on the same page about it, ha now have a difference of opinion and he wants to have kids and she doesn’t, and it plays out her life in nine different ways.

As you figure out. What happens next? You know, did they have the kids? Did they not have a kid? Did they stay together? Do they not stay together? And there’s just a number of different scenarios that play out in each of the following chapters. So it’s really about, you know, pressure, pressure from other people, expectations, being true to what you want and what you believe in and not feeling the ramifications of that.

[00:15:09] Nicole: So I would like to thank everyone for taking this particular journey with us. You know, we started in March, we will make, be making our announcement on the show. That’s going to come out the week of May 2nd. And so thank you for voting. We will. The voting link will be in the show notes and on the website.

So thank you for voting thus far. We just let’s this is our last pairing before the final. Yeah.

[00:15:36] Gayle: Yep. So one of those two books will go up against the idea of you by Robin Lee. Yes.

[00:15:45] Nicole: Okay. Next order of business, I have a couple of books. That I want to share that they are coming out in these weeks right before our next show.

So one of them is a book that you mentioned by Michelle Hanaven. Oh yeah. It’s going to be out on April 26 and I was reading, I was reading the description again and it looks really.

[00:16:09] Gayle: Oh, is this the one about the search committee?

[00:16:11] Nicole: Yes. Yes. I was looking at that again. I was like, that does look really good.

It’s about this woman who gets involved. I believe it’s choosing a Unitarian church, is it? Yep. And she gets involved in the search committee for a new pastor and at first she’s thinking she can just. Use this as fodder for her new memoir, but as she becomes more invested in who the candidates are, and I guess getting her candidate, the job, she becomes like really obsessed with the whole process and invested in it.

So that’s like a note to myself. I don’t know if I can read it this year. Depends on. It’s always dependent on outside forces. Now, marrying the ketchups by Jennifer close is also going to be coming out on April 26. And I dunno, she used to be one of those one a year books that I felt like you enjoyed.

Yeah. They still reference that she’s the best-selling author of girl girls in white dresses, which I always think it’s interesting because you know, she’s written other ones, but I guess that is the one that is the most recent.

[00:17:14] Gayle: Yup. That was my favorite of her books. I think that book is going to, I think I, I requested a copy of that book, so hopefully I’ll get it in the next couple of weeks.

[00:17:22] Nicole: Oh, the cat Marion and catch-ups. Yeah. So it basically is in line with the way our usual fare is it’s usually set on a close-knit family or a family that is drawn back together during a specific time to take care of these certain things. So this is about the Sullivan family and it takes place. I think.

Probably 2016. Cause I think Trump is just selected as president and like there’s just historical things that are going on in this summer. When, when the patriarch of the family who had made the best burgers in town dies and the crossroad that all the different family members are in actually looks like it might be good.

Okay. So my next book is actually going to lead into a piece of literary news. It’s Charles Booker’s memoir. From the hood to the holler. And he talks about growing up in Kentucky and how he became involved in politics, you know? Basically his memoir, his coming of age memoir and how he got set on the path that he is.

So it’s interesting because Jane, they could have probably said the same thing about JD Vance’s book. It says it’s a moving coming of age story and an urgent political intervention, a much needed blueprint for how equity and racial justice might transcend partisan divisions in Kentucky throughout the south and across America.

I almost feel like with just a few. I don’t know. Maybe if you took out racial justice and put in opioid crisis, it could be the same description for hillbilly Elegy. And of course now JD Vance is in politics and he’s just been endorsed by Donald Trump, who he used to just like rail against which I find so fascinating.

Yeah. When people, because he didn’t set out to be a politician, so it’s not like he has always wanted to be a politician. He’s like he was a venture capitalist and, you know, wrote the book, which I think was, I don’t know, they said it was cute. It was encouraged to write it by the woman who wrote the tiger mom.

Amy Tewa. She was his mentor when he was in law school. And it’s just really interesting the way this book was shepherded. And he talks about how he basically had a break with the liberal elites and, and they talk about how widely panned and mocked that movie was, which I can’t speak to because I didn’t see it.

