Speaker 1: You're listening to a Mumma mea podcast.
Speaker 2: Hello and Vernon Here, I'm the host with Laura Brodneck
Speaker 2: on Momma MIA's pop culture entertainment podcast, The Spill. We
Speaker 2: are dropping in the book club feed for those who
Speaker 2: are stuck in a bit of a reading slump and
Speaker 2: desperately need help to climb out of it. As your
Speaker 2: resident book obsessives, we have curated the ultimate list of
Speaker 2: books that will have you canceling plants and staying up
Speaker 2: way too late to read these. We're also diving into
Speaker 2: the addictive world of romanticy, including Little Hidden Gem series
Speaker 2: that we guarantee you haven't discovered yet. So get ready
Speaker 2: get your list out to write all these recommendations down,
Speaker 2: because these are absolutely the best books ever.
Speaker 1: From Mamma Mia. Welcome to The Spill, your daily pop
Speaker 1: culture fixed. I'm Laura Brodney and I'm m Vernon and
Speaker 1: coming up on the show today. Look, you guys have
Speaker 1: been asking it in my dms. At least I've been
Speaker 1: at least twenty in the last oh no, that's not
Speaker 1: even a joke, in the last two months, So ten
Speaker 1: a month isn't too bad. We are talking about not
Speaker 1: just our favorite books of all time. That's a separate topic.
Speaker 1: Actually we did an episode on that. I'll link in
Speaker 1: the show notes. We are doing the books that will
Speaker 1: get you out of a reading slump. We've all been there,
Speaker 1: Like you're an avid reader, and then like life gets
Speaker 1: busy or now you know, we're watching our phones, we
Speaker 1: go down a TikTok a rabbit hole at nine instead
Speaker 1: of reading, and then you try and pick up a book.
Speaker 1: It's whatever book is trending at the moment, and you
Speaker 1: try and read it and you're like, this is hard
Speaker 1: and I hate it and I don't want to do it.
Speaker 1: And then you're kind of out of reading for a
Speaker 1: while because your mind is not leading you there and
Speaker 1: you've had a bad experience. And then we've all also
Speaker 1: been here where you pick up that one book and
Speaker 1: it draws you in so intently and you read it
Speaker 1: all in one go. You stay up late, you read
Speaker 1: it at work when you should be working. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've never done that, but others might have. See. I
Speaker 1: mean I was looking down and I said it. And
Speaker 1: so we're going to take you through those books today,
Speaker 1: the books that will keep you turning the pages, the
Speaker 1: books that you'll finish in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: just the books that will get you back into reading.
Speaker 1: So as soon as you finish that, you look run
Speaker 1: to your bookshelf and you think, what am I going
Speaker 1: to read next? I love that?
Speaker 2: Okay? Can I go first?
Speaker 1: Yes? This one.
Speaker 2: I kind of cheated because the only reason I have
Speaker 2: this on my list was because our producer Kim asked us, Hey,
Speaker 2: I need a book to get me out of a
Speaker 2: reading slump, and you recommended this book and I was.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, And I also told her i'd bring it
Speaker 1: in like three days.
Speaker 2: But then I have a double whammy because I'm talking
Speaker 2: about it. Plus I'm calling you out for not bringing
Speaker 2: in that.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, producer Kim. Someone messaged me when I'm
Speaker 1: at home to put it in my back Okay, we will.
Speaker 1: I'll put that on my to do thank you. So
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Kim. But now you're just gonna hear about.
Speaker 2: How good this book is, how badly you should be
Speaker 2: reading it if you ever get the chance to. So
Speaker 2: the book I am talking about is romantic comedy. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, I love.
Speaker 1: This book so much. I just got to literally just
Speaker 1: got a chill. If you're saying that name no good.
Speaker 2: Can I confess something?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I read it four times?
Speaker 1: Did you really all? I believe it?
Speaker 2: You can read it in a day.
Speaker 1: You can read it in a day. But also the chemistry,
Speaker 1: especially towards the end of the book, like I wish
Speaker 1: I could feel that for the first time again.
