Intro: [0:02] Welcome to The Readerly Report. Your hosts are Gayle Weiswasser and Nicole Bonia. We hope you enjoy our candid book conversations, recommendations, and observations on the reading life. Thanks so much for joining us.
Nicole: [0:19] So welcome to another edition of The Readerly Report. Today Gayle and I are going to be talking about the November new releases that we’re looking forward to and we’re going to be combining that with a little Non-fiction November. Which as I was looking, you know, once upon a time, when I blogged regularly non-fiction November was a time of the year where you dedicate to reading nonfiction. As I was looking at all of the books that are coming out in November, I kind of wonder if it got its start because there is so much non-fiction that comes out in November. Whether it is celebrity memoirs or just that non-fiction stuff, it seems like there were a lot of non-fiction picks for this month.
Gayle: [01:05] Maybe they make good gift books.
Nicole: [01:07] I guess so. When you think when people are looking for either book for their husbands or their dad or the man in their life.
Gayle: [01:16] I was gonna say that I was worried you were gonna be like, Gayle, you’re generalizing so much about fiction and nonfiction. He said the same thing so now I feel better.
Nicole: [01:25] Now I know that women read it, but I mean, that’s never, it’s never been a question of women reading books that are either for men or written for men. We’ve always had that crossover and I guess openness and reading different things, it’s always or not always, but usually, it’s men that seem like they’re more reluctant to read books that are oriented around females.
Gayle: [01:47] Right? That’s definitely true.
Nicole: [01:49] Um, but before we get to that, we’ll do our regular stuff. Gayle, why don’t you tell us what you’ve been reading?
Gayle: [01:55] So I don’t know if I have made much progress since we last talked and on audio I’m doing The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes, which I think we talked about already about halfway done. It’s kind of long audio, but it’s really good. So it’s-
Nicole: [02:10] I don’t know, if we talked about that, I did try to read The Giver of Stars and could not get into it. That’s the one where it’s about the Kentucky…the library.
Gayle: [02:19] Yeah. That’s interesting.
Nicole: [02:21] That’s the one I think a friend. Yeah, she, it was just so…I’m trying to think about the beginning of that book and it just seemed like I just knew everywhere that it was going to go. One of my friends told me that it took her a while to get into and she felt,
it was worthwhile to read. But she felt like it was a really, really slow start. So I’m curious to hear what you. You said you’re halfway through.
Gayle: [02:47] Yeah, I think you’re exactly right, that you know exactly where it’s going to go. I mean, Jojo Moyes is a very good storyteller. I feel like her books read like screenplays, you can totally see it happening on the screen. It’s very predictable. There’s like, you sometimes you can even tell. You can even predict what people are going to say. Like, so I don’t think that criticism is unfounded at all. What I like about is the setting. So it takes place in Kentucky in the 1930s. It’s about these women who get on their horses and deliver books to people in very rural parts of Kentucky as part of the WPA, under Eleanor Roosevelt. The main woman that it’s about has come over from England and married to this guy-
Nicole: [03:40] Who is terrible.
Gayle: [03:40] Who’s terrible. She thinks she’s gonna have this great, you know, marriage with him and exciting America and it turns out, she’s in this rural town, outside of Lexington with this horrible father-in-law and this man who doesn’t love her and so, I mean, you can definitely see like, she’s-
Nicole: [03:56] It’s a bait and switch.
Gayle: [03:57] Yeah, it’s a bait and switch. So I don’t know, I’m reading it for a book club. I’m doing it on audio, I find it very engrossing. Like, it’s great to cook dinner to or to drive in my car too and it’s going to expire in a week because it’s a library rental, and or library borrow. So then I’m going to switch to print and I’ll probably finish it quickly. But it’s, I mean, it’s Jojo Moyes like it’s kind of all you need to say.
Nicole: [04:23] I felt I got to the point, I think that they had introduced the black librarian, and I was just kind of like, okay.
Gayle: [4:30] Yeah, this is gonna be this one black lady who joins them in their quest to get books and she meets these. I just felt like all of the character, like you said, there are no surprises like the families that she, the families that she meets they, first they’re reluctant and then they come around to this library. I think it was heavily researched. This is the one that some other author had written a book and there were- kind of you know, accusations of plagiarism, which I haven’t. Well, I didn’t even finish Jojo Moyes book so I have not read the other one. But I think I was taking a look at what they were saying were the problems with it or what made it? What made them think it was plagiarized? And I just felt like both books just took the basics of what you would expect of Kentucky at that time, and probably just kind of reaching for the same lazy.
Gayle: [5:31] The same lazy shortcuts.
Nicole: [05:37] Yeah.
Gayle: [05:37] In terms of I think there was a dispute over a scene about a baby or something that was from some women’s magazine at the time. So they reach for the same source materials.
Nicole: [05:48] It’s interesting.
Gayle: [05:51] Yeah, it’s just kind of reading basic passages of the book, it did not seem like they were similar, besides, oh, they use this kind of formula that then or, you know, like, the lone black woman.
Nicole: [06:02] Right. Yeah.
Gayle: [06:03] Joining through-
Nicole: [06:03] Yeah.
Gayle: [06:06] They probably researched, you know, use the same sources to research.
Nicole: [06:09] Yeah, I remember reading about that controversy that the woman of lonesome creek or something like that, I think it’s what it’s called.
Gayle: [06:15] Right. Yeah.
Nicole: [06:17] Yeah. So like, I feel like I’m distracted and stressed out by the election and everything going on-
Gayle: [06:25] So this is a good one.
Nicole: [06:26] This is like, it’s just sort of easy.
Gayle: [06:29] Yeah, the basic, easy.
Nicole: [06:31] Basic and easy.
Gayle: [06:34] You know, where it’s going, you don’t have to be stressed out about The Giver of Stars.
Nicole: [06:42] Right, exactly.
Gayle: [06:43] Then the other book I’m reading, which is also it’s actually kind of stressful but in a fun way and it’s very escapist is The Boys Club. I think we talked about that already. That’s the one about the woman who goes to this law firm and joins the most intense group within the law firm, and she said about being a first-year associate in her life and that one it? I’m like, halfway through that one, too. It’s like, I’m itching to get back to it because it’s a good page-turner. Not terribly.
Nicole: [07:10] Yeah. That sounds good. I want to read that.
Gayle: [07:14] Yeah, that’s good. Erica is it’s not the firm. It’s Yeah, it’s not the firm. There are no dead bodies yet. So yeah. So that’s what I’m reading. So nothing has finished since I last talked to you.