It just, it didn’t look like it was good acting. I wouldn’t say anything about, you know, his actual story. But the movie just didn’t

[00:19:54] Gayle: look, I dunno, it didn’t look like it was going to be good.

[00:19:58] Nicole: So now he’s just like this Fieri completely right to the right politician. So I thought that was just an interesting, like this guy’s book is coming out.

We had a book sort of about, you know, the trials and tribulations of Appalachia and. It just makes me think a lot about, you know, what people set out set out to do. And I think of Ronald Reagan, you know, that wasn’t my experience with him because. I wasn’t aware of his acting career, anything what to do with Ronald Reagan, but you hear about him now.

And just the fact that he started out as, as an actor and how he made that transition, which what is interesting to me just because I woke up one day and it’s like, what in the world is going on with JD Vance?

[00:20:42] Gayle: Yeah. Let’s see, I have a couple of books coming in. The mail that I’ve swapped for that I’m excited about.

One is there’s a new Tom Perata book, which is like a SQL to election. Tracy flick can’t lose, or Tracy flick can’t win or something like that. So it’s about the protagonists. From the collection, which must’ve come out in the early nineties and I’m a big temper auto fan. So I’m excited for that. I think that’s on its way to me.

That’s not, that’s

[00:21:06] Nicole: not old.

[00:21:08] Gayle: No, I think it’s new. Let me look it up. Tracy flick can’t rent. That’s what it’s called. And it comes out in June.

[00:21:15] Nicole: Wow. I could have sworn, did he make it, did they make it a SQL tool?

[00:21:20] Gayle: I don’t. I think this is it. It says Tracy flick is back. Once again, the iconic protagonist of Tom prod is election interesting.

And Reese there’s character from the classic movie is determined to take high school politics by store. She’s a hardworking assistant principal at a public high school in suburban New Jersey. She gets stilt of good news and the longtime principal announces his retirement creating a rare opportunity for her to ascend to the job.

Hmm.

[00:21:45] Nicole: I just, I don’t know why. I wonder if he’s been writing this book for a while. Cause I feel like this is not the first time I’ve heard about it. Interesting. Okay. I’ve never seen election.

[00:21:58] Gayle: Oh, I love that. Maybe.

[00:22:00] Nicole: But I did see anatomy of a scandal, which is based on the book by Sarah Vaughn. I thought it was really good.

I binged that over the, over the weekend. Oh, okay. And that’s about this, this politician who is accused of well, he’s in a consensual relationship with a woman, but then it turns out that after he breaks up with her, she makes an accusation of rape. So it’s all about like what goes on with the family and his court case.

And it’s also linked to. You know, he went to Oxford and his experiences there and it all comes like it all comes together. So there’s lots of flashbacks and things, and it looks at how his wife is feeling through all of this, like to be married to him. And is there anything that she missed and you know, what is this going to do to their family?

It was really good. So I highly recommend

[00:22:52] Gayle: checking it out. A couple of other books that are coming in the mail or the latecomer actually I think had already arrived, which is the upcoming book by Jean Hannah correlates who wrote the plot. And it’s about, I think there’s three siblings. And then a much later in life, sibling is conceived through IVF.

And it’s all about the kind of interpersonal relationships between these siblings. I’ve heard it’s a little slow, which is like the opposite of the plot, but I’m excited. Yeah, I’m excited to read that. And I also have the caretakers coming my way. I don’t know if you’ve seen that book around. No, what’s that about the caretakers is by Amanda Bester Siegel and it is about, I think it’s about a group of old pairs and living in Paris.

And I think there’s a death of one of the kids and it’s a mystery of. What happened or what caused it, or I think one of them gets arrested for murder or something like that. So it’s another one of those, like living abroad type mystery crime things. Yeah. I’ve been active on the swaps.

[00:23:53] Nicole: A lot of variety coming up.

[00:23:54] Gayle: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s what I have. All right.

[00:23:58] Nicole: So are we ready to segue into bookish pet peeves? Sure. I’m ready. I’m fine. Okay, so let’s, let’s hear.

