Transcript

[00:00:00] Nicole: Welcome to another edition of the readerly report today. Gail and I are going to be starting summer preview. And I say starting because I had so many books and I only got through June, so we might have to do a part two, or maybe I will mention other books as they are coming out. Um, but I just feel like there was so much, there was so much that was catching my eye, which is, is good.

[00:00:27] Gayle: Yeah. Mine are definitely front-loaded in June and July. So I would be kind of a late, you know, maybe a Midsummer check-in on summary that,

[00:00:39] Nicole: um, but it’s an exciting problem to have so much good stuff. So what have you been reading since we last spoke?

[00:00:46] Gayle: Yeah, so let’s see. I finished, um, okay. I finished a couple of books and I’m in and I, um, I’m sort of in the middle of one.

So had we discussed like a house on fire by Lauren McBrayer. Okay. So we read that that is a book about a woman she’s married. She has two kids. He lives in Chicago and she decides she wants to go back to work. She’s been staying at home for the last several years. She’s trained as an architect. She goes back to work and develops a very, very close relationship with her boss.

Who’s female, the woman who hired her and this friendship kind of starts to turn into something more and not giving away too much, because this is what the book is pretty much billed as. Um, so she realized she has romantic feelings for this woman, that her boss. And it’s just all about like how she handles it.

Like, does she sort of explode her world and, you know, pursue this person that she has this great connection with? Or does she stay in the lanes that she’d been in before? So it’s. I guess he could sort of call it a romance, but I really think it’s more kind of contemporary fiction. And it’s just a really good story.

A very well told. I like the way, the way she writes, this is Lauren McBrayer. I like the way she writes. I like the perspective. Um, and it was very engrossing and I enjoyed it quite a bit. So that is called like a house on fire. Um, and then I finally read the second in the, um, Kent, her roof plane song trilogy.

So those are the books set in the fictional town of hold Colorado. I read plane song a couple of years ago and I loved it. And the next one that comes in the series is called even tide. And I just did that one on audio and I had been just been nagging at me for years. So I just really wanted to like get to the next book.

And so I’m very glad I did. Um, kept her roof’s books are. Very like simple. So they’re not like the language is very kind of clear and simple. It’s not like fussy adorned language. And it’s about very ordinary lives in a small town, just an ordinary unremarkable, small town of Colorado, but the way he talks about his characters and, and sort of there’s, there’s usually a lot of like sadness and like loneliness, but then there’s always hope at the end of his books.

And I just, I don’t know, they’re just very beautiful books. So I finished that and then I just finished the Jennifer Gray memoir out of the corner. So the actress, Jennifer Gray has a memoir that just came out and it’s all about her life. She’s now in her early sixties, but it’s all about her life growing up in New York city, going back and forth from New York to LA.

Getting cast in early movies. And then of course the dirty dancing fame and, uh, I just did audio and I loved it. It was really good. She does read it. Yep. And so I’ve had Jennifer Gray in my ears for the last two weeks or week and a half, or everyone has been 11 hours of her talking. And I don’t know, I just really, I thought it was a great story.

She’s very honest. And you know, lots of things I didn’t know about her and relationships she had and struggles she’s had and you know, the infamous nose job, she explains

[00:04:12] Nicole: well of high profile relationships to Johnny Depp. And

[00:04:17] Gayle: yeah, she goes into lots of detail on them specifically, especially in the Matthew Broderick one.

So I don’t know if he likes celebrity memoirs. If you enjoy the eighties, if you like Hollywood, it’s just a good memoir. Just, it’s a good, interesting story. She’s really, she’s a good writer. I liked it quite a bit. So, um, that is pretty much catching you up on what I’ve been reading. How about you?

[00:04:45] Nicole: I haven’t really read anything.

It has been such a busy time since we last spoke. It’s like so much has gone on that. I have not really read anything, but I did get just a tiny, a little bit further into the general the new mercy street. Oh, okay. Hi, Jennifer

[00:05:01] Gayle: Hague. Is it grabbing

[00:05:03] Nicole: you at all? Yeah, it’s starting to grab me. It’s really interesting.

Of course. Now the timing within the decision on row for me to start reading this novel, which is like all about this woman who is working at an abortion clinic and it’s just like, it is in Boston, which seems like it makes it particularly fraught since like over half of the community is, um, Catholic, so, yup.

Um, but I’m really liking like her backstory and. Curious to see more about her relationship with her drug dealer. Yeah, I think I’m just meeting him, um, at this point in the book, but, uh, definitely more of a sense of things. I think the book starts off right. When she is like, she’s taking calls in the call center and there’s a lot going on.

And I always feel like when there’s a lot going on in books, you know, sometimes I just need that extra push to get me through until I can start to make sense of and identify, you know, things in the background or things in the story. So I feel like I’m at that point where I have a hook into her life and yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes into discussing it.

So hopefully I will make a little bit more progress than I have made, but it’s just been a crazy couple of weeks.

[00:06:23] Gayle: Understandable. Um, I picked up a book that I’m reading right now and it’s just finding it. Grabbing me as I had a much, as I hoped it was it’s called cover story. Have you seen this book around?

What’s that about? Um, so it’s been billed as Hanford to I’m looking up the author. I, um, Susan Righetti R I G PTI. So it’s supposed to be kind of thrillery and it’s about like, um, a girl who goes to work at Elle magazine as an intern, and she goes to NYU, but she’s like sort of failing out and she has no money and she ends up being kind of taken under the wing of a woman, like a writer at L named Kat Wolf.

Who’s living in the Plaza hotel. And there are so many parallels to, uh, What’s the book about the Russian woman who scammed her friend. Oh,

[00:07:23] Nicole: Rachel Deloche Williams book. Yeah.

[00:07:25] Gayle: My friend Anna is my friend Anna. Okay. So

[00:07:28] Nicole: I looked it up and saw it. It’s like the dropout meets catch me if you can meet inventing Ana.

[00:07:35] Gayle: Yeah. It’s it’s so I thought it was going to be really like, oh my God, I got it from the library. So like I had to read it cause it’s a new release, so it’s due soon. And so I was like, well, if I going to read it, I got to read it now. Um, and it’s just, I don’t know. It’s okay. Like I’m not, I’m not flying through it the way I hoped it was, I feel like I, I’m kind of, it’s taken me a lot longer to get through.