Speaker 2: To the romance in this book. It's by Curtis Sittenfield,
Speaker 2: absolutely brilliant, brilliant writer. So it's called romantic comedy. The
Speaker 2: book is a romantic comedy. It's very funny. I don't
Speaker 2: want to call it a pandemic book because I know
Speaker 2: that turns people off. But there is a big section
Speaker 2: that happens during the pandemic, and it's the first.
Speaker 1: Book I've read that in where I really felt it
Speaker 1: added so much the story and it didn't make me
Speaker 1: feel like stressed about lockdowns. Obviously that was a stressful time,
Speaker 1: but it's written into the book so well, and it's
Speaker 1: such an important part of the story, and it really
Speaker 1: builds the central romance that it's not going to make
Speaker 1: you sad.
Speaker 2: It's not going to make you sad. It's done really well.
Speaker 2: I was like looking up how I can explain the
Speaker 2: book because you know I'm very good at explaining fluff.
Speaker 1: I love when you explain something you've just watched or read,
Speaker 1: because I was like, did you watch or read it?
Speaker 1: I did?
Speaker 2: I promise you I've read it four times. Will I
Speaker 2: be able to explain it?
Speaker 1: Who knows.
Speaker 2: But I saw a blog that said it gave them
Speaker 2: the vibe of what it would have been like if
Speaker 2: Mindy Kaling when she was writing for the Office of
Speaker 2: fl I'm like, that's so true. That is such a
Speaker 2: Mindy Kaling thing. Anyway, that was a sidetrack. But the
Speaker 2: book is about a writer called Sally Milt. She works
Speaker 2: on a Saturday Night Live ish show. It's called The
Speaker 2: Night A pretty much Saturday Saturday Night Live. Like to
Speaker 2: the Tea, It's exactly like it. The layout of the
Speaker 2: book is my absolutely favorite part because instead of big chapters,
Speaker 2: there's three distinct parts. Yeah, like her and her work
Speaker 2: where she meets the famous pop star Noah Brewster, and
Speaker 2: then the pandemic where they're back and forth with the emails,
Speaker 2: and then at the end where they reunite again. And
Speaker 2: I love how the chapters are like according to her work,
Speaker 2: timetable because Saturday Night Live, which we have talked about
Speaker 2: in the past, like if you're a writer for the show,
Speaker 2: you don't sleep. Essentially, sleep is not on the table.
Speaker 2: You're in the offices from like two am. Sometimes you
Speaker 2: come there at five am. You're there like writing, writing, writing.
Speaker 2: The days are crazy. So I love how it's broken
Speaker 2: down into like two am and then they're all just
Speaker 2: in the office.
Speaker 1: I'm still riding.
Speaker 2: It's so well done, it's so funny, and it's one
Speaker 2: of those things where you see a female protagonist talk
Speaker 2: so openly about how it's not always like the main
Speaker 2: character is like a pretty beautiful woman. And we've talked
Speaker 2: about this as well. When an author wants you to
Speaker 2: know that their main character is pretty, it's always like
Speaker 2: some weird flashback of them going, Sarah always knew she
Speaker 2: was a pretty girl, but it was only when she's
Speaker 2: standing in this ball gown that she really feel like
Speaker 2: she was a woman. So it's one of those things
Speaker 2: where we've all seen it where it's like some really
Speaker 2: funny comedian guy always ends up with like a beautiful
Speaker 2: like Oscar winning star, Yeah, Colin, Joe Scarlet, Johansson, Oh geez,
Speaker 2: that's a low blow. And this does the opposite right,
Speaker 2: like she is the funny comedian and she kind of
Speaker 2: describes herself as like quote unquote average looking, and the
Speaker 2: pop star she falls in love with is like this
Speaker 2: big Hollywood star. It's so funny, so well done. Put
Speaker 2: on your list. If you feel like there's nothing that's
Speaker 2: up your alley to read, read this.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna cheat a little here. Actually I'm gonna
Speaker 1: cheat twice. This is the first time because this isn't
Speaker 1: a book, it's a book series. But once you read
Speaker 1: the first one, you want to speed through the other
Speaker 1: two series as well. Yeah, and I've got two that's fine. Well, again,
Speaker 1: nothing gets you out of a reading, right, like when
Speaker 1: you finish a great book and there's six more of
Speaker 1: them to read. So I'm recommending the Crazy Rich Asian
Speaker 1: series by Kevin Kwan, one of my all time favorites,
Speaker 1: the ultimate page turner, the ultimate like just indulgent read that.