[00:24:07] Gayle: Okay. This is my first one. And I’m so curious to know if this bothers anyone else. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it with anyone. Okay. So, you know, when a book opens, there’s often a quote at the beginning.

Yes. I hate those because I feel like I’m already starting out, not knowing what’s going on because I never know. You know, usually the quote has some meaning to the author or to the. But when you’re on page zero of a book, you don’t know what the book is going to be about yet. And so there’s no way for you to really understand or put in context that quote.

So I feel like, especially on audio, I hate listening to it because I don’t like it when it’s on audio. I don’t know how long it is. And I don’t know if it’s part of the book or it’s a quote and it just makes me feel.

Do you feel that way at all? Or is that just me? I feel like I,

[00:24:54] Nicole: I don’t pay attention to anything besides what I know is the first chapter or what is clearly labeled as prologue. So it doesn’t bother me as much. I’m always the kind who. We’ll be halfway through the book and then just notice, oh, wait, each of these chapters has a headache.

Oh, I got,

[00:25:11] Gayle: I always skip the chapter headaches.

[00:25:13] Nicole: That’s maybe going to tell me a theme or is this a clue? So yeah, but probably just, I probably just don’t have such strong feelings about it. Cause I never read that. Okay.

[00:25:23] Gayle: I don’t know. I feel like it’s like the author’s trying to prove something and I just, I just would rather,

[00:25:28] Nicole: they didn’t have a, at one point, does anyone read them and was like, I don’t, I read a book cause it’s special or whatever.

And then half the time when you do pay them attention and you do go back to see what the epigraph meant or whatever. Sometimes I’m just like, I don’t know how this fits into the book. Am I missing something? So then I feel dumb. Yeah.

[00:25:50] Gayle: All right. So now we have the graphs.

[00:25:51] Nicole: Yeah. All right. So my pet peeve is you’ve heard me talk about this with Verity and.

A couple of other books that I don’t remember right now. I hate when characters are reading books and it takes them forever when it’s critical to their own plot. It drives me crazy. Okay. So like in Verity, this woman is, she goes and she lives with this guy and his, his kid, his wife is in a coma. She was an author, like a best-selling author and they need this.

Per book finished, but no one knows when she’s going to come out of the coma. So this woman agrees to like move into the house. She has access to all her books and she finds like this book that is not a book, you know, it’s like, seems like it’s her journal and she starts to read it. And it’s all about the things of course that were going on in the household and in the marriage.

And maybe it’s hinting that the guy that, you know, the woman’s husband who she’s falling in love with might have done something. Well egregious or dangerous or something. So she’s just reading this book and she’s like, yeah. So, you know, I read a couple of more chapters and it’s really dire and whatever, and then she just goes to sleep.

I’m like, that would never happen. If you’re reading, someone’s journal about the husband who may or may not be either abusive or murderer or whatever, I think you stay up and you finish that book. It’s just like what? And she’s just kind of like, yeah. So I’m so interested to later on read more about what’s happening and if he’s really, I don’t know, a serial killer or whatever, I’m like, okay.

You do that. So I just feel like it just takes me out of the story too much. Like, don’t do that just if you have to make it. So I don’t know, it’s a scavenger hunt and you have to figure out how to find the next piece of the story or whatever. I’m fine. But you can’t tell me that there’s a, like a complete book that you could read.

That’s going to tell you about the guy you’re falling in love with and you don’t read it. I mean, even if he isn’t a murderer,

[00:27:55] Gayle: Yeah, I think that’s right. Like willpower and self-control is unrealistic, right? Yeah. Especially

[00:28:01] Nicole: when your life might be in danger or if you’re falling in love, right?

[00:28:05] Gayle: Yes, that’s exactly right.

Okay. My next one, I hate. Too much foreshadowing, like the end of a chapter. When an author writes, if only she knew how much her life was about to change or you know, things were just going to get worse. So wait that, like, I, I find that very annoying because I’m reading, I’m invested, I’m all in. I don’t need that.

I’m going to keep going. And then I’m just, I feel like it needs to be spelled out for me or the author doesn’t have enough confidence that the reader is going to keep going. I find it unnecessary. And in some ways it just takes away suspense.