And you know, what I find is when I’m really stalled, like when I find myself not reading, it’s just, cause I’m not into the book. I’m reading as much as I want it to be. So it’s fine. I have seen a lot of amazing reviews of it and maybe it’s gonna have some twists, but as of right now, it feels too close to.

The Anna story to feel fresh to me. Okay. So,

[00:08:24] Nicole: uh, that makes sense. It’s like a ripped from the headlines type thing,

[00:08:29] Gayle: a ripped from the Netflix. So are we crowning our victory today on the March madness? Um, you know

[00:08:40] Nicole: what I, you know, when we got on this call, I was thinking, did we do that? I did not even remember.

[00:08:48] Gayle: We didn’t get on a winner yet. We down to the idea of you versus the nine lives of Rosa Positano. Okay. So let me,

[00:08:58] Nicole: um, take a look and we will have live results because I have not even looked, looked at this yet. It’s exciting. Um, let me,

[00:09:10] Gayle: I’m going to see if I can do a prediction here. I predict it was close.

And I predict that the winner will be the idea of you.

[00:09:22] Nicole: It wasn’t that close.

[00:09:24] Gayle: It was not close. Okay. And it was the idea of you, right? No,

[00:09:27] Nicole: it was the nine lives, all the tonneau.

[00:09:29] Gayle: Oh my God. I was wrong on both fronts.

[00:09:32] Nicole: Yes. It was only 30% of the vote when, to the idea of you, um, the nine lives of rose and the Politan is the winner by Donna Fritos.

Wow. For the upset.

[00:09:44] Gayle: Right. I am surprised

[00:09:46] Nicole: the idea of you was just, you know, the story was just so appealing. And so, but I think, and not that the writing was not great and the idea of you or whatever, but maybe there’s just something a little bit more compelling and a little heavier, a little heavier than the left for the nine lives of rose Nepali Tano.

Wow.

[00:10:09] Gayle: Well, congratulations. Certainly had nine lives in this one you lived from around around. That’s amazing. Okay, great. Well, I’m excited to hear that. Um, and uh, yeah, you know, I got an email from Donna Freitas after I reviewed her book because we have some mutual friends and I think they, one of them sent my review to her.

I’ll send her an email today and just encourage her to check it on the podcast.

[00:10:41] Nicole: How many books did we start with? Like, do we think we started

[00:10:46] Gayle: with, yeah, I think we started with 2010 pairings. Right. And as we’ve learned that we have to have an even number of pairings for next time. Cause otherwise we end up with someone needing to have a pie.

Um, we need 11 pairings. Yeah. Or any, yeah, some, we just need an, even a book that will lend to an even number of pairs. Yeah. Um, wow, that’s great. Okay. Well, thanks you. Thanks to everybody who, uh, participated in weighed

[00:11:15] Nicole: in. Yes. Yeah. Every week it’s like, oh my gosh, is anyone going to vote and have, and people came through, so, yeah,

[00:11:23] Gayle: that’s great.

All right. Well until next March, we have a, we have a raining

[00:11:30] Nicole: Victor. We have a winner. We need some go back and look, how many times have we done this? Three times now? I think so. I agree. Or four, I’m curious to look back at our other winners. Um, yeah, but well, for a future show, we’ll consider what, what are books?

What books have one

[00:11:50] Gayle: and try to find some common themes. Yeah. All right. Well, it is, we are recording this in the middle of may and we are the eyes of may, the eyes of may. And we are definitely, you know, heavily into the summer. Season, it seems like a lot of big releases and lots of, you know, articles and posts and lists and people talking about summer books.

So Nicole and I are going to go through some books for the summer. Um, I don’t want to speak for you for me. I’ve not read any of these. So they’re all, these are a preview of books that look appealing to me, but I don’t, I haven’t read them all and I don’t even have them all. I’m probably won’t read them all.

Well, definitely won’t read them all, but they’re ones that are on my list and Nicole and I have not confirmed, so we may have some overlap. And for me, I just picked anything. I basically picked anything that was coming out and from may on. Okay. I don’t know how you did it, but that was my, no,

[00:12:52] Nicole: I think that I had covered quite a few may books earlier.

I don’t know if we did like a look ahead at may or what, or. Things I covered in spring, but I tended to gravitate and didn’t get much past June. Cause I was like, I have too many books. Um, so yeah, so just getting through June, I had like 12 by miners to talk about and I may not talk about that many. Okay.

[00:13:22] Gayle: Uh, why don’t

[00:13:23] Nicole: you kick us off? All right. So the first book that I have is called Nightcrawler by Leila Motley. It’s coming out June 7th and it’s on canal. So it is about this brother and sister duo, uh, the, um, their parents. It seems like they are pretty much alone in the world because. Love either like their parents have guide or someone’s in jail and it’s the two of them who are trying to make it.

So the brother Marcus, he focuses on having his rap career, but Kiarra is just more focused on their day to day, like having money to pay the rent and rent has doubled. So she’s really concerned about that. She has a young neighbor next door whose parents do not, um, really take care of him. He’s nine years old.

So her focus is on their survival. And it says that she has like a misunderstanding with a stranger and it just introduces her to this new way of living in this new world. And she figures out that she likes being a Nightcrawler. And that was something that I had to look up because I’m like, what in the world is a Nightcrawler and it’s someone who likes well nightlife or works at night.

Things like that. So, um, but she’s also, this takes place in Oakland and also seems like she is the centerpiece of this scandal in the Oakland police department. So people are looking for her and trying to figure out where she is. So it says that it’s, um, a book of our moment. It talks about race and sexuality, justice and equality.

And, um, I think that it might have some kind of focus on sex workers. So I think that might be part of the name too. And I think that part of this book was based on a real case involving a police department and some scandal that they had with sex workers. But it seems like Kiarra is a witness in that.

And I don’t know if that happens when she discovers that she likes the night life or starts working at night. Like it’s, I’m not even clear on what you’ll be doing, but it seems like she is the witness to this. And this is an author that can offer is really excited about and invested in. Um, I think that they’re looking forward to having many books from her.

She’s very young. She’s like 19 years old. She writes poetry. They have her poetry book coming out. And I think last year she had written a story about Juneteenth. I was featured on Oprah’s website. So, um, I’m looking forward to that one, huh? Okay.