Nicole: [07:24] I’m still working my way through The Invisible Life of Addie Larue. I saw Suzy from novel visits. She gave this was a five-star read for her. Like I saw her Instagram posts that this she just got into it and she loved it: also reviewed it on her blog. It was interesting because I want to check her blog’s name because I don’t know why I always want to say [crosstalk] not worry novel reads and I’m just like, that doesn’t even make any sense. But it is novel visits. But it was so funny. I came across this blog called Recipe Girl and she gives book recommendations on her sister’s recipe blog. It’s so cute.
Gayle: [08:01] Aw, That is cute. I love that.
Nicole: [08:06] And it seems like she does it quarterly. She comes and she says how she picks her books, you know, Amazon best books of the month and Goodreads or That’s what she said in this particular post that I came across. So she recommends her five-star book reads on her sisters. I think it’s Recipe Girl. So I thought that was really cute. Like her Susie and her sister, it is Recipe Girl. She loved it; really good chocolate chip cookies on.
[Laughter]
Nicole: [08:41] So over pandemic I had to figure out how to make two cookies because that is I don’t have a sweet tooth per se. Like, I’m not always craving sweets, but when I want something sweet. Like if I were to make a cake, this cake would disappear in two or three days. So I had to figure out how to make just two cookies, which I have, which is great.
Gayle: [09:06] What kinds of cookies did you make?
Nicole: [09:08] I think I did peanut butter.
Gayle: [09:09] Oh yum.
Nicole: [09:10] Or, yeah, peanut butter or peanut butter and oatmeal. I haven’t tried my hand at chocolate chips just because I don’t have any but when I want something sweet or I want a cookie then I can just make two-
Gayle: [09:28] That’s really cute. That’s great.
Nicole: [09:28] And then just solves all my problems.
Gayle: [09:28] Yeah, that’s great.
Nicole: [09:29] So if I eat both cookies or if I save one cookie for the next day, then it’s good. I don’t have to look at a full cookie tin and realize that I’ve eaten all the cookies.
Gayle: [09:41] Yes. Alright, so tell me how is it that we’re going to be still liking it.
Nicole: [09:47] I still like it. I think it’s gonna be it’s like one of those. It’s not like… it’s super light. She is dealing, she’s she has not wanted to marry, you know, this is back in 1714, in France. She has wanted to live a different life, where she kind of gets to have the freedom and do what she wants, which is what gets her in trouble because she makes a deal with the gods that come out after dark. Which her grandmother has always wanted her to never make a deal with a God who comes to you after dark, but she does it by mistake because she’s trying to escape this marriage. And it’s one of those things where you make a bad deal with the Genie, you know, like you do something and you say, you have three wishes, and you just wish for more wishes or whatever. It’s one of these tricky kinds of trickster or little elves or sprite or anything that might play a joke on you. So you have to be very careful with the wording. And she says that she just wants to be free, and she wants to do her own thing and not be bothered. So of course, if no one remembers you, then I guess you have your wish, because you can kind of just do whatever you want.
And so I yeah, I like it.
Gayle: [11:02] I swapped for it. I have it coming to me.
Nicole: [11:06] Oh, good.
Gayle: [11:06] Yeah.
Nicole: [11:07] So if you read it at some point before March Madness, then we can include it in our list of books.
Gayle: [11:12] Yeah.
Nicole: [11:13] Would do well, I think it would do well and I do think that it is just enough of a magical framework that these are the reasons why she’s living her life this way, but not enough that magical things are happening all the time. It’s just that she’s made this deal, the supernatural deal, and she lives forever, but everything else is how she navigates that. So I think you’ll like it.
Gayle: [11:39] Oh, good.
Nicole: [11:39] Susie also compared it to The Golem and the Jinni.
Gayle: [11:46] And also, The Time Traveler’s Wife, right?
Nicole: [11:47] And Time Travel [inaudible] [11:50]. Well, we had mentioned that one. So –
Nicole: [11:53] That’s what I’m reading. I also am reading; I got the audiobook of…I can’t think of the name of this book, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
Gayle: [12:04] Oh. How is it?
Nicole: [12:07] I think it’s gonna be really good. She narrates the story, which is why I chose to get the audiobook. She’s very interesting because she just tells you right in the beginning that she only includes people and events that she feels like, are momentous and important and have shaped her life. So I think someone pointed out that she does not include like she was briefly engaged to a billionaire. [Laughs] So she doesn’t include him in the book at all. I guess she did. He didn’t make too much of a mark on her life. So she doesn’t mention him. And she says that she talks about her weird relationship to time, the way she just believes that you should just exist and you pay attention to certain things. It’s very, it’s very interesting, very Mariah, but I really like it. I found the first couple of chapters to be to play up to her quirks, you know, as a celebrity, but just also, she’s kind of astute. And she mentions the lyrics to her songs and how they relate to our life. So I think it’s going to be good. I also think it’s something I might like it to have in print, as well.
Gayle: [13:16] Hmm. Okay.
Nicole: [13:18] So yes. There’s the 90’s girl in me.
Gayle: [13:23] Yeah.
Nicole: [13:23] Couldn’t have –
Gayle: [13:24] I loved music memoirs anyway, so that sounds great.
Nicole: [13:27] I think it was number one for all of the different celebrity memoirs out there right now.
Nicole: [13:33] All right, so what’s next? Gayle? Do you have any book news?
Gayle: [13:37] Uh, the book news, I have you’re going to ask me details. And I don’t have the details, because I just came over it quickly. But the Goodreads Choice Awards are out.
Nicole: [13:49]
Oh, you know.
Gayle: [13:50] They’re like Readers Choice and-
Nicole: [13:52] I saw that.
Gayle: [13:53] There’s lots of criticism of the awards for a couple of things. Firstly, why do they announce them so early? Like it’s only October? Why are they … there’s two more months of books to come out? Why do you need to like to do this early? Secondly, there are books on the list that aren’t even out yet. Like President Obama’s memoir, like, more, I can’t imagine there is a glut of review copies of that book floating around. And so how is anybody supposed to vote on that? Because how is anybody supposed to read that already? And there are-
Nicole: [14:25] So many people, though, I think. I mean, that’s always been the criticism that this is a popularity contest. I mean, the Obama book [crosstalk][14:33] is 768 pages long, right? When you look at idol vise, only four people have reviewed it and it has to work for the publishing company.