Speaker 1: I've literally gone on holidays with these books and completely
Speaker 1: ignored my family and other people because I'm like, no, no,
Speaker 1: I have to finish this book.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of you are saying, Crazy Rich
Speaker 1: Asians is my favorite movie. Why would I read the book?
Speaker 1: I know what happens, and to that, I would say
Speaker 1: crazy rich Asians is also one of my ignorance. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: because the book is very different. They're a lot meaner
Speaker 1: in the book, is all. I'll say. There is a
Speaker 1: lot more tense and there's a.
Speaker 2: Lot more money in the book.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and just the way, like Kevin Kwan's way
Speaker 1: of just describing what everyone's wearing, what they're whispering, what
Speaker 1: they're saying, what they're eating, and.
Speaker 2: The dreach character has a storyline, whereas like in the movie,
Speaker 2: you just see like the main character's storyline and then
Speaker 2: everyone's kind of a side person.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Ah, but the book is just the book gives.
Speaker 1: Everyone much more rich characters. So if you're not across
Speaker 1: crazy rich changes at all, I don't even know how
Speaker 1: to explain this to you. But Rachel and Nick mean
Speaker 1: in New York. They fall in love. She thinks he's
Speaker 1: just like a nice young guy from Singapore. They go
Speaker 1: over to visit his family, where she discovers that he's baby,
Speaker 1: the ultimate NEPO baby. That he's not just rich, he's
Speaker 1: crazy rich. And obviously his family are very against her
Speaker 1: marrying into their family. So that's the first book in
Speaker 1: the series, Crazy Rich Asians. They're also Asian, that's where
Speaker 1: the Asian comes from. Yes, then we have China Rich Girlfriend,
Speaker 1: which is a second book, and then Rich People Problems
Speaker 1: a third book. And I'd say China Rich Girlfriend is
Speaker 1: where things get crazy. You'll just say there's a poisoning
Speaker 1: plot with Rachel. Rachel also finds out who her father is.
Speaker 1: Massive plot twist. There something Nick's family was not expecting.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, it's just a page turner. It
Speaker 1: keeps you going. You've got the opulence and like the
Speaker 1: history where they are, Like Kevin Kwan does such an
Speaker 1: amazing job of describing all the places in Singapore they're
Speaker 1: going to, but also, as you're saying, gives you more
Speaker 1: in depth backstory and all of Nick's family members and
Speaker 1: let's just say we see his mum in the movie
Speaker 1: played by Michelle Yo. Kind of come around to it
Speaker 1: in the books, especially in the movie the grandma is nice.
Speaker 1: Holy hell that is a demon in the books. No no,
Speaker 1: And then going on to Rich People Problems when the
Speaker 1: grandmother's on her deathbedd and the whole family comes together
Speaker 1: in the mansion and just yeah, crazy stuff happens so
Speaker 1: Crazy Rich Asians. I've read each book multiple times, Like
Speaker 1: I can just pick one of those books up and
Speaker 1: just read it in one go. Can I add something
Speaker 1: to that? Please?
Speaker 2: Do his latest book, Lies and Weddings? Yeah, so good,
Speaker 2: My god, I think about that book all the time.
Speaker 2: But also Crazy Ridge Asians. Because I went to Singapore recently,
Speaker 2: my tour guide hated me. I was just asking them
Speaker 2: so many questions. We went to La Pisade, which is
Speaker 2: like where you get all the big sate and that
Speaker 2: big thin and I was just like asking questions. I
Speaker 2: was like, and this is a sate that they ate
Speaker 2: in Crazy Ridge Asians. And he was like, can you
Speaker 2: just eat your food? Like sh You're like no, it's
Speaker 2: my favorite booll. I was like no, no, I know
Speaker 2: this place. I know this place in my soul. He's
Speaker 2: like yeah, yeah, yeah, like you and every other tourist
Speaker 2: to come to.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Exactly. So highly recommend. If look, if these books
Speaker 1: don't get you out of a reading rut, then nothing
Speaker 1: will is all. I'll say that. Okay.