[00:28:42] Nicole: Knowing, I mean, I don’t mind I’m with you on this one. Like, I don’t mind it, you know, if it was like every six chapters or whatever, but you’ve read some books and at the, each at the end of each one, it’s, it’s something, you know, and I, and I don’t like to go even further.

I think sometimes it can be at the end of each chapter, but I’m really not crazy about. What was this book that we ju I just read this book and it does. And I liked the book, but it’s just kind of like, you’ll be reading about these people and what they’re doing now. And it’ll be like later on when they were up at the top of the mountains and they did this and this one would die or whatever, just like what you’re telling me a whole other story about what’s going to happen to these people in the middle of the sentence, like this woman she’s on a plane and she’s thinking about her daughter.

And it’s like later on when they find her daughter she’ll remember that blah-blah-blah oh, it drives me.

[00:29:44] Gayle: I agree.

[00:29:46] Nicole: I share that peeve. My next one. And I know. My mother tells me about it. She’s just like, you just wait until you get older or whatever is large print books. I can take them. And if I order something that’s large print by mistake or whatever, anytime that you see a paperback that’s out, I mean, sometimes trade paperbacks come out at the same time that the hard back.

If they think it’s going to have like wide book club appeal or whatever, and they know that certain people are going to buy this book in hardcover, but they also want to get that book club audience right away. They’ll do it. And it’s a regular paperback, but a lot of times, anytime you see a trade paperback of a hard cover book that’s doing well, it means it’s enlarged.

So that’s something to look out for. Like I said, as I get older, if my eyes, as my eyesight changes or whatever, I will probably appreciate it, but right now it drives me bananas. And for a long time, I preferred reading paperback books because the print was going to be even smaller. Like on my Kindle is set to the smallest size of.

[00:30:54] Gayle: So the one nice thing about the large print is you feel like you’re just flying through it. You’re like, wow, I’m reading really fast.

[00:31:00] Nicole: Yeah. Cause there’s two words on each page. Right,

[00:31:03] Gayle: right. Okay. So my next pet peeve is something we’ve talked about on the show many, many times, and you know this about me, but I hate books that take place at 24 hours.

I find them unrealistic because it’s a whole 300 pages of dialogue and action and things happening. And we thought that we

[00:31:20] Nicole: discovered that maybe it was a couple of books and you haven’t read too many books that were 24 hours.

[00:31:25] Gayle: Well, I kind of avoid them. I really don’t like them. Cause I just feel like there’s too much happening here for this to have taken place in one day.

And I don’t need to hear the minutia of one particular day. I want to, I want the books to tell me only the important stuff. So I think. It makes me anxious. I don’t, it makes me tired. Cause I feel like, oh my God, like this character, this has all happened to them. And one day they must be exhausted so that I have like, like sympathetic exhaustion on their behalf.

I just, I don’t like it at all.

[00:31:57] Nicole: And conversely, you love books that are set one day a year.

[00:32:01] Gayle: Love that love books. Like I love time construction, like, you know, unusual time construction other than the one day thing. I love books that revisit the same day books that revisit characters, you know, Check in with them once a year.

Right? I like time travel. I like that stuff. I think that is fascinating and interesting and new and out of order you know, even nine lives, which had the sliding doors thing and the new Lionel Shriver that I read should be stairs should be go had the sliding doors thing. I love that sliding

[00:32:36] Nicole: doors.

Okay. My next pet peeve is repetitive, sexy,

[00:32:45] Gayle: repetitive, sexy. It’s interesting. So like where an author is just not creative enough to come up with like different ways to have their, their characters hookup.

[00:32:52] Nicole: Yes. You know, there are some, and I think this is my issue. Sometimes with romance books and sex scenes, like I will read a romance, I enjoy a good romance, but I don’t like the corny, you know, whatever he puts his hand here, his member was thrown.

I just, just don’t like it. And when it’s like that, every time. The sex scene is initiated the same way or whatever I will say. And I was kind of embarrassed because I recommended this book to my mother and she’s like, wow. It was like pretty steamy. Seven days in June, she was, she did pretty different.