Gayle: [14:44] And they’re not letting review copies out. So it’s like it’s just stupid to have it on there. And then among people that we follow, and you know, people like Suzy who you mentioned and uh… Sarah, Katherine, people that you know, have similar tastes to ours. I think there’s just a lot of criticism, that there’s a lot of books on the list that really don’t deserve to be on anyone’s like invested the year list. They’re just not distinguished books. They weren’t great. Some of them were DNFs for people and so they’re just like, God. It was really hard to like pick my favorites out of these because so many of them I didn’t like so, you know, I mean, we’re just being kind of snobby about the whole thing, but that’s, you know, that’s what’s going on I went through it pretty quickly. I skipped a whole bunch of categories because I don’t believe, you know, why, or fantasy or any of that stuff. But I did like the literary fiction, the debut fiction, the memoir, and the fiction categories, and I could find like one or two books on there that I felt like I could get behind but I agree that there was a lot of stuff on there that I was like, wow, how is that on this list?
Nicole: [15:47] Really? Hmm. Let me take a look. I think that’s always the knock, I mean when you look at the monthly list of books that Goodreads puts out when you look at-
Gayle: [16:00] Yeah.
Nicole: [16:01] They usually have like the Top 200 or top however many and it’s heavily [inaudible] [16:07] why I think that book Goodreads probably skews young.
Gayle: [16:12] Yeah, yeah.
Nicole: [16:13] Oh, best mystery and thriller Tana French The Searcher. The Devil on the Dark Water, One by One Ruth Ware. I mean, I think these are kind of like the usual suspects kind of thing.
Gayle: [16:26] Yeah. Okay. Best fiction. The Midnight Library, A Burning, My Dark Vanessa, Dear Edward, like I would not do Dear Edward on this list. Um, Such A Fun Age… Where was it? Big Summer.
Nicole: [16:40] And doesn’t also Skewed probably very commercial? Well, there’s- [crosstalk] [16:43]
Gayle: [16:47] Yeah, Lester. [crosstalk] [16:47]
Nicole: [16:48] Yeah. Jessie, The Glass Hotel, A burning, If I Had Your Face. I read that one, but I get them confused. So I don’t know.
Gayle: [17:05] Yeah. So I would not put that on this list.
Gayle: [17:07] Yeah. I voted for Transcendent Kingdom for this one. Even though I liked Transcendent Kingdom, I did not love Transcendent Kingdom. But of the ones I’d read on this list, that was the best.
Nicole: [17:20] I would have to vote for My Dark Vanessa. This is the only one I’ve read. Yeah.
Gayle: [17:25] Oh. There’s that.
Gayle: [17:27] Yeah, let’s see debut fiction. That was another one where I had at least read some of them. Let me see. Um. Good at that category. And we’ll link to these Choice Awards in the show notes for this debut novel. Here we go. Okay, so I voted in this one,
Such a Fun Age, lots of overlap: Valentine, Such a Fun Age, My Dark Vanessa, The Jane Austen Society. Didn’t you read that one?
Nicole: [17:54] No. They are on my list of things I want to read.
Gayle: [18:04] One to watch. Lester. A Burning is a lot of overlap here. Cemetery Boys. The year of [crosstalk] [18:08] I haven’t heard of a lot of these either. So anyway, that’s just people seem to be dumping on the Goodreads Choice Awards as they will.
Nicole: [18:19] In the best of many memoirs. Oh, there’s Barack Obama I would vote for Notes On the Silencing because it was fantastic. But it was also the only one I read. I’m reading The Meaning of Mariah Carey, but I don’t know.
Gayle: [18:37] Interesting. Okay. Here’s another list I wanted to run by you and get your take on this one. This is off the shelf and they have a list called The Best Modern Day Classics We’ll Keep On Our Shelves Forever. So books that are –
Nicole: [18:55] That sounds dangerous.
Gayle: [18:55] Why?
Nicole: [18:56] I don’t mean modern classics. I think that’s so subjective.
Gayle: [19:01] All right, well, here’s what’s on the list. Because there are some books that you would like on the list.
Nicole: [19:05] Okay.
Gayle: [19:06] So All The Light We Cannot See.
Nicole: [19:09] Hmm.
Gayle: [19:09] Americana, which I never read.
Nicole: [19:13] I didn’t finish that one.
Gayle: [19:14] Oh, okay. Um, Beloved, Sing Unburied Sing.
Nicole: [19:20] Yeah. I like those two.
Gayle: [19:22] Yeah, White Teeth, never read it, Pachinko, never read it but happy to [crosstalk] [19:27] My Brilliant Friend, never read it, Underground Railroad, never read it.
Nicole: [19:38] I have read that one.
Gayle: [19:38] The Roundhouse Louise by Louise Erdrich. Bel Canto – Oh my God love that book so much. Julia Alvarez How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Isabel Allende The House of Spirits. I think I read that one.
Nicole: [19:57] I would agree with that. She’s an instant classic with those and then she veered off into writing crime novels.
Gayle: [20:04] Yeah, so that’s the list.
Nicole: [20:06] Well, I think Beloved, Sing Unburied Sing, Pachinko, Underground Railroad, Bel Canto, and even if I’d read all of those, and I’ve put them on a list of modern classics. Louise Erdrich, I suspect would be on the list of modern classics, just from other books I’ve read.
Gayle: [20:51] Mm-hmm.
Nicole: [20:28] I haven’t read that one yet, though. When I’m pretty sure I have it.
Gayle: [20:31] Elena Ferrante on there. I’ve never read any of them.
Nicole: [20:34] I’ve read one Elena Ferrante book, it was not the one that was part of the trilogy. But I really liked her book, I suspect that if the quality holds up, I would say yes.
Gayle: [20:41] Okay.
Nicole: [20:44] So not too bad. I mean, there’s some on there. It’s interesting to think about that, because so many books, it depends on who championed you after you’re gone. I mean, all of these things are really publicity runs, like why some people why bestsellers from back in the day did not make it and why others didn’t become classics. And I guess a lot of it depends on scholarship and who’s reading your book, and you know, who was in control of your state and how much they lobbied for it, and politics goes into everything it seems?
Gayle: [21:19] Yeah, I’m sure that’s right. Is there? Can you think of anything off the top of your head that you would add to that list?
Nicole: [21:26] Oh, off the top of my head? No, because these are the ones that I would put on off the top of my head books that just –
Gayle: [21:33] Mm hmm.
Nicole: [21:36] Uhm, are really good.