[00:15:57] Gayle: All right. So, and when is that one coming up? June 7th. June 7th.

Okay. That seems to be a big date. It is. Yeah. Right. Okay. So I’m going to start with actually some may books that we haven’t talked about. I feel like there’s some we have, but this one I don’t think we have. So this is the third book in the summer S uh, trilogy, although they’re not, I don’t think they’re connected at all by Jennifer Wiener and it called the summer place.

And I liked her last one, which was big summer. Um, No, no, there was big summer. And then I think I read one in between that. I’m trying to remember what, what that one was called, but this one is called the summer place and it sounds like really unsurprising material. It’s like a wedding on the Cape and it’s, you know, a family coming together and it’s the law they’re going to sell this house on the Cape, but the sort of the matriarch of the family or her stepdaughter wants to get married there.

And according to Amazon, when the wedding day arrives and lovers are revealed as their true selves misunderstandings take on a life of their own and secrets come to light. Okay. Like how many times did we read that book? Right. It’s definitely like, sort of like comfortable terrain for a summary, but I do really like Jennifer Wiener and, um, you know, she’s, she’s a little hit or miss for me like that.

Um, big summer I had some issues with, cause it’s sort of. Veered off into what I thought was like more of like a kind of like thriller mystery thing. And it was just seemed kind of silly. I like when she sticks more to family and love and relationships, and this seems like this one kind of goes back to those roots.

Um, so I’m sure you’ll see this one everywhere. The cover of it looks like it’s like the font is similar, but to the cover of that summer or big summer, and actually they’re, all of her books are kind of starting to, they’re definitely selling them as like now kind of like a brand, I guess it was that summer was the one I really liked that I felt like had a lot more kind of a seriousness to it.

And big summer was the one that veered off. So this one is the summer place. And I’ll probably read this at some point.

[00:18:14] Nicole: That’s kind of interesting because I don’t think, I mean, when she started out and I’m not particularly clear on this, I don’t think that she. Wrote books. So she was not a one book a year?

No, it seemed like it would be two to three years before she would have a new book come out. And it seems like even though they always, um, focused on female topics or whatever, they did seem to be like a little bit meatier. Yeah. I’m like looking at these covers now.

[00:18:48] Gayle: Yeah. Do you see what I mean? Like the kind of the block print?

[00:18:50] Nicole: Yeah. The block print, the pastel, like colors.

[00:18:54] Gayle: Yeah. You know, it’s annoying though. Like these are, these are not they’re drawings and the woman is still looking off. I get it. I don’t know. I get it when it’s, when it’s, um, like a per an actual person, someone I was listening to some discussion about book covers and you and I have always complained about the like woman looking off in the distance and you can’t see her face.

And I heard somebody say the reason for that is so that it can be any woman. It can be any woman, right. It’s like universal. And that you don’t look at that character and feel an otherness. You feel like a connection

[00:19:30] Nicole: can’t well, then you can’t, you have to have a, her body part. So she needs to be wearing long sleeves because these are usually white women.

Yep. Look off into the distance. So, you know

[00:19:41] Gayle: yeah. Anyway, um, I’m sure I’ll read this one, but that’s my, that’s the first time my summer reading list.

[00:19:50] Nicole: Well, it includes the word summer, so I think you have to do it. All right. So my next one is by Therese and Fowler. It also comes out on June 7th. It’s on St.

Martins press. Like you mentioned before, June 7th is a key date this summer. Get everything out there. So this one is called it all comes down to this. And I feel like, you know, like you were talking about books being comfortable. I feel like this book has like that summer flavor where it’s either a group of friends or it’s a family that’s like reuniting because of some crisis.

So that this is a novel about sisters, the Galler sisters, um, their mom is widowed and she is also preparing to die. So she has, you know, she’s has this main cottage that she is going to be selling. And so that each of the girls will get proceeds. Like she doesn’t know. Very much drama involved in their relationship when she moves on.

So of course the sisters are very different. There’s the young one who is like living this kind of influencer lifestyle. And she’s all about the clothes and the celebrities and traveling and art and sex. But really her life has a house of cards and nothing is, as it seems then there’s back. Who’s the oldest and she’s a freelance journalist who is married, but her marriage is anything less than fulfilling.

She in particular seems to have a relationship to this cottage. Like it has been her plan to go there, to work on a novel and to work on her marriage. And it seems like her husband is like hiding some kind of, there’s some kind of secret around his love life, which is like, okay, mysterious. And then there’s Claire, who is a pediatric cardiologist, but.

Has always felt like a misfit of the family, even though she’s like really successful and has this great career, she still doesn’t feel like she’s ever fit in. And she’s like struggling with unrequited love that’s happening. So like, even though she’s a cardiologist, haha, she’s a heart doctor. Her love life is not that hot.

Um, and then there’s like this mysterious kind of drifter southerner con man who comes into their life. And of course, nothing is what it seems. Something happens that changes everything. So it was just kinda like one of those novels where it’s like a group of friends or a family who are very different, who are going through some crisis and something happens that just reveals more or um, explores their relationship or something like that.

I feel like that’s such a summer theme.

[00:22:27] Gayle: She wrote a very good neighborhood, right? Yes. Which we both read. Hmm, that sounds good.

[00:22:36] Nicole: Yeah. I just feel like it’s a perfect, um, novel to just kind of sit up, you know, like it’s a quintessential beach. Yeah,

[00:22:45] Gayle: for sure. Okay. So my next one is also, um, a may book. In fact, it comes out this week, May 17th, and it is the new Emma Strobbe this time tomorrow.

So I like feel like I’m always vaguely disappointed by Emma straw books. Like the premise is always great. And it’s so squarely in the genre of books that I like. That I always feel like I’m going to really love them. And then I’m always kind of like a little bit mad on them. I don’t know. Yeah.

[00:23:15] Nicole: I thought you were, was just like, oh, a strop.

That’s a gamble.

[00:23:18] Gayle: Yeah. Well, the problem is that the premise is so irresistible that I had to, I had to include it because it’s got time travel in it, which as you know, I love, okay. So this is about a woman who’s 40. She’s like living life. It’s fine. It’s not amazing. She’s generally pretty happy. Um, but she ends up waking up one morning and finding herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday.

Don’t you feel like that’s something you want to read?

[00:23:51] Nicole: I don’t know if it was like my 19th, maybe the 16th. I’m not.