Speaker 2: My next one was one that helped me out recently
Speaker 2: because I was in a bit of a reading rut.
Speaker 2: This is a series I read the first book, and
Speaker 2: I became completely obsessed that I started reading the second book.
Speaker 2: And I remember I started reading the second book on
Speaker 2: a Friday, and I was talking to all the girls
Speaker 2: in the office who loved the series, and I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm up to like the first chapter in the second book.
Speaker 2: All this is happening, and they're like, oh, cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 2: And then I came back to work the Monday, so
Speaker 2: we had Saturday Sunday. Came back to work on the Monday,
Speaker 2: and they were like, how's the book going, And I
Speaker 2: was like, I finished it, and then I finished the
Speaker 2: third and then I finished the full and they were like,
Speaker 2: holy hell.
Speaker 1: And you were like rocking back and forth with my eyes.
Speaker 2: I came because we had to record an episode, so
Speaker 2: I had bloodshot eyes. This I like, my right eye
Speaker 2: was twitching.
Speaker 1: It's so kind of crazy.
Speaker 2: It's still a bit that's I think that's just stress
Speaker 2: in general. I was like so sleepy. But even then
Speaker 2: at work, all I could think about was this stupid,
Speaker 2: bloody fifth book I had to read. And I had
Speaker 2: to wait the whole week because I knew if I
Speaker 2: picked it up during the week, I wouldn't be able
Speaker 2: to think about anything else this whole anticipation for this
Speaker 2: one book. I am talking about the Akatar series by
Speaker 2: Sarah Jay.
Speaker 1: How does that?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yes, that was just it's literally all anyone of the
Speaker 1: about forced you to read it.
Speaker 2: Lbie's like reading them now because I told her that
Speaker 2: we need.
Speaker 1: To do a full episode of oh and we will
Speaker 1: don't we will?
Speaker 2: But the first book is really not everyone's favorite book
Speaker 2: in the whole series, but it's the one that you
Speaker 2: obviously have to read first or it gets everyone into
Speaker 2: the series. It's a roman to see, so I'm elevated now.
Speaker 2: I stop calling it very smart because I know that's
Speaker 2: a bit offensive to people who love this genre. I've
Speaker 2: been calling it a romanticy, which is what I've been
Speaker 2: told to call it. And by romanticy, I mean it's
Speaker 2: just fairies having crazy sex. It's really good. And it's
Speaker 2: not just about the sex, okay, because like I came
Speaker 2: in thinking, like I'm gonna get straight up porn. It's
Speaker 2: not that there's an actual storyline. Are the characters a
Speaker 2: bit weird? Yes? Are some of the female characters a
Speaker 2: bit odd that I don't really like? Yes? But is
Speaker 2: that because they are odd or is that just because
Speaker 2: I have some internalized misogyny going on. I think it's
Speaker 2: that reason because the men in these books, like the
Speaker 2: male fairies, No man ever compares, Like I don't think
Speaker 2: I can date anymore, Like you.
Speaker 1: Gotta watch out for those male fairy to date anymore.
Speaker 2: If I go on a date with a man, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be like, but where are your wings?
Speaker 1: Can I please be in the room next time you
Speaker 1: ask a man?
Speaker 2: That also are your wings? And like why aren't you
Speaker 2: flying me up to like your big castle that like
Speaker 2: lavitates be on the ground, Like where like.
Speaker 1: Say a questions to ask a partner?
Speaker 2: You want me to split the bill?
Speaker 1: You haven't even flown me up to a cartet?
Speaker 2: And I know you're meant to have like a trove
Speaker 2: of like treasures in your house, Like what's going on?
Speaker 1: Modern dating is a letdown.
Speaker 2: It's a letdown. But also the only issue I take
Speaker 2: with these books if you try to be one of
Speaker 2: those people who try to insert yourself in the book,
Speaker 2: which I pretend to.