Nicole: [21:39] Especially in terms of I think these are all fiction.
Gayle: [21:43] Yes.
Nicole: [21:44] So yes.
Gayle: [21:47] I have to think about if there’s anything else that I would add, that’s not there now.
Nicole: [21:50] I mean, you could probably put, just from the quality of just saying… I’m barely saying I suspect that you could probably put a lot of her stuff.
Gayle: [21:59] Mm hmm.
Nicole: [22:01] Say that she’s just an author that you should read about all of these authors.
Gayle: [22:09] Yeah, they’re all good.
Nicole: [22:11] I think the weakest one for me might be Pachinko. But I would not argue with it being a classic, and just because of the particular time period it set in. I think stylistically it was. I liked it less than the others, but I really, but I really did like it. And this is an amazing list. So that’s not really saying anything.
Gayle: [22:35] I didn’t read Pachinko, but I did read Free Food for Millionaires and I thought that was also very good.
Nicole: [22:40] Is it classic? Is it –
Gayle: [22:42] Ah, I don’t know. It’s been a very long time since I read it and the fact that I don’t remember it that well, maybe is the answer to your question right there. But no, it’s not like if it doesn’t have that staying power.
Nicole: [22:56] Right.
Gayle: [22:56] Uhm. Would you pick Girl In Translation on there?
Nicole: [23:00] I didn’t read that one.
Gayle: [23:01] Oh, you didn’t read them.
Nicole: [23:04] Would you?
Gayle: [23:04] Uh… [silence] I would put it on because of the immigrant perspective. I mean, I guess the question is, are these books on there only because they just are extremely well written? Or is it is saying something larger? About kind of a larger theme. You know, what I might put on there is Atonement because I really, really liked that book and to me, it has that kind of epic feel to it that like a Bel Canto has. I could see it being on there. And –
[crosstalk] [23:38]
Nicole: [23:40] I would probably put – [silence]
Nicole: [23:41] What is the one that’s really popular? It’s her name, Rebecca. See, this is when you asked me off the cuff thing?
Gayle: [23:50] Yeah, sorry.
Nicole: [23:51] It’s the one that we read about in Chicago. About in the 1980s.
Gayle: [23:56] Ohhh… Yeah.
Nicole: [23:57] I put that on the list.
Gayle: [24:00] Why can’t I think of what it’s called either.
Nicole: [24:01] Something that’s instantly memorable.
Gayle: [24:03] Yeah. That was a really good book.
Nicole: [24:07] Was so good that we can’t even remember the name of the title.
Gayle: [24:12] Oh my God. I’m not recording in my usual spot and usually in my library where all my books are, but I’ve been exiled because my husband needed to use that room. And so I am not surrounded by all my books. And I know like where it is on the shelf and I could go look at it and I can’t right now because … it’s called something, the Uhm…
Nicole: [24:32] I would put Kindred by Octavia Butler on that list. This… Let me see. I’m scrolling. I’m scrolling. I’m trying to scroll really quickly, to find out what it was called. So your husband doesn’t have a library? You have to tell him to ‘get your own library’.
Gayle: [24:51] I know.
Nicole: [24:51] Is he doing well with his books in there?
Gayle: [24:54] Yeah, his books are in there. He just had to do something on camera. Like some presentation and he-
Nicole: [25:02] The Great Believers by Rebecca Makai.
Speaker: [25:04] Thank you. I knew it was something.
Gayle: [25:07] Yeah. And I said, Rebecca.
Nicole: [25:09] Yeah, you were good.
Gayle: [25:11] Yeah, he just needed a more sort of professional-looking setting than where his office was.
Nicole: [25:18] I know you sent me that text. You’re just like, “I got kicked out. I had to move.”
Gayle: [25:22] No, I was like stomping upstairs with my mic, my second screen, my laptop, and I’m like, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.
Gayle: [25:32] Alright, um, okay. Well, that’s the book news that I have, and unless you have other bookings, we can move on to November book news.
Nicole: [25:41] I think that’s the faces we had.
Gayle: [25:44] We had a good time with that book.
Nicole: [25:45] Yeah.
Gayle: [25:47] All right. So November books with an emphasis on nonfiction are what we are going to be discussing next.
NOVEMBER BOOK NEWS
Nicole: [25:48] So let’s just start off with the big elephant in the room, which is A Promised Land.
Gayle: [26:03] November 17th.
Nicole: [26:04] Barak Obama-
Gayle: 26:07] Yeah.
Nicole: [26:07] -November 17. Why did they move it to that? They had come up with a reason? So that no one has read this book yet. It has a 3.78 on Goodreads, which only shows up as three stars.
Gayle: [26:20] That must be people who hate Obama.
Nicole: [26:21] Oh, it’s the $45 cover price is steep.
Gayle: [26:25] Yeah.
Nicole: [26:26] Yeah.
Nicole: [26:26] I looked at that.
[crosstalk] [26:27] -two books in one.
Gayle: Sounds like-
Nicole: [26:30] It’s a hundred and sixty-eight pages. But is it two books you want to read?
Gayle: [26:33] I don’t know. If it’s anything like his wife’s book? Yes.
Nicole: [26:38] His wife set a high bar. So it’s seven. It’s seven hundred and sixty-eight pages; which already I’m just kind of like, no. I would have to dig out my milk from somewhere and get it on that because there’s just no way. I’m-
Nicole: [26:55] It’s interesting how things have changed. Because since I don’t go anywhere, I’m much more conscious of how heavy books are. I feel like I’m out of shape with lugging around books. Because I go to pick up books now and I’m like, Oh, this is so heavy. Like I’m reading Addy LaRue, and I’m just like, it’s just so heavy this book. So I can’t imagine a seven hundred and sixty-eight-page book. I looked on Bookshop, and they’re selling it for $41 and I looked at Amazon and they’re selling it for $27.
Gayle: [27:27] If that is not a Christmas present, right there. I mean, they’re just asking people to buy that for Christmas. At that price.
Nicole: [27:34]
But I think that the one-star knocks on it might be because of the price and people who don’t like him.
Gayle: [27:42] Yeah.
Nicole: [27:42] I see one star that says “I can’t wait” by none other than the man who received the Nobel Peace Prize after bombing the poorest countries on the planet such as Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, and Mali. I personally think Memoirs of a war criminal would have been a more apt title. Oh, I don’t know. That’s all US presidents. It seems like that’s what we do.
Gayle: [28:07] Right.