[00:23:57] Gayle: Yeah. Give me a few years to like mature and not be such a

[00:23:59] Nicole: dork unless we go back to high school.

[00:24:03] Gayle: Right. I would rather go back to college now. That’s definitely true, but maybe that’s part of it.

So like, um, I don’t know, I just kind of feel like I got kind of curious to see what she does with, uh, with time travel. So it’s not just her adolescent body that shocks her. Um, and, and this is the part that I think I found super like touching that also may prevent me from wanting to read this right now, but, um, her dad is sick in her real life.

He’s starting to be sick. And when she goes back in time, it says that one of the things that she’s most shocked about is seeing her dad looking so young and vital and healthy, and then like, you know, having not having the knowledge, I guess, of like what’s going on with him in the future. So that’s kind of hard and it says some past events take on new meeting.

Is there anything she would change if she could? I think this is intriguing enough for me that I will probably want to know.

[00:25:04] Nicole: Right that with the parent who’s ill in the present and you go back and you see them vibrant in the future. There is this time travel book that I think I read last year. And I, of course, I can’t remember the name of it right now.

Um, but it had something, it had like a similar element that this book that I read though was not that great. It was just,

[00:25:25] Gayle: okay. So another Bookout, like right now that also I’m trying to remember which one it is that also has a similar thing it’s like, or somebody somebodies mother dies. And then she goes back in time and like meets her mother as a younger person.

I don’t know. I think if you’re dealing with like any kind of parental illness, which unfortunately I am at the moment, I, it seems like it might be a little bit too much. Like, I’m not sure I could handle that right now. Right. I don’t know, like modern lovers and all adults here really did not love all adults here.

Modern lovers was fine. I liked the vacationers, which I had read quite a few years ago. So I feel like , like I said, a little hit or miss for me. So, um, but yeah, I’d probably read this one though.

[00:26:08] Nicole: So in terms of some comfort watching for you, are you watching the time Traveler’s wife?

[00:26:14] Gayle: No. Um, I watched the preview cause I was super curious.

Um,

[00:26:18] Nicole: it looked like the reviews haven’t been that great or they have. Yeah, they’re just like, it’s kind of repetitive.

[00:26:26] Gayle: Yeah. I’m not so sure that should be a series. Like I think it probably was a great movie and I liked the movie. I don’t know. I watched it and the trailer and I kind of was good. That’s a stressful book.

I loved the book, love the book, but like it’s stressful and it’s sad. And I’m kind of like, is that what I want to read? Like, yeah. I do need to show because I finished on Friday night. I’m just like six months behind the rest of the world, but I finished succession season three. Okay. So how do you watch succession?

[00:26:56] Nicole: Um, even further behind the rest of the world. I think I’ve watched three episodes of season one and it just did not grab me. I’m like, I’d go back to it. Yeah. People are just like, you just have to watch the entire first season. And I was like that with game of Thrones. Like I watch. Do you series. And I was just like, eh, I don’t see why, but when I did go back and just like watch all of season one, I was into it.

So maybe that’s why this question. Yeah. I

[00:27:21] Gayle: recommend it. So we’re now caught up. So I need a new show. I was kind of thinking about that. When you had told me about anatomy of a scandal, did you actually watch that or were you

[00:27:30] Nicole: just talking about it? Yes, no. I actually watched that. In fact, she has a new book.

Sarah Vaughan has a new book. That’s coming out July 5th. That’s also, it’s like about this journalist, who’s involved in a scandal, but I really recommend anatomy of a scandal has Michelle Dockery from right Downton, Abbey, Downton, Abbey. Um, and it has a good cast.

[00:27:52] Gayle: And how long has it, like how many episodes.

[00:27:55] Nicole: I think it’s doable. I think it’s like five or six. It’s not one of those. It’s like 12. All right.

[00:28:01] Gayle: I think I’m going to maybe do that one next. I have a succession in like, um, hangover, like I’m I’m yeah. I’m sad. That succession has done.

[00:28:11] Nicole: Did you ever watch Ozarks? Is it

[00:28:14] Gayle: no, because I think it’s too violent for me.

Okay. I watched the first episode and I think like someone was like shot in the back of a car or something in a trunk of a car. Is it possible? I don’t know. Maybe I

[00:28:25] Nicole: didn’t. I was just curious to see if you liked.

[00:28:28] Gayle: I don’t know. I’ve heard great things. I love Jason Bateman. Love Jason Bateman, but I D I don’t think I can look too violent.

Okay.

[00:28:37] Nicole: Your eighties, heart can resist

[00:28:39] Gayle: it. Oh my God. I love

[00:28:40] Nicole: him. I think you’re up. My next book is called the impossible things by Selma Al wards, wa ward Dani, w a R D a N Y. Um, also June 7th, because that is when your book should come out this summer. Um, so this is one of those, another one of those books, this isn’t sisters, but this is friends who have known each other through childhood and they known each other through childhood.

There are attending college, they’re all Muslim. So they’re together in the fact that they are trying to navigate, you know, being, I guess, hiding how they are acting out, um, away from their parents. Like it talks about if you’re going to have, um, if you’re going to be staying out with a boy, it becomes like, oh, I’m having a sleepover with the girls.

And just like the different ways that they’re trying to navigate their religion and modern life. But they. Each reach across work roads in, in their lives. Like, of course there’s something that goes wrong. Something that happens to them one night and I think their friendships are not the same. And so they have to kind of find their way through this and find their way back together.

So I thought that was really interesting. I just love the idea of taking these stories that I think are so classic kind of stories to tell over the summer and inserting some kind of. Diversity in it, like this component of how these Muslim women are navigating college and their lives, and each one has their own, you know, different dreams.

One really just wants to have like a family and be a part of the community. And she does want to settle down into her religion. And, you know, like one is involved with some guy that she knows, um, is not going to be appropriate for her. And she has to make the decision whether she wants to be involved with a man who’s white and Catholic.

And even though that will mean sacrificing her family. So it’s just like all of them just living their lives and trying to explore and reconcile, being modern women with, you know, what they want in their religion, what they want from their family. And also just like navigating this event that changes everything.

[00:30:49] Gayle: What was the title of the book again?