Yeah, they weren’t repetitive. I didn’t find. But yeah, that’s my problem with, especially if it’s going to be something that has a lot of sex and it’s similar, you know, it’s just like they talk for two sentences and then it’s like sex again. I want something different.

[00:33:43] Gayle: Yeah. I do not like too many pop culture references.

Dates your book, the dates, the book. And also if the book is set outside the United States, I have no idea what’s going on. So like in the beginning of the book, I’m reading now just last night, there was a little bit of that that I think actually prevented me from kind of getting into it right away. And I’ve gotten past that and it’s fine now, but if there’s too much pop culture that you’re either not going to get, because you don’t live there or it’s going to make the book feel really old, right?

Yeah. Then I don’t like it. Yeah. I don’t blame you authors always have a choice not to do that. So why

[00:34:18] Nicole: do it, I know that that’s something that they watch for tube in books or in translation, particularly between the UK and the U S like, I think sometimes they do change some of that stuff and we’ll tone down the language, you know, like the slang, because, you know, British English, sometimes that is like completely different.

And I think I’ve read enough British fiction. I’m up on a lot of it, but sometimes it’s just like, where is where’s Google, what is going on here? I read this one

[00:34:46] Gayle: book and I’m going to forget the name of it. It was, it takes place in Ireland. Oh, here it is. Big girl, small town by Michelle gallon. And she included a glossary, which I thought was really awful.

Because there was so much vernacular that I did not get.

[00:35:00] Nicole: Okay. So that brings us to my pet peeve, which has books that require a glossary, have a glossary, but there at the end. So you don’t discover it right away. You read the entire book. Wondering what things are or looking things up. And then it’s like, you get to the back and there’s a glossary and it’s like, can you just on know page one, hell, there is a glossary in the back or note it somewhere because I don’t know that I’m necessarily going to read a book and think, oh yeah, there’s going to be a glossary.

It’s not something I look for, you know?

[00:35:33] Gayle: So then I guess if you’re doing it on audio, you would never

[00:35:35] Nicole: know. Right. Unless they start reading the words at the end, like, right. But if something is crucial to understanding, you know, I mean, in a textbook you’re expecting, okay, so maybe there’s a glossary, I’m reading a fiction novel.

I’m not expecting a glossary, even though sometimes if it seems particularly intense or if, for whatever wild reason, and I’m reading something that’s fantasy with those books. I think with particular books, I think with fantasy books, sometimes they will have a glossary or I will look for one, but if you have a Glasserie let us know.

[00:36:11] Gayle: Put it up front. Okay.

[00:36:13] Nicole: Sits in the back. Hey, there’s a glossary for this book because whatever.

[00:36:17] Gayle: Yeah. I better yet drop a footnote when you’ve got that word. Exactly. So it’s right there on the page. Yeah, that’s even better. Okay. My next one, I’m going to make a gross generalization here, but this almost entirely applies to male authors, but I do not know why many men.

Who write books, feel the need to include a fight in their books. There’s always a fistfight or some sort of physical altercation, even if it’s not a thriller or a, you know, an action packed book. And I’m looking at Tom Parata cause he does this to w I drives me crazy. Like, why is that necessary? I don’t know.

[00:36:59] Nicole: And I do think that at least the male authors, if it wasn’t nonfiction, I think there is usually some kind of fisticuffs,

[00:37:06] Gayle: right. Even if it’s a, it’s almost always like a mild character who would never do that, but like it’s backed into it and has to defend himself because some, you know, person from his past or some bully or he’s defending someone’s honor.

And then he has to, you know, have a fight. I just, I don’t like reading about fights. I don’t like picturing them. They don’t add anything to the story.

[00:37:26] Nicole: Well, I guess you would appreciate what Michael Lynn Weber is trying to do that.

[00:37:29] Gayle: Yes. Yes. Thank you, Michael, because

[00:37:32] Nicole: it’s kind of fight, but I’m going to be like emotionally

[00:37:34] Gayle: terrible.

