Season 3. Chapter 2.

Season 3 Chapter 2 0 Speaker 1 [00.00.18] Welcome to season three, chapter two of another chapter of the podcast. So we are back officially first proper episode here. Rebecca, how have you been? Okay. Actually, I'm just getting over a pretty bad bow to Covid, so apologies if I still sound a bit caught up. Um, but it was nice to have this to look forward to today, actually, because it's been a pretty, pretty crappy week. Yeah. Got a lot of audio listen to though. Got a lot of books listened to, which is good. That's good. Yeah. Silver linings and all that. but at least you were able for reading. I find that if I'm really sick, I can't then I'm like, this is the Yeah. only time I have to sit down and do nothing and read a book. What I can. the first few days I wasn't, I literally was just sleeping as much as possible, but then I was just kind of the little bit of partying I was doing. I was listening to my audio and I have an advance copy of. presume I could say it's a NetGalley, um, Catherine Ryan Howard's book that's coming out next year. And it's good. Yeah. excellent. Yeah. Really different. Very different. But the Oh. premise is great. Oh. Um, basically she, she kind of did it based off of, you know, the whole OJ Simpson case that like he wrote a book basically saying, like, I didn't do it, but if I was guilty, here's what would have happened, essentially. Um, so it's kind of from Great. that point of view of being the ghostwriter for someone who everyone assumes has done this horrific murder, but is claiming innocence. It's such an interesting idea, isn't it? Because, like, how Yeah. would you have all of these details? Hmm. Yeah, Suspicious. yeah, yeah. Um, so very good so far. About a third of the way into that, Anyway, how have you been? We're back to school. yes, back to school, back to work. First time working with two babies at home. And it is busy. Like really, really busy is, um, it's it's an adjustment for sure. But look. It's nice to get back to a bit of routine to and, you know, go to the bathroom unaccompanied and, you know, like things like that. I appreciate those things in life. I have to say um, which I took for granted pre children. So. Yeah. No it's good. All good. I find though that I'm not having as much time to read whatsoever, which it did set a little bit of panic in me. Did set me off a small bit. I was like, oh my God, how am I going to read all of these books that I want to read and need to read? And journal. Like when you're not reading in the headspace for an audiobook Mhm. you know, you find it very hard to listen to it because I would have always listened to audiobooks in the car. But after the first week or so back, I was like, okay, I think I'm good now, and I'm getting I'm getting a fair bit listened to in the car on the way to and from work. So that's helping. Yeah. Yeah. I find it my commute actually it all. It's a bit like mood reading with me. It's mood listening. Some mornings all I want to do is listen to some serious tunes I'd be, I'd be buzzing on the way to work and then other mornings again, possibly depending on what I'm listening to, I'm like, as soon as I get into the car, I'm like, put on the audiobook. Um, Really? yeah, it is actually a mood thing with me. I'm like I would be quite musical but I never listen to music on the way to work. Ever. No, It's I. weird. I kind of feel like I need silence to like, gear myself up for the day and think through everything Yeah. that I need to do. Or else I'm listening to an audiobook or something. Or sometimes like affirmations to just kind of get my moods brighter and stuff. Yeah, I find that they help. but I actually find that that's what the music does for me. It so I guess it's kind of kind of the affirmation thing where I'm putting on something I know was going to put me in a good mood and set me up for the day. Yeah. Because not every audiobook I'm listening to is, um, is a vibe, Bright and shiny. is a vibe, basically. Yeah. Yeah, some of them would be a mood killer, you so than anything else. Yeah. Right. We're back. Let's delve into our summer reading. What were your favorite reads of the summer? Ah, yes. So like when you said that you were going to ask me this, I straight, straight away went to my story graph because my memory is horrendous. And I know I've read certain books, but like I could have read them in January, you know, for all I knew. Um, but there were five that stuck out to me. I promise I won't talk for any of them for any kind of extended period of time. So the first one that stood out for me was Richie Craven's spirit level. Um, which is a really, really unusual book. Um, it's kind of. There's magic in it. Um, it's about grief. A guy loses his friend, but then, um, the friend kind of comes back to him in spirit form where he imagines he's seeing the friend. Um, after the friend has passed away, and I kind of. I went into knowing that much, but that was about it, and I kind of expected it to be one thing. And then it took a whole other tone, which