[00:30:52] Nicole: The, these impossible things. I

[00:30:54] Gayle: have the book in the house. I think I, yeah, I swapped someone for it months ago. Um, they, you know, it’s an arc that they had and. It looked really good. I agree. So I definitely try to get to that this summer. Okay. Yeah. Okay. My next one is called the shore by Katie runned or Rundy.

Not sure how to pronounce her name and this. Um, I don’t know, sounds a little bit similar to, it’s sort of a combination of the Jennifer Wiener book and the book. Um, it’s about a family that live in a beach town and they run a real estate company and then the husband has developed a brain tumor. So we’ve got the, you know, sick parent going on.

And it’s all about the, kind of the reverberations through the family from having the sick parents. So you’ve got a wife and two kids, and it’s just about what happens. Um, As they grapple with like, you know, the family changes, it says perfect. Be, treat follows a mother and her tutor, her two daughters as they grappled with heartbreak, young love and the weight of family secrets.

So, you know, they, you’ve got this summer setting, family drama and multiple, like people that are keeping secrets from each other seems like quintessential beach read. I don’t know anything about this author. I just, um, you know, found this book on some lists of books that were coming out and I’ve just had kind of seen it around and like the swap thing, like the swap posts.

And I was curious about it. It’s got like a, the cover is a boardwalk with a big Ferris wheel at night, which has such an ocean. It’s just such a summery setting. Right. Not going too far, a field, the three books I’ve listed so far are all kind of similar.

[00:32:46] Nicole: Yeah. I just think that’s like, it’s almost like that’s the vibe for summer.

Yep. Just like sisters and families and secrets.

[00:32:55] Gayle: There was one part of the Jennifer Gray book where she’s talking about some settings, something that happened in the summer. And I just was like, even just hearing her, describe it as I go, oh my God, that’s that feeling of a summer night? There’s just nothing like it.

Yep. And it, you know, like, I don’t know why things in summer feels so much more momentous. And especially when you’re young, they feel like this, this like, like longing and promise and like everything just seems to like coalesce on summer nights in a way that they just don’t the rest of the year. I don’t know.

Maybe it’s because when you’re more likely as a kid to be in scenarios over the summer that are more. Uh, you know, you’re not in school, you’re at camp or you’re like out with your friends or you’re drinking

[00:33:40] Nicole: that. I think that, yeah, some of it lends itself to you being undistracted by other things. Like, maybe you have a job, but usually whatever job you have, like if you’re a camp counselor or you’re working on a hotel or whatever, there’s a cast of characters, there’s, you know, just, I think you gather more regularly than you normally would.

[00:34:00] Gayle: You’re outside, outside. It’s hot. Yeah. You’re doing fun stuff. I don’t know. It’s like, it’s universal. I mean, I, you know, I don’t have those days as much anymore. I’m middle-aged mother, but like it’s, I still feel it. And when someone describes it, like it takes you back to those days so quickly, like, oh

[00:34:21] Nicole: yeah.

Not that there’s nothing to do. Cause like I said, they’re usually activities that you’re involved with in somehow, but there’s just like that promise of always being able to come together night after night in a way that if we were hanging out or if you live near me, I would just never see you every day.

Yeah.

[00:34:42] Gayle: All right. So that’s my, that’s my summary of the shore by Katie Rondi or runned.

[00:34:47] Nicole: Okay. So next up, I’m going to leave June 7th behind and had to June 14th when Ellen Hildebrand has a new book called the hotel Nantucket, that’s coming out on little brown and I know you really enjoyed one of her books, right?

[00:35:02] Gayle: Yeah. I’ve only read one. It was some, what was it? Something summers, uh,

[00:35:08] Nicole: 28 summers, 28

[00:35:09] Gayle: summers. Love that book. Love, love, love. It

[00:35:13] Nicole: just looked it up quickly and someone was asking if there’s a SQL to it. Um Hm.

[00:35:21] Gayle: Well, I don’t wanna give any spoilers, but it would be kind of hard to, well, I would think

[00:35:26] Nicole: that you’re meeting every summer that it would probably be covered, but

she has this book out called the hotel Nantucket. And of course it takes place on Nantucket. And Liz bet. Keaton is recovering from a bad breakup with her boyfriend. She is supposed to be like the darling, the sweetheart of Nantucket. And she just gets a new job that she’s ready to throw herself into because she is recovering from this break breakup.

So she’s named the manager, like the general manager of the hotel, Nantucket, which is like this huge gilded age looking hotel that has fallen into disrepair. So she’s hoping that, you know, with the help of her staff and all of her vocal expertise and their charm that she can make a go of this hotel. So she is wanting to, um, I don’t know, I guess Curry the favor of the new owner.

He’s like this billionaire who’s from London. And there’s also like, um, an Instagram influencer who can really put the hotel on the map that she would like to impress. Um, but of course there’s lots of drama, um, among the guests, among the staff. And it’s a little bit of a haunted place just because back in 1922, there was a fire that killed a 19 year old chambermaid.

And it seems like she might be haunting the place. So talk about set in a summer setting in a hotel, you know, it has all those elements that we just talked about, where staff is likely to be together. You’re likely to see the same people, um, and have drama and fall in love. And so it’s all about whether she is going to be able to, you know, make a success of this hotel.

Like I’m sure she’ll find some romance there too. I’d be shocked if there’s like no romance in this. Ellen Hildebrand. She’s like really coming into her own. Now she’s got things. She’s got a book club that she does, and it might be about beach books. Plus she’s had a few of her books have been optioned, um, are going to be made into series.

Um, she’s got like three in development with Hulu

[00:37:34] Gayle: is one of those 28 summers. Um,

[00:37:36] Nicole: I don’t think so. I think it’s the series. Um, winter and paradise is going to be something that Ellen Pompeo is doing for ABC. Um, and then they mentioned the blue bistro, the matchmaker and the identicals are being developed for Hulu.

So, but I don’t know, maybe it may be in the works,

[00:37:58] Gayle: be a great movie or series. Okay. Maybe we’ll give another one of her books to try just because how much I loved 28 summers.

[00:38:06] Nicole: I’m surprised you haven’t dipped in again.

[00:38:08] Gayle: Now I have some hair. I don’t know, I had this like prejudice against her for so long where I just kind of dismissed her books as like, you know, like light beach reading.

And then the premise of 20th summers I found like, I was like, oh my God, I got to read this book immediately. And it was so good.