Nicole [28:08] Poor countries.
Gayle: [28:09] Apparently the New Yorker has an excerpt from the book coming out.
Nicole: [28:14] Right. Wasn’t it about the Affordable Care Act, the challenge of getting the Affordable Care Act passed?
[crosstalk] [28:21]
Nicole: [28:22] As for the excerpt; they dangled. I didn’t want to read it.
Gayle: [28:23] I don’t know. I… Yeah. I mean, I think I’ll probably wait a while before I tackle this one, and see what the reviews are like. And people I mean, I wasn’t like dying to read Michelle Obama’s book until the reviews, were just so amazing, and people who love the same books that I love for just, you know, extolling it and then I was like, Oh, I got to read this. So I’ll wait and see what people say about it-
Nicole: [28:50] I always wanted to read Michelle Obama’s book, I think, the perspective of the kind of reluctantly, being married to someone who wants to be the president of the United States and how she dealt with it was always an appealing storyline to me. I’m less interested in his storyline as a president though.
Gayle: [29:11] Yeah. Right. I mean, we also know it better. Like she was like more of a mystery. He is an open book. This is not his first book. He was the president. There have been endless things written about him. And so-
Nicole:[29:24] Have you read any of them? Have you read any of his books? I haven’t read any of his books.
Gayle: [29:27] No, I haven’t. Alright, Fair-Weather fangirls.
Nicole: [29:32] I know. Fair Weather girlfriends.
Gayle: [29:35] That’s Right. All right. Well, that’s A Promised Land by Barack Obama; volume one coming out on November 17.
Nicole: [29:42] So they have now announced it. It’s going to be a two-volume book. They say that this one, I guess, covers his early political career and the highlights I think of his first four years in office, and up to… I forgot the name of it operation something or another. The one that was responsible for killing Osama Bin Ladin. If you are apart of the country that believes that happened. [Laughs] Which I really hope is the majority of the country.
Gayle: [30:14] All right. Okay. So my next guess, our first I guess, nonfiction book. And I cheated a little bit on some of this nonfiction, because it’s kind of end of October, but because we… you and I covered our October books so early, that none of these were on that list. So, okay, so you know how I always have a blow-dry book going on, that I read on dyeing my hair.
Nicole: [30:40] Yes.
Gayle: [30:40] So the book I’m reading right now, which came out 10 years ago or more 20 years ago, is called The Works. And it is about all of the systems that make New York work. So the water system, the electricity, the chains, the subway, the mail, the radio waves, everything, like just how the city functions. And-
Nicole: [31:07] Right.
Gayle: [31:07] It’s very cool. It’s like a kind of a larger book. So there are lots of kinds of diagrams and things and, you know, I read like, maybe four or five pages a day of that. And, you know, each chapter is broken down into, you know, there’s multiple pages on the subway system and multiple pages on the trains, and things like that. So I really liked that book. It’s a little old, it came out in 2000, so there are things about it that are definitely outdated. It doesn’t…you know, they’re like, talking a lot about the telephone, and you know, upcoming; while more and more people are turning to cellular. So like, it’s clear there’s, you know, the whole on the whole technology and telecommunication side, it’s way outdated. But there’s a lot of stuff in there. It’s all like how street lights work, how they’re timed, things like that. So I found another book that reminded me of that one. And it’s called A Walk Around The Park by Spike Carlsen and it actually came out on the 20th of October. And this book is about everything we take for granted in our normal life like manhole covers, which is actually covered in the works, recycling bins, bike lanes, stoplights. It’s like, kind of when you go around your neighborhood and walk outside, there are lots of things you see without noticing. And he talks about those and plants and squirrels and just things that are outside that you just, you know, have a really much more interesting backstory than you would think. So it kind of reminded me of the works. And I thought that sounded pretty interesting.
Nicole: [32:39] Hmmmm.
Gayle: [32:43] Yeah, that is, [crosstalk] [32:43] I think you would like-
Nicole: [32:45] Yeah, I was just thinking about that, because there’s the subway so much in the news, the New York’s MTA, just because they need about $12 billion in order to keep it running just because there’s been a shortfall of tax revenue. And at one point, they were not charging for all of the systems during the pandemic. And, ridership had, you know, no one’s taking the subway, thank you that dropped 90% at one point, and it’s kind of coming back. But still, a lot of people are not commuting to work as much as they were. And so there was this article talking about how there could be just the different amount of delays that were going to be taking place anywhere from 15 minutes on some routes if they were within Manhattan, and then ranging up to an hour or more. And there are so many systems that take place, and I think the subway was something that had just kind of… started making its way back a few years, we’ve had so many problems. And so it’s kind of like things that you mentioned signal problems, things that you don’t even think of how it all operates, that there are these things that can break down or manhole covers. So yeah.
Gayle: [33:56] Right.
Nicole: [33:57] I think that that’s a perfect blow-dry book. I was looking at all the things that I don’t use in the pandemic anymore and my blow dryer is one of them so I would not have the need for a blow-dry book. So maybe once we’re back in action. I looked at that I looked at my steamer.
Gayle: [34:15] Yeah. Oh my God.
Nicole: [34:15] The temptation is just to throw it out but just like you’re gonna have to go back to work at some point.
Gayle: [34:19] Yeah, like my purse. I never need my purse anymore.
Nicole: [34:20] I backpack. Well, I went to brunch with a friend and we were just joking about how we can now carry all have little cute bags, because in New York, because we don’t have cars and because it’s a commute and because you go to work and who knows what you’re going to do during the day your bag is massive and has just like oh, it might rain and I need my flats in there. And then there’s the book that I’m reading. [laugh] Just on and on. So because no one does that anymore, which is like oh we can carry our little cute handbags now.
Gayle: [34:55] Yeah.
Nicole: [34:55] That just fit a cell phone and some keys and the right wallet.
Gayle: [35:00] Shoes with heels.
Nicole: [35:02] So many things pants with zippers as opposed to elastic. It’s just like…
Gayle: [35:09] Ah, okay, what’s your first November book, post-Obama book.
Nicole: [35:15] So my first November book is, these kinds of books come out and I just love them. It’s called Be My Guest it’s by Priya Basil and the tagline is Reflections On Food, Community, and the Meaning of Generosity. So, in it, she explores food and the act of offering food to others to express love and support. And she talks about her Sikh heritage and the years that she spent in different parts of the country, and also in different parts of the world, like Kenya, India, Britain, and Germany. So I just really love things like that, where people either take a skill or they take a passion, and they show you how it has either changed their life so much or eliminated so much. And I really like books like that.