I really enjoyed as well. Um, but very Okay. different. Very, very funny. Very, very funny. Um, proper laugh out loud funny and parts. And Good. Yeah, yeah. For for a book that is ultimately about dealing with this unimaginable grief, like losing your best friend. So. it really was, like, very positive in parts and like, that's a very hard balance, I suppose, to get. Um, so that one like, that's that book is a contender for like my book of the year Oh. and it's a debut novel by him as well, which is amazing. Yeah, it was, it really, really just stuck with me as so enjoyable. And um, one that I would recommend, you know, to most people. Okay. The next one was picked by Catherine Chidgey, Yes. which is kind of a psychological thriller drama, family drama. It has a child as the narrator. So it's from their point of view, and that really adds an extra kind of element, an extra layer to the story and the, I suppose, the thriller, the psychological aspect of it, which is great. that was part of our Rebel Readers book club, wasn't Yes. it, And I actually have to hold my hands up and say that I had voted for the other book, and when this one won, I was like, oh, God, I really wanted to read the other book. And I was so engrossed in this. It is a fantastic Brilliant. Yeah. And the other book actually just honorable mention to that. I read it earlier in the year. It was Remarkable Creatures by Shelby Shelby Van Pelt. I listen to it in audio and that is absolutely brilliant Okay. as well. So either of those choices would have been, well, well worth it. Um, my next one was a non-fiction, and it's the History of Women in 101 Objects by Annabelle Hirsch. And basically it is what it says on the tin. It goes down through history and kind of prehistory and hand picks 101 different objects that kind of describe women and what they were going through at that historical period, how, you know, it might be an object that underscored a particularly important period in women's history, um, an item that was, you know, maybe championed by women or made for women, for example, specifically. And, you know, you can really hold it up as this really showcases our history. Um, and I suppose what I liked as well. So the author is German. It's a translated book. She does hold her hand up at the start and say, I am writing this from a particular lens as a woman, from a particular background of a particular age, from a particular racial group. You know, I am not by any means dismissing any, you know, any objects from any other place that are not mentioned here, Yeah. but just this is what is within the realm of my knowledge and my capability of including. So, you know, I suppose in a way, she's kind of excusing the fact that there were probably lots of things that she didn't include that could have, Yeah. um, from other areas around the world. But it's a fascinating, um, I actually listen to it and each chapter, which are all quite, you know, they're all quite short. They're all narrated by different women. Some of them are writers like Gillian Anderson, for example. The actress is I think Oh! she's the very first one. Um, there's different writers, different well-known women. Um. It's brilliant. Excellent on audio. And my last two then are the two romance books, but they were the end of two series that I really, really enjoyed. Um, the first one was Business Casual by BK Morrison, and the Love Light Farms series is just this gorgeous romance series set on a Christmas tree farm. There's four books in total. Um, and it's different friends and family members from within the group. Yeah. It's gorgeous. Like the first book is, um, she she. Stella. She takes over Christmas tree farm thinking this is going to be amazing. Um, and then, like, has to kind of find her way as a new business owner and in this kind of new place and then finds love while she's at it. But again, it's very funny and it's very sweet, a bit spicy as well, you know. Grant, uh, not too spicy, not too spicy. Um, so there's Dash and then the last one I actually have here, um, it is only and forever. It is the last in the Bergman series by Chloe Lees. Oh, you love that uh, like, this only came out recently and off, and it's one of those books that I absolutely loved it. Like it was as good as all the rest of them. There are seven in the series altogether about the Bergman brothers and sisters, but you almost didn't want to read it because it's over, you know, it's all around you. I kind of had more books, so it was lovely. But what I want to show you is I got the Lumix Special Edition set of them, and, Mhm. You can see if you can see that there the edges are sprayed. That is brilliant. the family, That is amazing. family have this A-frame house, this wooden A-frame house in Washington, I think I know, like, it's kind of a they got holidays there. Some of them end up living there, things like this. And that's what the picture is of. But hilariously, I remember when I was reading the the A-frame was mentioned so many times and I ended up having to look it