[00:38:26] Nicole: Yeah. Her books. I mean, they do have that aspect. They’re all set on Nantucket. It’s all like island people and families coming together where a secret is revealed or, you know, something always centers on Nantucket, but they do have half to them.

Like she writes well, and there’s usually is some kind of emotional component and you know, her characters are well-written so yeah, she’s not completely light. Yeah. Even though this one does sound particularly fluffy, but they say there’s emotional depth. And if there are multiple points of view, so we’ll see.

[00:39:03] Gayle: Okay. So my next book does kind of take a departure from these other ones. Um, this is another June 7th release called nuclear family by Joseph Hahn. And it is about a Korean family living in Hawaii and they own a series of restaurants or a chain of restaurants, um, or they want to franchise the restaurants and things are looking good.

And then their son who lives in Seoul is teaching English and he, um, goes viral for trying to cross the Korean demilitarized zone. So now all of a sudden the family is kind of thrust into the public eye by their son’s actions, you know, half a world away. And, um, they now have people are suspicious of them because like, what’s their son doing?

Why is he trying to get into North Korea? And, um, it’s set in the months leading up to, do you remember when in Hawaii there was this false alert that went out, that there was a nuclear missile on its way to Hawaii 2018. And it wasn’t, you know, people didn’t have to live with that misinformation that long, but it was enough obviously to affect people because when you believe a missile’s headed your way, obviously it kind of freaks you out a lot.

So it says in the months leading up to the 2018 false missile alert is profoundly moving and strikingly, beautiful, beautiful debut novel, um, that aches with histories inherited and reunions missed. So I think, like you said, it’s, you know, family drama, but it’s kind of nice to have it be a voice that we’re not always, you know, it’s not like white people on anti-gun again.

Um, so, uh, I dunno in the cover of this is really pretty too. It looks like a, like a painting, so. I would like to read this.

[00:40:54] Nicole: All right. So you just had your first departure from what you were talking about before. And now I am departing for a memoir, uh, by Melissa Bond is called the blood orange night, my journey to the edge of madness.

And it is about this woman. I think she has just had a child it’s set during 2008. Um, so she’s just lost her job as a journalist. She is a crazy insomniac, like we’re talking about one hour of sleep a night. And so she turns to her doctor for help. And of course he described, he, uh, prescribes benzo benzos for her benzodiazepines.

And I guess those are like, um, Adavan Klonopin, uh, Valium, just all of these, you know, kind of drugs that relax you or will help you to sleep. And he is. Prescribing them, you know, because she’s having such difficulty, he’s prescribing them and increasing doses. And at one point she actually falls falls while holding her child, which of course freaks her out and send her on this long journey of trying to break her addiction to benzodiazepines.

Like, and it talks about how difficult it is to do this because you can’t just go cold Turkey because it causes all kinds of like crazy side effects. Um, you know, like hallucinations, psychotic breaks, things like that. So, and there really is not a lot that is supportive of breaking this type of addiction.

So she’s like on this journey of discovering how she can safely do this. She’s like logging. How many milligrams she’s taking and trying to wean herself off and how much sleep is she getting and are my kids. Okay. So it’s kind of just all about her harrowing journey to, you know, wean herself off of these like drugs that have proven dangerous to her and her family.

[00:42:51] Gayle: Wow. That’s heavy for a summer read.

[00:42:53] Nicole: Yeah. But it just looks so interesting. I mean, you know, I guess there’s just so much that goes on with how we prescribe drugs and overprescription of drugs and, and just like how that can have such an effect on your life. And, you know, I mean, getting one hour of sleep is probably enough to cause a lot of problems, but for sure, but the solution doesn’t seem to be any better.

So that is out from gallery books on June 14th.

[00:43:21] Gayle: Okay. You don’t, I forgot to mention to you. I did the book blogger speed dating event on a Friday. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was good. Um, Yeah, obviously it’s moved online and you don’t. I really miss the days of sitting at the tables and eyeing all the books and trying to like surreptitiously take them before we were allowed to take them.

So I did look greedy and then you and I would like cruise the leftovers, all the other tables. Oh, I miss those days so much, but anyway, it was fun. Okay. So my next book is by June Chen, it’s called counterfeit and it comes out on June 7th as well. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I wrote June Chen it’s um, Kiersten Chan.

I think I confused that with the date it was coming up. Kiersten, Shan. Sorry about that. And it is about a woman, Chinese American woman living in. I think New York, I’m not sure where she lives, lives in the U S and she’s got, she’s married to a doctor and she has a kid and beautiful house, et cetera, I guess, beautiful housemates, probably not New York city and our life looks perfect from the outside, but inside it’s not because her marriage isn’t going well.

And she’s like, feels guilty that she’s not using her law degree. And she’s like very dissatisfied. So she ends up reconnecting with her college roommate who moved. Um, who’s I think back in mainland China, and it turns out that her roommate is running a like very, um, profitable counterfeit bag operation, and yeah.

So, um, she is importing them into the U S and she needs someone on state side who can help her. So, Ava, that’s the main character. Um, Ava. Gets involved with her friend and into this kind of, you know, illegal bag, counterfeit bag, scandal, or operation. So this is appearing behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced.

Kiersten Shan interrogates the myth of the model minority through to unforgettable women, determined to demand more from life. Doesn’t that sound so good?

[00:45:43] Nicole: That sounds good. I’m like writing her name down. Yeah.

[00:45:46] Gayle: Okay. Kiersten, not June. Um, so that’s counterfeit and this, they were taught, this book was talked about, this is what made me think of the book blogger thing.

Cause it was on the, uh, speed dating. Okay. Um, William Morrow presented this one.

[00:46:02] Nicole: All right. So I think I have been doing a pretty good job of getting in authors whose books I’ve read so far. So I’ve had, we’ve had Ellen Hildebrand. There’s been Theresa and Fowler and. Now I have another person whose books.

I really like Marcy has a dirt Mansky, one coming out. Yeah, that looks good. Call hurricane girl. So this is, they say it’s the knife edge between comedy and horror, which always makes me a little nervous when comedy is mixed with something. But I think Marcy Mansky does like a really good job of just satire and, um, walking the edge of, of human situations and how they can just, you know, there’s like some darkly funny bits to it.