Gayle: [36:07] Nice.
Nicole: [36:08] So it’s like a part memoir, part appeal for more authentic decency in our daily world, and in the world at large. And I was thinking about this the other day that, you know, in the position that we’re in now, like, typically, if an economy is going through a depression or recession, that’s usually the time where you invite people over to your home, you do more in your home, whether it’s entertaining, and we do more cooking at home and doing things are less expensive, and just thinking how that’s changed when we have both, you know, a pandemic induced recession going on, and dealing with a virus that doesn’t allow us to reach out in those ways like come together and share food and share resources in ways that we normally would just because, you know, it’s dangerous to be around people that you’re not normally around like people who are not in your bubble.
Nicole: [36:59] Mm-hmm.
Gayle: [37:09] Okay, so my next nonfiction is called I’ll Be Seeing You by Elizabeth Berg, and that came out this week, October 27. And this is, I’ve actually never read any Elizabeth Berg, but I’ve always been kind of aware of her and seeing her books around. And this is nonfiction about her parents and her parents were married for a very long time. And they had a very, you know, solid romantic relationship, even though her father was kind of a gruff military guy. But then he gets off timers, and she and her siblings have to move their parents into assisted living, and someplace that can support his memory loss needs. And I guess it’s just kind of all about that transition of, you know, when you have to care for your parents, and, you know, the aging of your parent’s generation, your generation, your parent’s generation, and the responsibility that falls on you and how hard it is to do. And the mix of emotions that comes with it. So it sounds like a very weighty emotional book, and you know, my parents AD and so, you know, they’re both very healthy and very independent. But you know, there’s certainly something that’s always in the back of my mind is like, what happens when they will need more help, and how does that, you know, how will that affect me and my brother and our relationship with them and all of that. So, it sounds like you know, the book, you kind of have to take a deep breath before you read. But because she’s a novelist, I bet it’s written with a lot of humanity to it.
Nicole: [38:50] My mom and my aunt love, she wrote [inaudible] [38:56] … of true love books, and I think there’s more than one of them.
Gayle: [39:00] Are they? Are those mysteries? Or it’s just a-
Nicole: [39:02] They weren’t mysteries, I think that they were, they are the elderly man, you know, who’s lonely who reaches out to his neighbors, of varying ages, and how he affects their lives. I mean, they just love those books. I think very heartwarming. Reminds me of when you were into putting those books with older people on your list. You know, I would say 85-90. Wasn’t there was like the one about a cranky old man that you put on your list?
Gayle: [39:36] Oh. Yeah. [crosstalk] [39:39]40] The name of it.
Nicole: [39:41] Right. But… So he wrote, I mean, she wrote that book, but she writes a variety of books because she also wrote this book about a novelization about George Sand, called The Dream Lover. So yeah, that’s interesting. It has a sad title, I’ll Be Seeing You.
Gayle: [40:01] Right. Well, it’s kind of that old song. You know, the old standard. Yeah, definitely feels nostalgic and sad.
Nicole: [40:10] Hmm.
Gayle: [40:11] Yeah.
Nicole: [40:13] All right, Gayle for the upbeat.
[Laughter]
Nicole: [40:18] Thinking about mortality and our parents.
Gayle: [40:24] Yeah.
Nicole: [40:26] Alright, so my next one that is non-fiction, I will just mention briefly, because I think I mentioned it when we did our fall preview over the summer. And it’s called, We Keep The Dead Closed by Becky Cooper, and it is about a woman who is investigating the first murder that took place at Harvard. And like the parallels between then and now. And, so` I just wanted to mention that one briefly. But there’s another book that’s kind of like the first book that I mentioned and is heartwarming. Well, not heartwarming, but I guess…giving… uh… What do I want to say? Giving an idea of how we can move forward with life now is called Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat by Katherine Mae. And just, she talks about all the systems and how your life is improved, and the observations that you make when you take time to, of course, pay attention to your life, which it’s interesting that this book is coming out now. It’s something that she had probably written pre-pandemic, and there were always plans for it. But it’s nice to have a book that kind of seeks to show you the balance, because I think that we went from probably being way too busy, to having nothing to do. And I think that that’s a massive swing. But I’m always just like, I’m always attracted to books where people are reflecting and looking for quiet or life acquired or existence because I feel like I, I have a good balance, and then you get out of balance, and then you get back in balance. So it’s always a give and take and trying to establish a life like that. So I think that’s why they always call to me.
Gayle: [42:14] Well, that does seem like a book particularly well suited to this time that we’re in right now.
Nicole: So what do you got next?
Gayle: [42:22] Well, the last one I had here is one we’ve actually already talked about on the show, I believe, maybe in our fall preview, but it is Group by Christie Tate. And it is a book about a law student who is having suicidal thoughts and has been dealing with lots of stress and pressure, who decides to join group therapy. And this is nonfiction, and it’s all about the group therapy that she goes to and other people in the group and how it saves her. So I was interested in this book, and I heard Sara talk about it on her podcast as well. And then, as people started reading the book, I started hearing a lot of negative stuff about it, like-
Nicole: [43:11] I heard.
Gayle: [43:11] Yeah, so I heard that the leader of the group therapy, I guess, the therapist who leads it has a lot of very unconventional tactics and methods, and that he says some inappropriate things. And then I’ve also heard people say, it seems like a huge invasion of privacy for the other people in the group. But apparently, everyone decided before they got into this group that everything was going to be public. So apparently, there is no invasion of privacy, because everyone knew that it was going to be open. And I don’t know if she came into it saying I’m going to write a book about this. But everyone knew that there was a chance that could happen. So I’m a little less enthusiastic about reading it, just after reading the reviews that I have read of it. But it’s still, I think, an interesting topic, and it’s falling into that kind of therapy, the therapy genre, like maybe you should talk to someone and this one. And I think there was another book, I can’t remember what it is called. But there was another book that came out that was all about going to therapy. And I don’t know I sort of put three women in that category to like these glimpses into other people’s lives and their problems and how they solve them and work them work through them. So that’s Group by Christie Tate, and it came out this week on the 27th of October.
Nicole: [44:32] Did you have any fiction that you singled out for this month?
Gayle: [44:37] I do. I have a couple of fiction. I just divided them into fiction and nonfiction.