up. Now it's quite obvious when you see it. It's literally in a frame to the house, but I wasn't quite sure because, I mean, you Yeah. don't have houses like that here in Ireland. Um, well, not really. And I had those set up to take a little video yesterday and my seven year old comes in. He was like, oh wow, an A-frame. That's really cool. Plus. I was like, how? How do you know what that is, John? Yeah, he knew what the house was. Yeah, that was my other notable one. Um, because I, I really love the book anyway, but also because it finished out probably one of my probably my favorite romance series ever. So that is five. And yeah, it was it was a good it was a really good summer of reading. I read a lot of, um, a lot of romance, but lots of other really good bits and pieces. But if if I had to narrow it they would be the ones that I would go What about you, Um, for me. So I think there was one book that is a stand out book that I absolutely adored, and it's You Are Here by David Nicholls. Um, it's a really, really beautiful book about my favourite genre in the world, which we have established is not really a genre, but it's about going on a walk. And I if anybody follows me on Instagram and reads my posts, they're going to be like, this one is obsessed with walking. Like, I don't get to go for walks very often anymore, but I love when they go on and they find out something about themselves or whatever, and it's just kind of taken. It's kind of taken over. I'm like, I need to find all these books that are about walks and I need to read them all. yeah. And that is what this is developing, too. anyway, David Nicholls, who also wrote One Day, which is recently adapted into a it's really good. It is about two people, Marnie and Michael, and they're kind of forced together when a mutual friend of theirs, Cleo, decides that they're all going to go on a big walk, which is something that Michael enjoys doing all the time because he is a divorced. Or separated geography teacher. So he loves to know the natural landscape and stuff, and he used to set out at the weekends on his own for a walk, for a bit of head space, and she was like, we'll come with you. She's kind of an interfering friend. Um, and she was bringing people that she thought he might gel with, and then she was bringing someone that she thought Monet might gel with. No. Monet is a divorced woman who started self-isolating during Covid and working from home during Covid, and basically never changed that pattern of behavior. So is quite hermit like, Okay. in a way. And yeah, they end up being the only two people left on this walk and their friendship and everything that they go through is it just will warm your heart and soul. I just think it was the nicest book I've read in a very long it's beautiful, really, really beautiful. So that would be one of mine. And then I think Dominoes by Phoebe Mackintosh. Did you read this? I did, I did, yeah. Really enjoyed this as well. Yeah. I thought that that was a brilliant read. I didn't know what I was getting into when I read it. It was just that I saw Chloe Nurse Fancy Pants mention it, that it was an underrated or an under what's the word under hyped book on bookstagram? And I was like, I'm going to give this a read because, you know, usually those books are quite good. And it was fantastic. Really, really good. So Dominos is about a girl, Layla. She's a mixed race 29 year old and she's about to marry the love of her life, Andy. But they both have the same surname, and her best friend is a little bit suspicious and kind of tells her to look further into it. And she does. And potentially down the line. There might have been a connection of a racist manner between the two, the two families. So she explores all of this and goes back to her roots. And it's just it's really interesting. I really liked the way that is. Took something that is a big movement, you know, Black Lives Matter, but made us. Made me understand it in ways that I possibly didn't look at it before. Um, so I really enjoyed that about that one. There was a lot to learn from that book as well. Yeah. Yeah, there was and I think, you know, Layla, it mentioned at times that, you know, she, she pretended that she was white and she got away with this and then that. She didn't take any notice of that until all of this kind of unfolded. And then suddenly she started feeling guilty about the fact that she could pass as being white, whereas her best friend still experienced an awful lot of racism because she had a darker skin tone. Um, and just the innocence behind, like, I think they went out once or twice and they weren't left in. And Layla was like, why? And then her friends Sarah or Sarah or whatever, it was like, just drop it, just leave it. So she wasn't actually subjected to the racist behavior that her best friend was, despite the fact that they both came from the same heritage and lineage and stuff. It was just. Yeah, I just thought it was. It was eye opening and quite educational as well. my third book then, and I'll leave