So this one is about a woman who is basically on the run from, I think she’s involved with someone in Hollywood and she moves to the east coast. They say, she’s on the run from catastrophe. She has has savings. Cause she’s like been waitressing and she’s been doing some writing. So she. Goes. And she buys herself a house, a small house on the beach, and then like a hurricane hits or whatever.

And her, her beach house is destroyed. And so she’s kind of left at a crossroads. Um, date’s a guy and it looks like this date goes really, really terrible. It’s like, you know, did he just hit me upside the head with something? Am I going to be able to get away from my, from him and to escape and drive to my mother’s house?

I think he hits her upside the head with a face and she’s just kinda like what is going on. But then she’s like rescued by this surgeon and she’s just not sure why she’s with him. It’s like, am I with him? Because you know, he’s rescued me, but he also has like this nice house and I really am enjoying that.

And just all these questions that she has and just this exploration of. I don’t know, love sexual violence, violence, and freedom. And how is she navigating those aspects of her life? You know? Cause it’s like she’s running from one relationship has a terrible date and now is not even sure why she’s involved with the man that she’s with.

So, um, the key question about this book is supposed to be, can you heal without revenge? So I guess she might have some scheming in place for the guy who went after her.

[00:48:33] Gayle: Yeah. I saw that book and I think there’s a few things in there that were like red flags for me. Just like, cause I like Marcy Dre Mansky too.

Um,

[00:48:43] Nicole: did you read that Marie? Which one?

[00:48:46] Gayle: I read one a while ago. Um, what was that book called? It’s about twins.

[00:48:53] Nicole: Okay. Yeah. Possible. She had a book. Yeah, I think it might’ve been called twins.

[00:48:59] Gayle: Yeah. I think you’re right. I think it was called twins. And I wanted to read very nice. Wasn’t that by her. And I didn’t read that.

[00:49:09] Nicole: I think I’ve read all of her book except twins. And of course this one, so I’m well on my way to becoming a completist for her. Nice. Um, so I will, I will let you know. I enjoyed very nice. I think bad memories still is my favorite. It’s probably bad Murray the red car then. Very nice. And oh, the red car. I

[00:49:30] Gayle: read that too.

Okay. That’s the one that somebody like, uh, inherits a car. She drives this country to drop it off. Yeah. Yeah. I did read that one. Okay. All right. So my next one we’re back in very comfortable summer territory. It’s called so happy for you by Celia Lasky. And it comes out also on June 7th. What part we have had no overlap, which isn’t.

I know you’ve had a few books that I looked at, but didn’t include, so it’s really interesting. I’m glad that we’ve have so much variety here. Um, okay. So this one is about friends, lifelong friends. Um, one of them is gay. One of them is not, they’ve kind of seen each other through like, you know, coming out and death of a parent, all this stuff.

So the straight one, um, is getting married and she asks her friend to be her maid of honor. And the maid of honor is sort of reluctant because she is like an academic and she’s not heterosexual. And she’s just gonna, like, I’m not really into these like elaborate wedding. Plans, and it just seems like it’s going to be not fun.

But then it says as the wedding weekend approaches a series of ominous occurrences lead her to second, guess her decision, you know, to her decision to agree to do it. It seems that everyone in the bridal parties out together. So this one is it’s described as entertaining, funny and campy, and to send up to our collective obsession with the wedding industrial complex and also a poignant depiction of friendship.

So I don’t know that looked good,

[00:51:14] Nicole: definitely appropriate for the summer. Yes for sure. All right. So my next book is by someone we have both read Corolla, Lovering wrote can’t look away and it’s coming out on June 14. And in this one, she starts her book off in 2013 with my Molly diamond. Who’s a barista who also wants to be a writer. So she’s an aspiring writer.

She goes to a rock concert. She locks eyes with this lead singer. And Gail, tell me what this lead singer’s name is.

[00:51:48] Gayle: Uh, Jake.

[00:51:52] Nicole: So she meets Jake Danner, you know, like they really fall deeply in love. It’s only. I guess that feeling is only heightened by the fact that he writes this hit love, love song about her that puts, um, there, the band that he’s in on the map.

And then we go to a decade later. Molly’s no longer writing. She’s living a quiet life in Connecticut with her young daughter and her perfect husband who is decidedly. He’s not Jake Danner. So picture perfect life. You know, she has her child. She is a yoga instructor, I believe, um, living in a wealthy suburb, but she is struggling to conceive and she’s like a little.

Um, bored, I guess, with her life feels out of place. So then she meets this woman, Sabrina who comes and takes a yoga class and she confesses that she has fertility struggles as well. And, you know, Molly feels like she’s really met someone that she can bond with over this. And she’s finally found a friend, but Sabrina of course has an ulterior motive for moving to this Connecticut town where Molly is and becoming her friend.

And as Saprina secrets come out, her connection to Molly becomes much clearer. And Molly has some secrets that she would prefer not to be out there. So the backdrop of all of this is that Jake, there’s a new version of Jake’s song on the radio, which is causing of course, Molly to think about her life now.

And you know, just how her life has turned out to be completely differently than she thought it might in the summer of 2013. And you know, all these questions. How you choose your life with your head or with your heart. And, you know, if she’s ever really gotten over him. So it seems like another Corolla, Lovering novel, which is going to be like packed full of secrets.

She loves this, um, this theme of someone coming back from your past or someone coming into your life and you not knowing that they’re about to blow your life apart.

[00:53:56] Gayle: Hmm. And I’m looking forward to it. I really liked, uh, too good to be true. Yeah.

[00:54:02] Nicole: That was so good. So I’m really looking forward to this. She has like, I’ve read her other book.

Tell me, tell me lies. And I don’t know. It’s like, she goes so deeply into the head of, of someone who was just a complete. Just someone who is completely inappropriate, that you wouldn’t want someone with. Who’s just like playing with your emotions. And it was so I just felt like it was so long, it was like hard to be in that head space and see someone struggle with someone that they should clearly stay away from.

Yeah. I think I’m too good to be true. Had more of a balance. And so I’m curious to see what she does with can’t look away. So I guess I will have read all of her books. Nice,

[00:54:49] Gayle: too. Good to be true. It was impossible to put down. Oh yeah.

[00:54:53] Nicole: I’m hoping that this will be the same that summer read that you’re just sitting there and should be enjoying the beautiful weather and the wonderful day, but you’re just furiously turning.

[00:55:05] Gayle: Yep. Okay. So my next one still in June, June 28th, this is called deli weds, destiny.