Speaker 1: Do, like I'm always a main everyone No whole books
Speaker 1: have been written around characters that are made for you
Speaker 1: to insert yourself into them. The most famous being bella Swan,
Speaker 1: like that's a characters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is why it piss me off from
Speaker 2: people are like, Whey is Emily so obsessed with Mindy Kaling?
Speaker 2: There's nothing worse than you pretending you're the main character
Speaker 2: of a book. And then she says something dumb like
Speaker 2: and then I pushed my blonde hair over my shoulder,
Speaker 2: like you're not meant to be blonde.
Speaker 1: I'm meant to be you. Mindy Caling's gonna love how
Speaker 1: many shout outs she's getting in this episode.
Speaker 2: Says, so this is a call out for all authors,
Speaker 2: no description on your characters. I'll do that in my head,
Speaker 2: thank you very much.
Speaker 1: So how many books back to me? Back to Akata?
Speaker 1: It's just a personal shout.
Speaker 2: Five books in this series so far. Rumors that there's
Speaker 2: going to be a six book dropping this year. Sarah
Speaker 2: jay Mash she started writing Romanticy when she was like
Speaker 2: sixteen years old, so.
Speaker 1: That's a prime age just writing, Like.
Speaker 2: I should have just stuck with my fan fiction tumblr
Speaker 2: if this is what it could have been me brilliant writer.
Speaker 2: It's such good storytelling and world building, like you actually
Speaker 2: escape into these books. It's so well done. And such
Speaker 2: easy reads, like you'll just fly through them like I did.
Speaker 2: I would just drink a lot of you flew through them?
Speaker 2: Did you really flew through them with my own wings
Speaker 2: like a girl boss?
Speaker 1: Put that on a T shirt. Okay, I'm just raise
Speaker 1: you head talk. Yeah you do? You want to lie
Speaker 1: down for the best stressed. So when the Akatar series
Speaker 1: began popping off, so many people in the office to
Speaker 1: be like, Laura, are you getting into romanticy? Are you
Speaker 1: going to read them? And to that, I slapped them
Speaker 1: across the face and I said, how dare you? I
Speaker 1: was raised by romanticy.
Speaker 2: It's all according mindical, We've done enough.
Speaker 1: Because romanticy is pretty much all I read through my teens,
Speaker 1: through my twenties, and to be honest, into my early thirties.
Speaker 2: So if if you were reading romancy from the eighteen hundreds, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: the reading like the Bible.
Speaker 1: What No, there's so many romanticy This isn't the first
Speaker 1: Romanticy series. It's one of the biggest genres in the world.
Speaker 1: Because romance books are one of the highest selling things
Speaker 1: in the world that just don't get a lot of
Speaker 1: attention until now when they're starting to kind of heat
Speaker 1: up because it's mostly women buying them. But Romanticy has
Speaker 1: been having a huge moment in the spotlight for decades,
Speaker 1: particularly i'd say in the early two thousands that was
Speaker 1: one of the big booms. So one of my favorite
Speaker 1: Romanticy series that I feel like if you're loving Akatar
Speaker 1: and you just want something on the same veins. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's so many book series like that out there, but
Speaker 1: one of my absolute favorite is the Fever series by
Speaker 1: Karen Marie Monning. The Fever series, Yes, so the first
Speaker 1: book came out in two thousands. Are you writing that down?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll send you these notes to write it down.
Speaker 1: I'm stressed, very cute. So there's eleven books in the series,
Speaker 1: and you might.
Speaker 2: That's a commitment.
Speaker 1: You might feel like that's a lot, but once you
Speaker 1: get into the first one, you'd be like, holy hell,
Speaker 1: hook this to my veins. I'm going to read these
Speaker 1: all through the night. So Dark Fever is the first novel.
Speaker 1: These aren't like underground books. These were New York Times
Speaker 1: best selling books, okay, and continue to sell millions of copies.
Speaker 1: So the story starts off with a young girl who's working.
Speaker 1: She's like graduated. She's still living with her parents. She's
Speaker 1: a bit of a party girl. She works as a
Speaker 1: bartender in Georgia. Her name's Mikhayla Lane. Everyone calls her Mac.