it at. This is, um, someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara. Because I love Andrea. I'll read anything that that woman writes. And it is kind of a scary book in a sense. It's kind of about monsters for grownups as the way that I would look at it. So, like this thought that there could be someone in your attic, in your it really played on our childhood fears and brought them into adulthood and the psychological impact that that kind of a an anticipated. Monster can have on you. Um, so in this book a TikTok trend or an online trend where people are jumping out of the attics of people's houses, and it's all staged. But this woman finds her son telling her that there's someone living in their attic, and it just follows the progression of all of this. And then trying to figure it out, and they start kind of seeing things and being sent to videos and stuff, and it's just really, really creepy. I really liked it. I thought I had it sussed, I thought I knew who it was and then I didn't, and then it's it's just brilliant. I think that Andrea would always keep you guessing. She has a great talent for that. So, yeah, really enjoyed us. I was the same. I thought I knew what was going on, why things were happening, or who was doing whatever and Yeah, not. I didn't I thought it was very, very good. I didn't. Um, and you know what? I love Andrea's rating. I adore it, but the one issue that I have is that they are so addictive, her books that the book is released, you get it or like on a pre-order or on release day or whatever. And then you sit down and you have it read in less than 24 hours, and then we have to wait a whole year for the next one. And I'm like, oh, Yeah. I just have to devour them because there's no way that you could put this book down and come back to it and read a small bit tomorrow and then a small, but the next day it's just impossible. And actually something we should ask. The next author we speak to is like, obviously they spend so long writing, Mhm. you know, like we know from talking to, you know, any of the authors that they spend a certain amount of time doing their writing. And then there's edits and then there's copy edits and like, there's so much before the book ever gets to us. Would they prefer us to, like, devour it in a day, having, you know, considering they have Mhm. spent the best part Yeah. of a year, probably at least, you know, writing it or thinking about it for the most part. Or would they prefer us to kind take it in smaller chunks? I think myself as an aspiring author, and I say that with a bit of a bit of sarcasm there, even though I would obviously love to write a book someday, and I have started, I'm working away, and I think that I would love for someone to for a book to be unputdownable, because I think it's a sign of a great writer. That's kind of what you want. Right? So. Yeah. Will I ever get there? I don't know, we should see. Yeah. my question for you is what book slash books are you really, really looking forward to reading this autumn? rice, I have two that come to mind straightaway. The first one is a young adult book. I started a book club in school this year. Um, and we all voted on our first book on Friday at our first meeting. And it is called Cinderella is Dead. Have you heard of us? I something's ringing a bell, but I'm not I'm not sure what it is or what it's about. Yes. It looks really good. And to be fair, one of the students that joined the book club was saying that she's already read it, but she was like, oh, you will read that book again. She was like, that is an excellent book. So this is the cover. If I can just zoom in slightly Oh, I have, I have seen that. Yeah. Yeah. So it was Fiona who we interviewed last season, Leaf and Barrow, that recommended this, because I just went in and I asked her what books would you recommend for, um, a kind of a teenagers book club. And this was one of the ones that she picked And it actually fits one of our prompts for our reading challenge for 2024. It is, um. a fairy tale and or a retelling of a fairy tale. So obviously it's about Cinderella, and the whole idea behind it is that 200 years after Cinderella met the Prince, and but the fairy tale is over. So this is the blurb? No, I thought it was a brilliant blurb. I was like, oh, you want to read that book? Teen girls are now required to appear at the annual ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girls display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again. 