462. An AMA with AMAnda and Sarah, Part the First!

[music]

Sarah Wendell: Hi there. Thank you for inviting me into your eardrums. I’m Sarah Wendell, and this is episode number 462 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I asked the Patreon community what they would like to ask Amanda and me, and I got some really thoughtful and fun questions. So this is part one of the AMA with Amanda and Sarah, and we’re going to talk about astrology, apps, allergies, and all of the book recs. If you like hanging out while we chat, this episode is for you. Thank you to everyone in the Patreon community for their questions.

If you would like to join the Patreon community, do you know where to go? I bet you do: patreon.com/SmartBitches.

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I love doing these episodes, and I love hearing all of your questions, and I most of all really love talking to Amanda, so I hope you enjoy this. Please note we talk about so many things, and I will link to everything: apps, poems, episodes, reviews, commentary, Rec Leagues. We talk about so many things, I link to all of them in the show notes, and you know where to find them, right? Smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast?

But now, let’s get on with this episode: on with me and Amanda answering all of your questions. Well, half of them. There’s a part two coming. Let’s do this podcast.

[music]

Sarah: I have added some sounds to this recording. I have a full sound bar here.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: Yeah. So. All right, are you ready?

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: All right, first question is from Sue.

Amanda: [Yells] Sue!

Sarah: Sue!

Hi, guys! Miss you! How are you doing? Like, really: how are you doing?

Amanda: Well, I don’t know if Sarah left it in, but we’re going on day six of me having spring allergies or, like, pollen allergies. So you can’t see my face, but my eyes are puffy and very dry; my nose is a little red. I bought tissues in bulk, and I’ve already gone through two boxes.

Sarah: Yep. Your hair looks great, though.

Amanda: Thank you!

Sarah: Super wavy.

Amanda: Thank you. But it’s, it’s bad, and, like, I don’t know if any of you readers have spring allergies, but it just, like, consumes your entire body.

Sarah: Yeah, there’s, you can’t avoid it.

Amanda: And, like, I feel like I can’t do anything to, like, full capacity. Like, I’m, I’m operating at like fifty percent capacity right now.

Sarah: Ugh, I hate that feeling too.

Amanda: It is so bad. You’ll probably hear me, like, sniffling and – [sniffles] – sound congested. It’s – I keep waking up in the middle of the night ‘cause my inner ears, like, itch so badly? And it’s like, I would just love the sweet release of death at this point –

Sarah: Ohhh!

Amanda: – just so the allergies stop.

Sarah: Are you able to sleep?

Amanda: No!

Sarah: Oh no! Sleep is the –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – sleep is the most important thing!

Amanda: No, sleep has been –

Sarah: If you’re me.

Amanda: – really bad.

Sarah: Oh, I’m sorry! That sucks!

Amanda: So how I’m doing is terrible. Maybe when this airs, the allergies will have passed, but for right now, I’m knee-deep in it.

Sarah: [Laughs] I’m sorry!

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: That stinks. As for me, I am two weeks past my second dose, so I’m, like, past my free-and-clear inoculation day, and the next day I went out and got all my hair cut off, so I now have short hair again.

Amanda: You did! I’m looking right at it!

Sarah: Yep! I’ve got short hair again, and it’s really weird because I feel like I’m at a place – ‘cause, you know, what’s the good about thinking about things if you can’t overthink about things, right?

Amanda: Story of my life.

Sarah: Right? Exactly. So –

Amanda: There is no thinking; it just goes straight to overthinking.

Sarah: Yeah, just straight to overthinking. So I realized that one of the questions that I’ve said before on the podcast about the Quarantimes was, you know, who am I when no one is looking at me? What are the things I actually care about, and what are the things where I’m like, fuck it, I don’t care? And how do I want to be when it’s just me and my family, and how do I want to be when I’m out in the world doing things? And if there’s a distance between those two things, what are the things that I actually care about?