Speaker 1: And her sister is over studying in Dublin in Ireland,
Speaker 1: and her sister's the much more kind of studious one.
Speaker 1: And then and her family find out that her sister
Speaker 1: has been killed and the police are just you know,
Speaker 1: not looking into it. They've kind of written it off.
Speaker 1: So Mac, who is very close to her sister and
Speaker 1: just thinks everything about her death sounds so suspicious, but
Speaker 1: she doesn't know anyone in Ireland to ask about it,
Speaker 1: so she jumps on a plane to fly to Dublin
Speaker 1: and try and figure out what happened to her sister,
Speaker 1: only to discover that Dublin is crawling with the Fay people,
Speaker 1: which are very very sexy but dangerous. Kill you through sex.
Speaker 1: Fairies kills you through sex. Yeah, some of them do. Oh,
Speaker 1: a lot of them do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they had this whole choice or does it just happen?
Speaker 1: No, they can just do it to you. Yeah, there's layers,
Speaker 1: there's layers. So Mac also finds out that she and
Speaker 1: posister both have this ability where they can see through
Speaker 1: like the glamours that the fairies in London put up,
Speaker 1: so she can see the fairies and the monsters and
Speaker 1: the demons and all.
Speaker 2: This kind so they look like regular people.
Speaker 1: They can look like regular people, and then she can
Speaker 1: see through them to their fairy cells. And there's this
Speaker 1: whole underground world happening in Dublin of these fairy people.
Speaker 1: And mac soon learns that her sister had discovered it
Speaker 1: because she has the same ability and what has led
Speaker 1: to her death as this big evil mastermind that's running Dublin.
Speaker 1: Then she gets a job at this bookshop because it's
Speaker 1: run by this man called Jericho. She can't figure out
Speaker 1: what he is. What he is comes out over the
Speaker 1: next couple of books. He's just a very hot, mysterious
Speaker 1: man who also helps her start to uncover this fairy world.
Speaker 1: And like all the demons and everything within it, it's
Speaker 1: just so well written, like the world building and the
Speaker 1: history and of this like young girl, she is blonde,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry she does change her hair at one
Speaker 1: stage that makes you feel any better. And each book
Speaker 1: kind of takes you further into the mystery of like
Speaker 1: what happened to her sister. The different things she uncovers,
Speaker 1: she starts to sort of make friends and enemies with
Speaker 1: different people within, like the fairies and demons and everything.
Speaker 1: And it's so good and it is wildly sexy, not
Speaker 1: just between Mac and Jericho but between like all the
Speaker 1: other fairy situations. But yeah, it does get pretty rapey
Speaker 1: towards the end, which is with death by sex fairies,
Speaker 1: which is something a lot of humans want. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so good. There's eleven books. There were a best sellers,
Speaker 1: so the Fever series, Like, Beva, you start this on
Speaker 1: a Friday night, You're gonna call me on Saturday morning
Speaker 1: and be like, I finished it. I finished. Look, I'm
Speaker 1: in love with Jerich Ho, i'me in love with Christian mckelter.
Speaker 1: I also want to be Mac. Oh my god, Well
Speaker 1: I went to Dublin. I'd just walk the first time
Speaker 1: I'd walk around at night, just picturing me being in that.
Speaker 2: So funny we me in Singapore's you in Dublin looking
Speaker 2: for the Death Bisex Firies. Okay, this one I chose
Speaker 2: because this's got me out of a reading slump when
Speaker 2: I was quite young. During that period of when you
Speaker 2: have to read all these big novels for school, and
Speaker 2: then you graduate school and you're like, I'm never reading again.
Speaker 2: I hate books.
Speaker 1: Okay, I never said, oh my god, that was me.
Speaker 2: I hated reading after school, Like I loved it, but
Speaker 2: I hated it. I hate being told what to read.
Speaker 2: But then I found this author. You might know her.
Speaker 2: Her name is Jillian Flynn. She's quite famous. I think
Speaker 2: I've heard that name once or twice. And her book
Speaker 2: Sharp Objects got me right back into reading and the
Speaker 2: love for reading. So Jillian Finnn she's like a psychological
Speaker 2: thriller author. Thriller books are my favorite because I find
Speaker 2: thriller movies too scary.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, yeah, time we go to a
Speaker 1: thriller movie, I look over and you're on the ground.