16 year old Sophia would much rather marry Aaron, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee and finds herself hiding in Cinderella's mausoleum. There she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her stepsisters. Together, they vow to bring down the king once and for all, and in the process, they learn that there's more to Cinderella story than they ever knew. fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they've been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them. That sounds fantastic. Like I recognize the cover, but I don't think I'd ever actually looked at what it was Yeah. about. It sounds brilliant. I would totally read that as well. Can I join your book club? can. Yeah, yeah, that would be my first one and I'm really looking forward to that. But I don't think I'd be reading that until the end of October, maybe just before mid-term break, so that I keep it fresh in my mind. Um, but I really want to read it, and I like it just it's one that I'd say you'd fly through. And then the second book that I am looking forward to reading is another one that was given to me by my friend Fiona. And guess what it's about? Walks. Yes, it's called a walk in the woods. She was like, I think you'll really like this. And I read the blurb at the back and I think I'm gonna love it. You're laughing at me. Well, no, no, I'm, I'm actually laughing I just. because I, I know like for me, any book that has the mention of book bookshop library in the title, I'm like, I just want to read it. I don't care what it's about. I want to read it. So I guess it's that's what I'm laughing at. I'm like, that's your that's your to my thing. So I get it. Yeah. Like it just. I feel like a bit of a fraud because I don't go on big long hikes and stuff anymore. You know, I've done a couple and I've loved them. And I love being outside, I love nature, I love camping, I love all that kind of crack. Um, but I think I've always wanted to do the communal. Okay. I would love to walk the Camino. So I think that by reading about other people doing these kind of pilgrimage type walks kind of fills that void for me, because there's no way I'm going to be doing the Camino in the next like 5 or 6 years. another chapter does the Camino. Next Yeah. summer. Somewhere after. So this one is by Bill Bryson and it is about the longest continuous footpath in the world, The Appalachian Trail stretches across the east coast of the United States from Georgia to Maine. So, yeah, they set off on a hike on that trail and it just looks really good. It's also been made into a film which I had never heard of. Um, but I will be watching I read it. So that is another one that I'm looking forward to. Um, and I think there's one more, if you don't mind me. Yeah. Work away. The third book is one that was all over my bookstagram feed last, like September, October, and I didn't read it and I wanted to read a an autumnal book, the Pumpkin Spice Cafe. you read it? I haven't, but again I've heard of it. Yeah, it's just been everywhere. And I love Autumn. It's my favorite season and I just think it could be a nice, nice, happy read. Um, so yeah, they are my three that I will pick for my most anticipated reads of Autumn. Novus. Yeah. Very good. What about Um, I have two in particular. One is by an author who was our very first. Excuse me. Our very first read along book, Jodi Pickles new one. just look at the cover. Like, look at that cover. It is beautiful. That's on me. is gorgeous. And it was just. I actually didn't even realize this was coming out until relatively recently. Like in the last month or six weeks, I was online pre-ordering another book and it this happened to be under the pre-orders as well. Oh oh my god, pre-orders straight away. So I have that pre-orders. Um, but again, talking about like interesting blurbs the start of this one because I had no idea what it was about. Um, so it's called by any other name, and it is one of the greatest writers of all time isn't who we think it is. What if he isn't even a he? Step back 400 years and discover the female author who hid behind the mask of the man we know as William Shakespeare. So it says times, Elizabethan London, and modern day Manhattan. I suppose the similarities between both and kind of women's struggle to find their place in the world and so on. So I think Mhm. that sounds brilliant. And that's a relatively soon. And the second one is just out, and I actually started listening to it already. But I'm still going to include it is called The Glassmaker and it's by Tracy Chevalier Oh. of girl with a Party Ring fame. I love her writing. I love, love, love her writing. I would read anything she writes. So again, this was this was actually what I went on to pre-order. And then I saw the Jodi Picoult one. So this arrived in the last couple of days, but I was actually lucky enough to get an advance audio copy from NetGalley as well. So I'm listening to the audio and I have the book as well, but it is stunning. It's set in start. Well, sorry, it starts in Venice in 1486. Um, it's in Murano, the island of Murano that's famous for their Mhm. glassmaking. And, um, our main character is Ursula. So it's like, I thought it was Ursula for ages. And the audio, just as she was pronouncing it funny. But it's it's with the. No. So I, Arcilla Rosso and her place in the family of glass makers and how she kind of finds her really interesting about it is it basically time skips so our characters stay the exact same. And in their life only like is it I think four years or six years or eight years passes between