Nicole: [44:41] Okay. Okay, good. Let me see what is my… Do I have one last nonfiction book? Or are we ready to move on? Another book that I just want to mention briefly because we did talk about it in the fall preview is Loved and Wanted by Christa Parravani. And this is the book that I had mentioned, it is actually, it’s really interesting. When when you think about, I guess, the Supreme Court and Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, because this book is the subtitle is A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood. And is about a woman who is 40 years old, she’s in a troubled marriage, they are not doing well financially. And she learned that she’s pregnant with her third child, and she lives in West Virginia. She’s working at a local university, and just in taking stock of her circumstances and taking into account how she grew up in poverty and violence, she decides that she, this is not a pregnancy that she wants to go through with. But she figures out that she’s living in an area where she is not going to have access to terminate her pregnancy. So it’s about that and her choices that she’s making, but also the child that she has, who is a child who requires special help, and her struggle to provide health care and, and for her child, and just talks about, I guess, the what she experiences when she has her baby and just realizing that she was not able to make that choice for herself and her family when she found herself into such a precarious position. So it takes a look at her story and I guess puts it in the context of women have to make difficult choices about their family situations, and I guess how nothing is one size fits all. So that’s coming out November 10.
Gayle: [46:59] Okay, all right. So you want to quickly get to a couple of fiction books-
Nicole: [47:03] Yeah.
Gayle: [47:05] -coming out this month.
Nicole: [47:07] Yeah.
Gayle: [47:07] So I have a couple also kind of on the heavy side. What is that November, people like heavy books, but the first one is called The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter. And it comes out on the 17th, and it’s about parents who sun-grown sun has disappeared, and they are trying to find him in their search leads them to this kind of cultish group. I think it took place in Minneapolis. And this cultish group has attracted other people to it that are feeling kind of disaffected from society, and it’s just about their search for him, and then these people that they encounter when they find him. So it is a Harper Collins book. And according to the publisher, it’s a vision of modern American society and the specters of the consumerism, fanaticism, and fear that haunted. So, sounds kind of heavy. But I’ve read something by Charles Baxter a long time ago, before I was blogging, it called The Feast of Love, and I don’t remember anything about it. But I was one of those names I see around and I don’t know that fact pattern kind of appeals to me.
Nicole: [48:19] Sounds good.
Gayle: [48:20] Yeah.
Nicole: [48:21] So the fiction book that I have, I feel like I was just knocking books for no surprises. This one might be a little bit wavier, but it follows a pattern that we have heard of all too often. It is called The Orchard by David Hopen and it is coming out on November 17. It is about the main character, his name is Ari Eden and he is an Orthodox Jew who goes to school at an, I guess, a very wealthy Jewish Academy. And of course, he is just kind of stunned by the lifestyle of his peers and he is taken under the wing of a very wealthy student and finds himself entangled in their exclusive group. So it says that they are influenced by their charismatic Rabbi, and they start testing and pushing against religion in unconventional ways. So this is kind of like fish out of water; getting involved in a community where he is a little bit in over his head. It says it’s mesmerizing, playful heart-rending, and darkly romantic so I’m very curious.
Gayle: [49:44] That book I came up with as well, it wasn’t on my list, but I looked at it. I thought it looked kind of interesting.
Nicole: [49:51] Yeah.
Gayle: [49:52] I think whenever you have these, like orthodox, take these Orthodox Jews and take them out of the water to others, you know, fish out of water situations, that’s what I always find is kind of interesting.
Nicole: [50:05] They say in the description, there’s, you know, the friends are magnetic and defiant, especially Evan, the brooding genius of the bunch still living in the shadow of his mother’s death. Talk about just cliche stock literature character, you know, like the rich, troubled brooding.
Gayle: [50:24] Hmmm.
Nicole: [50:25] Someone whose parent has died and is heavily influenced by that. So-
Gayle: [50:31] Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole: [50:32] All the tropes are there, but I’m still very intrigued.
Gayle: [50:36] Yeah. Okay, my next one is called Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent and it is, I think, kind of a thriller-ish type book. And it’s about three brothers, who are, when the book opens, one of them had died, and you don’t know which one. And so they start to break down the relationship between these brothers. And one of them was very successful, maybe producer and one of them was a pop star, and one of them was kind of the middle child very steady, the adult of the three, but it says, but none of them is exactly what he seems. Wounded by childhood, they have betrayed one another in myriad ways, hiding behind little lies that have developed into full-blown treachery. So it’s really a family drama. And Liz Nugent wrote a book I read called Unraveling All of Her, which was a thriller, a psychological thriller that I really liked. And this one sounded good too. It’s called Little Cruelties.
Nicole: [51:46] Hmm. So Unraveling All of Her did not, I guess, didn’t enjoy towards the end?
Gayle: [51:53] Yeah, no, I was looking back at my review, it said. I said, “you won’t be thinking about it for days on end, but you’ll enjoy the ride while it lasts”. And I don’t think that one. Yeah, as I said, there were a few twists and turns including one that made me gasp so loudly. My husband asked me what was wrong. So yeah, I think I like that one.
Nicole: [52:17] All right. So my next pick is just its plain nostalgia it’s called Peace of My Heart it’s by Mary Higgins Clark. They call her the queen of suspense. I feel like that’s the gateway drug for reading, for so many people. Mary Higgins Clark novels. She’s been writing books since 1968. So in the 90s, when I would have been of the age where I had not graduated literary fiction, but it was looking for stuff to read. I feel like I read a couple of her books, they always, now I would kind of roll my eyes at them because they’re so much Stranger Danger books.
Gayle: [52:55] Mm-hmm.
Nicole: [52:55] You know, as opposed to most women or most people or if they if something happened to them, it’s usually someone that they know did it you know, someone in their family, someone in their friend or acquaintance circle its usually not a serial killer. But there’s always like some kind of sinister stalker or a crazy person in her books. She started writing books with Alafair Burke. So she’s one of these writers like James Patterson, I don’t think she puts out as many as he does. But she sometimes writes books with people and I don’t want to even I say that just because she has a co-author on these latest books. But James Patterson is kind of a factory and he has so many people and he puts out so many books a year. So I think it’s much more of a company kind of aspect. Then, Mary Higgins Clark’s collaboration with Alafair Burke, whose novels I’ve read, and I always enjoy. But so this one is about a television producer and her husband. They’re days away from having their wedding when her fiance’s seven-year-old nephew vanishes from the beach, and they are trying to find him. So I don’t know. I might check that I might check out that collaboration because I do like Alafair Burke and in memory of, you know, the teenager who loved Mary Higgins Clark.