Speaker 2: Too scary, Whereas I can actually like appreciated in book
Speaker 2: form because there's no like jump scares, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. Yeah, I had a jump scar. That's my thing.
Speaker 2: I had a jump scare. But that's why I love
Speaker 2: thriller books because I love like mystery, and I love
Speaker 2: like those investigative novels and the kind of like the
Speaker 2: description and the like who did it? I've been reading
Speaker 2: The Housemaid, which is like a new thriller series. If
Speaker 2: anyone else is reading that, come talk to me, sign
Speaker 2: into my DMS. It's really good. But Sharp Objects is
Speaker 2: about Camille Prika, who's a Chicago journalist and she returns
Speaker 2: to her small hometown of Windgat, Missouri, and she moves
Speaker 2: back in with her mom, who's a bit weird, and
Speaker 2: her stepsister Emma, who she has like a bit of
Speaker 2: an interesting relationship with. You also find out like this
Speaker 2: family dynamic is quite weird because like her mum really
Speaker 2: babies her stepsister even though her stepsisters like close to
Speaker 2: being a grown woman. And you find out exactly why
Speaker 2: there's been some murders in the small town, which is
Speaker 2: why she's there, just a few, and they're all really
Speaker 2: weird with like their teeth pulled out. Yeah, very gross,
Speaker 2: but it's not gruesome gross. It's just very like, ooh gross.
Speaker 2: And she with like the police, who she kind of
Speaker 2: has like a bit of a fling with, try to
Speaker 2: investigate these murders together. It is done so well. And
Speaker 2: then from reading this book, I started reading Gone Girl
Speaker 2: and then Dark Places, which are also massive Gillian Flynn novels.
Speaker 2: Also very thriller and mystery. But if you're looking for
Speaker 2: like a quick thriller fix, this is really good to
Speaker 2: get you into like reading.
Speaker 1: And good plot twist at the end, very chilling.
Speaker 2: Ah a good blow twist. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Well, going from a thriller to the ultimate comfort read,
Speaker 1: I thought I just put one really good comfort read
Speaker 1: in there. It just feels like a warm hug. This
Speaker 1: is one of my absolute favorite books of all time.
Speaker 1: I don't say that lightly because I've read thousands of books,
Speaker 1: but it is The Shell Seekers by Roseven Pilcher. I
Speaker 1: never read it. Well, it came out in the eighties. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that was came before I was born.
Speaker 2: Why do you like reading books before you were born?
Speaker 1: Because you don't just read books from when you were born.
Speaker 1: What is My mom gave me this book when I
Speaker 1: was a teenager, and she loved it, and I loved it.
Speaker 1: I've read this book. I'm gonna cry. I read this
Speaker 1: book so many times. The pages fell apart in my
Speaker 1: hands one day and I had to go buy a
Speaker 1: new copy. And then I still have the pages from
Speaker 1: the old book because I don't want to throw them away.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: So it's a really beautiful book. It's set in two
Speaker 1: different time periods. Some of it is set in London.
Speaker 1: It tells the story Penelope Keeling. When you first meet
Speaker 1: her in the book, she's a woman in her fifties.
Speaker 1: She lives in this beautiful, big house in the country,
Speaker 1: and her father was a famous painter and she has
Speaker 1: one of his paintings in her home. She has three
Speaker 1: adult children, Olivia who's a magazine editor, her oldest daughter Nancy,
Speaker 1: who's like a very you know, unsatisfying marriage, and then Noel,
Speaker 1: who's like her wild son. And then it also goes
Speaker 1: back in time to Penelope's life as like a young
Speaker 1: girl with her mother and father in World War Two,
Speaker 1: and it kind of goes back and forth in time
Speaker 1: following all the different members of this family as they
Speaker 1: kind of fight over this money. But it's just so incredible.
Speaker 1: Olivia's story in particular, she's like this workaholic, fabulous magazine editor.