So when I was, like, free to do whatever I needed to do ‘cause I had received my immunization, I was like, oh, okay, well, what are the things I want to add back that I haven’t been doing for the past year and a half? And the first one was, I want to get a haircut. I, I don’t like having my hair in my face. I like the part where I took –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – really good care of my hair, and I’m still doing that. Like, I’m still using conditioner to wash, and I’m using product to take care of my hair because it’s, it’s a totally different texture and I’m still learning how to, like –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – deal with it. But there’s like ninety percent less of it? Like, giant piles of hair all over the floor yesterday; it was really cathartic. That part I’m like, okay, this –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – I want to add back. I want to add back getting my hair cut. I want to add back, you know, getting my eyebrows waxed, or things that make me feel good.

But some shit I’m like, yeah, I cannot be arsed, and I’m, I’m slowly making a list of things that I give a shit about and things that I, I cannot be, cannot be arsed to do it.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: So otherwise, I’m pretty good. It’s Friday. Friday’s always takeout night. My older son is back in in-person school, but he was scheduled to go – I don’t know if I told you this – he was scheduled to go every other week. They divided –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – the students in half, and he’s, you know, we’re last name W, so he was in group two, obvs, and one of his friends got permission to come every week, and so we emailed the school and, and said, if the total number of people in the building accommodates one more every week, it would be really great for him to be able to come every week, and they were like, okay, sure. If it’s going to help him out, we’ll make, we have room, we’ll make space; he can come every week. He –

Amanda: Oh, that’s great!

Sarah: – he’s so much happier. He’s so much happier. Like –

Amanda: He enjoys being around people; I don’t get it.

Sarah: I, I don’t, I don’t understand that part either, but I think what it is –

Amanda: I don’t get it.

Sarah: – is that he is around his music friends, and he’s playing music with other people, and that is refilling his sort of internal well?

Amanda: Is, is Adam a social one? Do you think –

Sarah: Adam is a bit of an omnivert, but he’s very content being by himself or just with us.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: I think for, for Alex, being able to play music with his friends has been refilling his well. It’s like the difference between a slow phone charger and a fast phone charger? It’s a much faster –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – recharge for his mental health? And he’s been more active in asking for things like, this fall, can I start private lessons so I can start working on my college applications for music school? And I was like, whoa! A year ago we were having –

Amanda: Is he going to go to Berklee?

Sarah: I don’t know! It’s one of the schools he’s looking at!

Amanda: If I’m still here, happy to show him around if he comes to Berklee!

Sarah: All right! All right, cool!

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: He’s, he’s looking at programs with a low brass or jazz program, because trombone is low brass.

Amanda: I don’t know anything about Berklee, aside from it’s –

Sarah: Really good.

Amanda: – the college of music.

Sarah: Now, I have told him that he should go to the University of Colorado, but this is very selfish. They have a great brass program, and they have a great music school –

Amanda: But you want to go visit him in Colorado.

Sarah: That is correct.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: I have no, no compunction about being selfish about this. Like, Colorado has a really good program and, you know, we’ll just send you with your snowboard and everything, and then, you know, we can come visit. You can pretend like you don’t know me. It’s fine.

Oh my gosh, yesterday he came home and was like, um, Mom? I, I kind of told my friends about your Twitch channel? And I was like, okay? He’s like, so, you know, you might have some of my friends in the chat, and I was like, oh, that’s awesome! Which ones?

Amanda: That’s great!

Sarah: [Laughs] So apparently – I had forgotten about this – I had cursed creatively at a driver who cut me off when I was driving him and his friends from school to an event? And apparently –

Amanda: And that’s what your, that’s what his friends remember about you.

Sarah: That’s what they remember about me, and they’re like, oh my God, your mom’s so inappropriate and funny; her Twitch stream must be great!

[Laughter]

Sarah: I’m like, I’m really sorry; it’s super not!

Amanda: I hope they tune in on Sunday, though!

Sarah: I know! Yeah! New game! Dead –

Amanda: I downloaded it! It’s on sale!