Gayle: [54:22] Yep.
Nicole: [54:23] I might do it. There’s also a new VC Andrews, which is just-
Gayle: [54:27] Oh my God.
Nicole: [54:26] The woman’s been dead for how many years now?
Gayle: [54:29] How is there a new one?
Nicole: [54:31] I don’t know. I mean, I feel like one of her relatives was writing them at some time, or maybe they license them out. I don’t know. It’s probably something incestuous, or, you know, it’s always like some poor girl marries into some rich family that is secretly really, really demented or she was sleeping with her brother and ran away and married someone else. It’s just…
Gayle: [54:54] Yeah. All right.
Nicole: [54:55] But I did read and love. Love that.
Gayle: [54:57] Oh, yeah, I read that too. That flowers in the attic. Whatever.
Nicole: [55:03] I think everyone has dried flowers in the attic. Yeah, if you don’t-
Gayle: [55:06] Smell awful. Okay, so I have a last one and then I have a couple more to mention just because they’re coming out in November. But we’ve already talked about them on the show. So I don’t want to spend too much time on them. Okay, so the one that I have is called Nights When Nothing Happened by Simon Hahn and it comes out on the 17th of November. So it says it’s about a family that is seemed like quote-unquote, model immigrants. They live in Dallas and but they’re Chinese, and they have two kids, but then one of their kids starts to sleepwalk at night, putting into motion a string of misunderstandings that threaten to set the community against them. So it’s about sort of family secrets overcoming their past and how they can move on in, you know, a society that they’re trying to assimilate into.
Nicole: [56:01] Hmm.
Gayle: [56:01] I see keep seeing this book on lists.
Nicole: [56:03] What kind of list?
Gayle: [56:04] Oh, like, upcoming fiction, but lists, November fiction list. Like when I was researching for this, it was on a bunch of different lists that I saw.
Nicole: [56:14] Do you still Real Simple have those lists that they come out with?
Gayle: [56:20] Does Real Simple have them?
Nicole: [56:25] Yeah.
Gayle: [56:22] Real simple have the-
Nicole: [56:23] They usually have five books in their print issue. I don’t know. Are you talking about something that’s online?
Gayle: [56:29] Right. Yes. Yep. Although I’m always so behind, like, my magazines are really piling up right now. Which is odd, because I’m home all the time. But you know, I think it used to be that I would bring my magazines when I traveled. So that was like plane reading. And I’m not traveling at all. So I could just never seem to justify sitting down and reading a magazine. So they just are taking me longer to get through. But yeah, they usually have five every issue and they’re usually pretty good.
Nicole: [55:55] Yeah, I think I like their picks.
Gayle: [56:57] Yeah.
Nicole: [57:00] I think I like their picks, Elle usually has good picks.
Gayle: [57:00] Well, if I were downstairs in my den, I could get the latest issue that arrived today and tell you the five books they picked this month. But as I mentioned, I’m not in my den. Not bitter or thinking about it at all.
Nicole: [57:14] No, no.
Gayle: [57:13] Not bitter at all. Not bitter. So yeah, I will. I will tell you when I opened the issue with the five or maybe I’ll save that for next week.
Nicole: [57:26] I think that might be all for me. I had one more but I think I mentioned and they came out in October. And it was because I want to check out the new Nicci French called House of Correction.
Gayle: [57:35] Hmmm.
Nicole: [57:38] That’s a husband and wife team that writes books together. So yeah, most of my books were nonfiction books that I want to check out.
Gayle: [57:44] Well, the other one that I wanted the three that I want to mention that we’ve talked about already were Memorial by Brian Washington that’s getting-
Nicole: [57:52] Yes.
Gayle: Huge amounts of exposure that’s coming out this month. White Ivy by Susie Yang is a book that you-
Nicole: [57:59] Oh yeah. That was on my list.
Gayle: [58:00] Yeah. For our fall preview. And there’s some discussion that that may be on the book of the month, November books list.
Nicole: [58:08] Hmm.
Gayle: [58:09] And then the last one I think we just talked about recently Goodnight Beautiful by Amiee Molloy, which is about a couple and he’s a therapist, and she’s listening in on his therapy sessions. And then a woman, there’s some strange woman who comes in and just-
Nicole: [58:26] That disappears.
Gayle: [58:26] Yeah. Randomly. So I wanted to just make sure I mentioned those because those are all November books as well.
Nicole: [58:34] There’s a lot. I can’t even keep up.
Gayle: [58:37] Yeah.
Nicole: [58:37] I think I’m going to get,n I think I preorder White Ivy.
Gayle: [58:41] Oh, okay.
Nicole: [58:42] That sounded really good. I was trying to get one of my friends to read it with me. Like, I have a friend who lived in New York and she’s riding up pandemic in Pittsburgh. So we get together every four weeks or three weeks or four weeks and discuss something. So it’s her pick, but I picked some books and White Ivy was one of them.
Gayle: [59:04] Okay, well, hopefully, she’ll pick that one.
Nicole: [59:07] And I also told her that I was reading The Invisible Life of Addie Larue. That would speed me up if we read it together.
Gayle: [59:15] Yeah, sure.
Nicole: [59:16] Because right now I’m reading it like 15 pages at a time.
Gayle: [59:19] It’s like a blow-dry book.
Nicole: [59:21] Yeah. Everything’s a blow-dry book.
Gayle: [59:24] Yes.
Nicole: [59:25] I don’t even need the blow dryer.
Gayle: [59:29] All right, well, those are the November books, and lots of good stuff coming out between now and the end of the year.
Nicole: [59:36] So next time, Gail and I are going to try for a gift guide. If it’s not in the next show. It’ll be the show after just because…
Gayle: [59:45] Yeah, take some time.
Nicole: [59:46]I don’t know. I mean, we don’t have any work at home, so-
Gayle: [59:49] Yeah.
Nicole: [59:49] We’ll try to find reasonable things.
Gayle: [59:52] Exactly. Guess we’ll be going online.
Nicole: [59:55] Alright, well until next time, happy reading.
Outro: [1:00:00] We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of the weekly report. You can find all of our shows on iTunes or at thereaderlyreport.com please join our Facebook group Readerly Report Readers where you can talk to other listeners about their reading life. You can also find Nicole at nicolebonia.com and me, Gayle at everydayIwritethebookblog.com Finally, we’d love it if you left us a review on iTunes and told your book-loving friends about us. Thanks.