Speaker 1: Then she goes to Ibitha on this like one week holiday,
Speaker 1: falls madly in love with this older man called Cosmo,
Speaker 1: and like stays there with him, and then like his
Speaker 1: daughter comes into the later story. And it's just one
Speaker 1: of those books where like the descriptions of like the
Speaker 1: world they're in the countryside, I'm very pretty, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all very pretty, but just like the depth of
Speaker 1: emotion and all these different family members, Like even though
Speaker 1: like Nola and Nancy are kind of the bad siblings,
Speaker 1: you see so much into their world, into their family,
Speaker 1: into how they feel that they become these very rich characters.
Speaker 1: And then when you're going back to Penelope's life as
Speaker 1: a child, as like with her big love story and
Speaker 1: then why she marries a man she's not in love
Speaker 1: with later on and having her children and how it
Speaker 1: all culminates in this beautiful story of like family and
Speaker 1: money and true love and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: Odd's so I don't want to go into the specifics
Speaker 1: of all the characters because it is one of those
Speaker 1: just like incredible, like human stories. There are some kind
Speaker 1: of like twists and unexpected moments with you know, people
Speaker 1: who die, and mysteries are uncovered in lies that were
Speaker 1: told in the family and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: So like there is that kind of like all these
Speaker 1: family secrets come to the surface, but mostly it's just
Speaker 1: this like lovely interesting story about all these different people
Speaker 1: and it's just so beautifully feel good it is. It'll
Speaker 1: be sad, like I always cry multiple times in it.
Speaker 1: Now there's some sad moments and there's some really beautiful
Speaker 1: moments as well. It's just so good. I kind of
Speaker 1: just go how good it is. Like it's just one
Speaker 1: of those books where I wish I'd go back and
Speaker 1: read it for the first time. But I'm also glad
Speaker 1: I didn't read it now in my thirties, I'm glad
Speaker 1: I wade as a teenage and I've had it for
Speaker 1: my whole life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's yeah, that's nice of you to say.
Speaker 1: And I went to Ibtha on that cruise I went
Speaker 1: on last year, and everyone's like, let's go party, and
Speaker 1: I was like, walking around.
Speaker 2: Let's go to this little cottage, No I did.
Speaker 1: I walked around to where I thought Cosmo's house would have,
Speaker 1: being like where they pitch it and just go to
Speaker 1: some random So I was standing there being like, they're
Speaker 1: not real people, but I was like, this is where
Speaker 1: she was imagining when she wrote those scenes. So yeah.
Speaker 1: The shell Seekers by Rosmen Pelcher. There are movies and
Speaker 1: TV shows they're not great. Don't watch that, okay, don't
Speaker 1: be like, oh Laura said the book was good. The
Speaker 1: movie must be good. No, no, no, no, just the book,
Speaker 1: just the book.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the Spill today.
Speaker 2: If you love this episode, we did have a lot
Speaker 2: of recommendations in it, so I'm just gonna list off
Speaker 2: all the books we talked about. So get a pen
Speaker 2: and paper ready.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pause it here if you have to get yourself ready,
Speaker 1: send this to yourself as a voice.
Speaker 2: Not whatever elevated music. Okay, surely you have a pen
Speaker 2: and paper by now. These are the books in order
Speaker 2: that you heard them in, not order of our preference.
Speaker 2: That will be a fire to that will never end.
Speaker 2: Romantic comedy, Crazy Rich Asians, The Fever series, Akata, shell Seekers,
Speaker 2: and Sharp Objects. These are your books. They're really good.
Speaker 2: If you want to get out of a reading right,
Speaker 2: get them on your list.
Speaker 1: The Spill is.
Speaker 2: Produced by Kimberly Bradish with sound production by Scott Stronik.
Speaker 2: We will be back here on your podcast speed at
Speaker 2: three pm on Monday. Bye bye, Mamma Mia acknowledges the
Speaker 2: traditional owners of the land. We have recorded this podcast
Speaker 2: on the Gatagul people of the Eora nation. We pay
Speaker 2: our respects to their elders past and present, and extend
Speaker 2: that respect to all Aboriginal and torres Rate Islander cultures.