Sarah: Oh, fabulous! I’m going to download it today.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Let me add that to my list of things to do.

Amanda: It’s like twelve bucks instead of twenty, so –

Sarah: Oh, hell yeah! All right: download game. All right.

Amanda: Yeah. For anyone who doesn’t know, Sarah and I stream, usually Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings.

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: We play, so far we’ve been playing a lot of, like, interactive audience –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – participation games.

Sarah: ‘Cause we have really nice subscribers. Like, I’m not surprised that we have nice subscribers, but our subscribers, even the people who just drop in, like, they’re really nice people, and they just want to play games and hang out!

Amanda: Yeah! And then some, like Malaraa –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – shout out to Malaraa if they’re listening – who visits Sarah’s and my stream, Malaraa will come and hang out in my stream when I stream with my friends –

Sarah: Awesome!

Amanda: – and Malaraa’s in our Discord and –

Sarah: Awesome!

Amanda: – showed us her crochet project that she’s been working on? It’s like this gorgeous, like, blue shawl.

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda: So it’s been really fun!

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: Also, like, I miss traveling. Like, I, going to Florida’s different, but, like, at the store, I unpacked or, like, received a bunch of, like, travel guides –

Sarah: Yeah?

Amanda: – to, like, Europe –

Sarah: Yeah?

Amanda: – and just, like, holding them in my hands, like, fuck! I, I don’t want to be here!

Sarah: [Laughs] I know!

Amanda: But my brother will be back in Germany at the end of the summer. So –

Sarah: So you can go visit him!

Amanda: Yeah, I can go visit him!

Sarah: Yay!

Amanda: So, like, you know, that can’t come soon enough.

Sarah: All right, next question, next part of Sue’s question?

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: All right! Wait, do you need a laugh?

Amanda: [Laughs] A laugh track?

[Duck Tales theme plays]

Amanda: Aw! [Laughs] Did you see? Did you see the person who tweeted at us with the fish and the tube?

Sarah: [Laughs] Yes! [Sings along with theme music]

Amanda, Sarah, and theme music: Woohoo!

Sarah: [Laughs] So Sue’s, second part of Sue’s question is –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – this is such an interesting question for me.

Astrology: yay or nay? How deeply into the woo-woo –

Amanda: Sue mentioned this in a comment, and I, like, I didn’t even, when I looked at the document, I didn’t even look at who wrote this question, and I immediately knew.

Sarah: It was Sue?

Amanda: I was like, this is a Sue question!

Sarah: I love this.

How deeply into the woo-woo are you? This is kind of a loaded question since I already know Amanda’s into it at least for the memes. Do your views on astrology align with believing/not believing in ghosts and spirituality and religion? Have any astrology books you might recommend?

So I want to tell you something.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: So you have one app; I have a different app –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – that I just downloaded for fun, and now it is one of my favorite parts of my morning.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Like, I do my language lesson, and then I get to look at my astrology? So it’s called Sanctuary –

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – and I’ll show you. It looks like a little text conversation?

Amanda: Ooh!

Sarah: So then it’s like, okay, give me my, my rising sign, give me my star sign, or give me my sun sign, and then it –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – pulls a Tarot card for you and tells you about –

Amanda: Oh, that’s kind of neat!

Sarah: Yeah, and then there’s, like, a little GIF, and then, like, okay, so here’s what you need to know. We’ll see you back here tomorrow! And they do a monthly report!

Amanda: That’s neat! I might download that one.

Sarah: It’s –

Amanda: That one sounds fun.

Sarah: It’s really fun, but I’ve also noticed – you know, ‘cause there’s always the, the very large critical part of my brain – I notice –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – when I look at the interactions on the text app?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Like, this could apply to anyone and anything. Like, the sun –

Amanda: Oh yeah.