Oh, that’s fine. I mean, emotional is terrible. That’s like every book I read, but like, I just, I don’t like fights and I feel like they feel this need to do that. I don’t know to serve their maleness. Don’t get it. It’s just, it’s always there. It’s usually like about 80% of the way through the.

[00:37:51] Nicole: And maybe it’s because, you know, people who are sitting around writing books maybe are not the ones running around, getting into fist fights.

So it’s their opportunity to live it out vicariously

[00:38:01] Gayle: person to be like

[00:38:03] Nicole: the dude or what they’re writing. And then there was a fist fight.

[00:38:07] Gayle: Yeah, I just, oh, I hate them. And they’re really hard to write. Well, like, you know, people writing about the pain of getting their, you know, their job punched. I just don’t

[00:38:16] Nicole: like it.

Okay. You’re going to have to, I don’t have any more. I don’t think I only have

[00:38:20] Gayle: one more. I have one more and it has nothing to do with the actual content of the book. But if you are somebody who likes to do audio books and you rely on the library to borrow audio books, it’s very frustrating to try to time it appropriate.

So with a book? Well, no, when it comes in, like, so for example, there’s a book I wanted on audio. I put it, I placed a hold on it and it came back. It came up yesterday. And you know, depending on like what I’m doing, it might take me three weeks to get through an audio book. I don’t have it. Okay. I don’t have a long commute and I just don’t have, you know, if it’s, if it’s a 10 hour book, like that could take me a couple of weeks, but if I’m in the middle of another audio book that I’m still have at least a week or two left on, and then the library audio book comes in, I have to delay it because.

I, I won’t, I, if I accept it and download it, I won’t finish it in three weeks and then it’s going to get returned to the library. So I find just the, the juggling of audio, if, unless it’s one that’s already in my phone, you know, that a lot of ways I listen to audio is like through script. So that means once I’ve downloaded, it’s just there waiting for me or on volumes, which is the random house app or I get review copies, you know, On file that I downloaded and then I can listen to them on using an app called bound.

So with those three, it’s fine. But sometimes it’s a book that I really want to listen to that I find only at the library, that’s the only place it’s available. But then when it comes in, it just doesn’t fit the timing. Right. Right. And so then it’s like jockeying, like juggling in my mind. Will do I pause the audio I’m doing?

Do I just start listening to this one now? Do I give up and read it in print? Like it causes unnecessary. So what’s the solution there? Well, the DC library will let you pause it or not pause it like suspended. Maybe that’s the word where you can basically say I don’t want it now. And you’ll be the first one to get, I guess, so keep my place in line.

Right. Keep my place in line and then give it to me next, which is a nice convenience. And I appreciate that. But like, I don’t know when it will come up again, like it, when it gets returned, because they only have a certain number of licenses that they can. Lend out at the same time. So I don’t know what the solution is.

I mean, the solution is to just only rely on my other apps that I don’t have to worry about that, but, you know, that’s just not the way I read as you know, I’m extreme mood reader. So sometimes I’m like, no, I must read this book next. And that’s that. And so then it just, you know, I spent all this time, like, Trying to fit it in like a puzzle.

Right. So those are my pet peeves. I’m sure I’ll come up with more, but for now, those.

[00:40:58] Nicole: Okay. Well, as we think of pet peeves, we will mention them on the show.

[00:41:03] Gayle: Yeah. Tell us your pet peeves. We want to know what bothers other people.

[00:41:07] Nicole: Okay. So we’ll put that to. So that’s our show for today. Some things to look for on the website and also in the show notes that will appear with this episode, we’ll be voting.

Our two final books are The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano against At The Wolf’s Table. So you can vote for which book should move forward. I will include the Human Design reading. Link and code, and that will be good until the end of May. Tell us what your pet peeves are. We will leave. I guess we can’t do a poll.

Right. But we will leave a space for you to let us know what your pet peeves are and, you know, and to let us know if you, which one of ours, so you’re a pet peeve. So I think that’s it. You can find all that information, like I said, at the regional leave report.com or with the show notes for this episode.

Thank you as always for listening and …

[00:42:07] Gayle: happy reading!