each section. But it's like the way she describes it is like a stone skimming on the water. So the first stone starts in Venice in the 1400s. The next one is like in Venice, but it's like during the plague, which was like 1570s. So we still have our Russo family, but they've only aged like eight years. Um, but Okay. they're the Venice that they're living in, changes around them. So like Mhm. our main character and all the people she knows, only age, kind of a small bit as the story progresses, but the world around them changes. So I'm at the stage now where we're just after getting to to World War One Venice, I did not realize this was the case, Mhm. um, because literally I ordered this just based on the fact it was who it was writing Yeah. it, and I was listening. And next thing I mentioned like 1571 in the audio and I was like, oh, wait a second. I was like, this definitely was like, you know, the 1400s a while ago. Yeah. And I just go back. And then when the book came, I checked it as well. She explains it very well in the book, like basically the whole time is so fluid and. the setting is changing quite a lot, i.e. the time of the setting is changing or characters aren't changing that much is, I suppose, the way she kind of describes it. Um, but it's really interesting. And obviously it looks at then how, a woman's role in a family like this kind of changes down throughout history and how different events outside of our control, Mhm. the events of the wider world, can have an impact on our, you know, our small family circle as well. Okay. So it's very an all based around the concept of glass making. And Chevalier does that really well. Mhm. The girl with Pearl earring was about Rembrandt and a particular painting of was another one about, um, a woman who found fossils on the beach, like on the coast of England. We had one of a kind of stitch working and, like, making the sea, like the cushions and things for churches Like embroidery or something. embroidery actually is probably what I'm trying to say, but she takes, yeah, she takes these topics and like, she, she goes into so much gorgeous detail, but not in a really overwhelming way, in a way that you can really feel like you, you understand what she's describing. And it just she does a really beautifully. Yeah. So I love I love how she writes. So she takes one art form to inspire another essentially. Pretty much. Yeah, yeah, that's actually a lovely way of putting it. Yeah. Like, the most of her books revolve around an art form. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, that whole time jumping thing there, I have to say, would I? I find that a little bit off putting. I'm looking forward to hearing what you. know, I'm really enjoying it. I think I make its own stranger than the way it's written. She does really, really Okay. well. Like, I suppose the best way to put it was like. Like what I said a while ago. It's just like the setting changes, Yeah. that's Yeah. all. But as well, like instead, instead of the setting being the place like which we would be quite used to like if we were reading a book normally and it went from Ireland to America to New Zealand, you'd be like, yeah, okay, okay, grand. But instead of it being the setting, place wise, it's just the setting time wise is what's changing. But Yeah. our characters stay the same, and it's how their lives evolve as the world around them is it it works a lot better than I make it to make No, it. So it's okay. to I be suppose honest. my brain is kind of going logically. That does not happen. So how could she make a book work that way? But as you say, like Chevalier is brilliant. Yeah, So I'd say she yeah. could take a piece of dirt and make a good like. I'd read it. I would read it. Um, so. Yeah, they, they were the two that I was most looking forward to. Mhm. And, and one has arrived already, which makes me very happy. But yeah, I that's am looking forward that's to it. the, to the picture book as well actually. Like that's, that's something that I think is going to be brilliant. I think Georgie Pickle was excellent. And then she kind of fell off my reader for a while. And then with my attorney I think that I was like, oh my God. Like amazing. So I am very much looking forward to picking Yeah. up a new release by her again, um, and see how that goes. But it's a very interesting concept too, because so many ideas. I was actually watching something recently and they were saying, like so many inventions were originally invented by women who weren't being given the credit for it because a man put his name to it or whatever, like they weren't taken seriously. And got all the credit for it. And even with teaching like when I, when I teach it's where to leaving starts or Like I do when, when I be doing the background kind of of him. I do bring up the fact that some of his work is a lot of his work is disputed. Like, you know, many historians will argue that he wasn't, in fact, the author of all or certain pieces of his work and why they think that and how it's hard