[00:55:14] Nicole: I don’t know if we have that one

[00:55:16] Gayle: in common. Okay, good. This one looks amazing. This is by Tomi Obara it takes place in Nigeria and it is about three college friends, women who rent reunite in Lagos, Nigeria for the first time in 30 years, because one of their daughters is getting married.

So you’ve got flashbacks to these three women when they were in college and, you know, the way their lives were intertwined and then how their lives have turned out since then the, you know, the different, um, challenges they faced with finding partners and, uh, becoming mothers and where they live and their families and all of that.

And so they’re getting married and. It says as the novel builds powerfully the complexities of the mother’s friendship, come to bear on a riveting heartrending moment of decision. So wedding summers, wedding season, that’s what we’ve got so many weddings, I think between us, we’ve probably covered like four or five weddings so far.

Um, but of course it provides the perfect backdrop to bring people together and, you know, trap them in one location and force them to confront secrets and tensions and all of that. So there’s no surprise that weddings provide such a fertile. Um, setting for novels, but this one looks great. Yeah,

[00:56:37] Nicole: it does.

Because, I mean, I think it’s one of the, it can be one of the few times where people that you were really close to once you might have involved in your wedding. I really liked this too, because the friendships, the friends are so different. So it’s like people from different walks of life who have, you know, met in college and Legos and just really become close.

And of course they have their own like complexities in their relationships that bring to bear because it seems like something is not right about this wedding. Hmm.

[00:57:09] Gayle: I’ve had very good luck with Nigeria novels too,

[00:57:12] Nicole: right? Yeah. Sue me in this one too. Oh,

[00:57:16] Gayle: good.

[00:57:19] Nicole: All right. So how many do you have

[00:57:22] Gayle: by? Um, I mean, I have several left I’ve now at July, so I could have got like at least four or five from July, but I can cut it off or.

Skip or whatever. You’d like,

[00:57:33] Nicole: I think that we should do a part two. Okay. That’s fine. Because I think that there are so many, like I have, I haven’t even touched July and I have like three more that I want to talk about from June. So maybe I will just really quickly, um, mention the names of some ’cause. I just feel like there’s one that I really want to recall the long answer by Anna Holderlin.

Um, it’s about this woman. Who’s 12 weeks pregnant and she’s really close with her. Sister has a conversation with her sister and discovers that her sister has had a miscarriage. And like that puts this strain on their relationship. And it talks about how she goes on to also have complications with her pregnancy.

And she runs into different women who share stories about either the children they’ve wanted the children they’ve lost and. Um, is that fiction

[00:58:21] Gayle: or non-fiction it’s fiction.

[00:58:23] Nicole: Okay. But it does sound like it could be so real, right? Yeah. Um, so I think that’s like a really interesting sister dynamic to have two sisters who were pregnant at the same time and then one that has a miscarriage and, and, you know, one is having complications.

So that’s the long answer that’s out on June 21st. Did you have any more June books?

[00:58:44] Gayle: Um, I just had to, I, that I can mention briefly because I think I’ve talked about them on the show already. So yeah. Well, the ones that I have is Tracy flick can’t win, which I’ve talked about multiple times. That’s Tom Peratta is, um, SQL to election and that also comes out on June 7th.

And then, um, I had just wanted to mention, uh, the new book coming out by Linda Holmes called flying solo. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about that on the show so far, this is by the woman who wrote every Jew. Every Drake starts over, which is a book I adored. And this one is about. A woman who calls off her wedding and moves back to Maine, which is where, uh, every Drake was set.

And you know, this such a typical construct to same as 28 summers. She’s like gifted a house or left a house by her, an aunt. And so she moves to her aunt’s house, or I don’t know if she’s gifted it, but she ends up moving to her aunt’s house in Maine. And it’s kind of all about her sort of recovering and rebuilding her life after this, you know, broken engagement.

And that’s all I have.

[00:59:49] Nicole: Okay. So I’m rounding out my June books with Geraldine Brooks, new one historical fiction about this painting of a horse that it’s going to span several generations about this race horse and how, um, there was an enslaved rider who. Crucial to this race, horse, its success. Um, there was an artist at that time who painted it.

I think the painting is found in modern times and an attic. So it’s all about like this research on this story. I love her historical fiction. Um, I first came to know about her when I read March, which is basically the deconstruction of the father and little women. He was quite a character. And I think that book might have won a Pulitzer.

It was really good. Um, I also have the catch that’s out June 21st from random house. Um, it’s by Alison Fairbrother and it’s set in Washington, DC. Gale book looks really good. Okay. It’s about this woman who she’s two years out of college, she’s dating. She has an older lover. She has her dream job in journalism.

She has a smart circle of friends, so she basically has it all, but then her father dies and he leaves her a gift, which is described as insulting instead of the prized baseball. She wanted from him, you know, because they have like this shared history around this baseball. She’s just shocked when he doesn’t leave it to her.

And he leaves it to someone who she doesn’t even know. So she goes on this journey to discover why her father would have done that. Like, who is her father? She’s discovered secrets about him. And she also discovers some things about herself. And I guess how far she’s willing to go to get to the bottom of this story.

Yep. Um, yeah. So DC story for you. And I think my last June one was the one deli weds destiny, so, okay. So we covered it, so we have covered it and we will be back with July, August. Yeah. It’s just to have a two hour show.

[01:01:54] Gayle: All right. Well, I know we’ve got very full TBRS for the next month or two I’m. So looking forward to

[01:02:00] Nicole: all these books, I know, I feel like I will get my reading mojo back, and I’m just hoping that the summer is, I don’t know if last summer it was raining.

I don’t know what it was about last summer that wasn’t just, you know, we were hoping for this summer where there were vaccines for COVID and things will be a little bit easier, but I don’t know. Is it hot girl summer? Something’s hot back summer. Didn’t quite happen. I’m hoping for a better summer.

[01:02:28] Gayle: Yeah.

Although I will say that, like, everyone I know in the world has covered right now, so

[01:02:33] Nicole: yeah. We’re definitely going through that again. I think I’m not in the middle of it because I’m not in New York right now, but from what I hear from work and from friends, it’s just like, oh yeah, they tested positive and whatever.

So,

[01:02:45] Gayle: yeah. Yeah. Alright. Well until next time, happy re.