to know. Um, and, you know, just adds to, I suppose, the kind of the intrigue about Mhm. his work and so on. So it's like it's not a new concept, but I love I love the angle she's taking on it. Yeah. I like how both your, your most anticipated reads are both an exploration of gender I yeah, and actually which it was, it is. was only Yeah. when I That's was talking interesting. about the, um, the Tracy Chevalier one that I realized that, as well, so totally unintentional because as I said, I hadn't a notion what the Tracy Chevalier one was about, except the fact that it was about someone making glass and obviously we have our September reach, which looks really good as Yes, All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker, and I've started it. I'm about 30 chapters in and it is really, really good. I think that I wasn't sure I've never read any of his books this one is about a missing child, and I just think that I was kind of going, oh, God, I don't know, Will I, I wanted to read this, but I was like, I don't know, will I enjoy reading it? Um, but there's there's a couple of like, I'm going to say red herrings because I don't know whether they're true or Okay. not as of yet that have kind of been scattered in so far. Um, and I am like, ooh. Hmm. Is anyone going to take that seriously? I'm looking forward to to seeing where this goes. Yeah. Have you started I it? haven't no, I have it I have it on audio already to go. Um, I also got the e-book of us because it was an offer there in the last week or so. Um, so I'm all I'm all geared up to go, but like that, I have a couple of books kind of on the go at the moment that I am actively trying to get through. Will I call out the blurb for anyone that maybe hasn't heard of it? Um. a missing persons mystery, a serial killer thriller, and an epic love story with a unique twist on Late one summer, the town of Montclair is shattered by the abduction of local teenager Joseph Macaulay. Nobody more so than Saint Browne, who was broken by her best friend's disappearance. Soon she will eat, sleep, breathe, only to find him. But when she does, it will break her heart. Patch lives in a pitch black room, all alone for days or maybe weeks, until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace, and though they cannot see each other, she takes them from the darkness and paints their world with her words. In this hopeless place they fall in love. But when he escapes, there is no sign she ever even existed. To find her again, patch charts an epic search across the country to set him free. Saint will shadow his journey on a darker path to hunt down the man who took them. Even if finding the truth means losing each other forever. Oh, I hadn't read the blurb. hadn't you. No, I go in blind. I try to go in blind as much as I can with these, with our reading books. Oh yeah. So Yeah. I had no idea It sounds like it's going to be fantastic, sorry if I've ruined anything for for you now. No, I assumed not you had. at all. Sorry. this one, I've just seen a load online. Most people saying like, it's amazing. I know some people are like saying, you know, potential book of the year already. And then other like there Yeah. was a handful of people saying that it was it was grand, but it wasn't like mind blowing. be interesting to see what side we kind of fall on with it. But you, interested so far Yeah I am, I am someone that I know said that they absolutely adored it. And then someone had said that it was grand. It was okay. Like, no, it is fine, you know. So I'm. And she didn't say anymore because she didn't want me to be biased going into yeah, it's all fair, I am in, I am like how it has started and it kind of it's kind of started with, from the child's perspective, I think as well, like what you were saying about you know, her, her friend has gone missing and she's begging people to help her, and they're kind of like, let it go. Let the grown ups deal with this. Um, So, yeah, it would be. It would be good, I'd say. Yeah. good. So we are going to be chatting about that on Friday the 27th of the month. if people start by the 19th, Mhm. that gives them a week. And we have done a nice little handy breakdown of how much you need to read per day. The chapters are very short, aren't they? Yes they are and I because when you sent the schedule to me Rebecca made the schedule. I was like 30 chapters in a day. I was going oh my God I wouldn't be able to read 30 chapters in a day now. Um, but they're they're quite quick, so. Yeah, you'd fly through it and, and it is one that I think will keep you turning the pages anyway. And we have a lovely giveaway happening at the moment. It'll be over by the time this comes out, but someone will have one themselves, a copy of the book, and it's a fine big book to win, to be fair. Yeah. Congrats to our winner, whoever you yeah. So on that note, we'd like to thank everybody for for listening in to our first full episode back. And we're very excited for what season three has in store for us, and hopefully for you . Slán.