Sarah: – has moved into this, so you should feel this with your career, and I’m like, okay. But then this, this sort of, I don’t want to call it subtext, but the subliminal positivity of all of these little messages of evolving and confidence and change and ev-, evolving as a, in this department or in that –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – that makes me feel really happy? Like something’s working for me? But then, but then I read my May report, and then I remembered something about how it said about a specific date in May on which Mercury is going into retrograde, and you shouldn’t make any major changes to your appearance or yourself in, for about three and a half weeks because of that retrograde? [Laughs] So yesterday I was like, shit, I better get my hair cut before that date! And I looked; it’s next Friday, it’s my anniversary, Mercury’s going into retrograde, so I got my –

Amanda: Oh boy.

Sarah: – [laughs] – I got my hair cut before the retrograde –

Amanda: Just in case!

Sarah: – just in case! I was so amused at myself, but yet I got a good haircut, so I’m pretty happy about it.

Amanda: I like, for astrology it’s like, in my brain – I was starting to tell my friend, like, why I like it – it’s real, but it’s fake. You know, like, it –

Sarah: It’s like celebrity. The, the, the science of astrology and the history of astrology and the idea that there are stars and zodiacs and everything, that’s real. The, the, the narratives that come out of it, that’s what, that’s what’s being embellished. Like, celebrities –

Amanda: And that’s like –

Sarah: – are real human beings, but the stories about them are all embellishment.

Amanda: And it’s like, what, was it, like, Tinkerbell? You have to, like, believe in her for her to exist? It’s like one of those things where you put, like, the stock you want into it, right? Like, it’s only as good –

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: – as you believe it to be. But I will tell everyone, I will put Sue on blast and tell everyone what prompted this question.

Sarah: Oh no!

Amanda: So I follow a lot of, like, astrology meme accounts and astrology accounts on Instagram, and this is from the Co – Star Astrology account, and that’s the app I have.

Sarah: Oh!

Amanda: And they’ll –

Sarah: I want to hear about this app!

Amanda: – they’ll have, like, a prompt that says, like, you’re not alone; you’re just _____, and it’ll list, you know, for each zodiac signs. And so I’m an Aries, that’s my sun sign. It’s like, you’re not alone; you’re just intentionally investing in unavailable people.

Sarah: Ouch!

Amanda: And I, like, wrote the caption that’s like, I feel attacked!

Sarah: Ouch!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Ouch!

Amanda: Because currently that is true!

Sarah: So story checks out is what you’re saying here.

Amanda: Yeah. But Sue saw, and so, like, we started talking back and forth, and I think Sue said they were a Leo, and she’s like, apparently, according to, like, my astrology chart, I’m supposed to surround myself with Aries. And she’s like, this explains so much! I was like, we’re made for each other, Sue!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: We might disagree, but we are made for each other!

I buy into a lot of the, like, traits? So, like, my, my natal chart – so my sun sign is in Aries, my moon is Libra, and my rising sign is Sagittarius.

Sarah: That’s really funny. My sun is in Gemini, my moon is in Leo, and my rising is Libra.

Amanda: Okay. So, like, Ar-, according to Co – Star – we’re reading this out – you know, Aries, I’m assertive, fiercely independent –

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: – naturally competitive.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: That’s all very true.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: My Libra moon: relationship-oriented, a little self-obsessed – which, admittedly, sure –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – but I tend to hide my feelings and needs in an effort to people-please, which is also true. And then my rising Sagittarius sign is I come across as independent and confident, but sometimes I’m overly critical, which is also true. And I’m a charming conversationalist!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: It’s also true! [Laughs] Like, this is all very, like, broad and vague and yada-yada-yada.

Sarah: Mm-hmm. But sometimes I think an app telling you – or just a, anything, including a, a, a quiz or a, one of those personal assessment type indicators for corporate development; like, all of that –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – sometimes it’s like editing, right? You can’t edit a blank page, but you can look at something that’s been written and be like, I know how to fix this. I know –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – this is good and this needs to change. I think being told, okay, well, this is what your answers indicate you might be like, or these are your tendencies, it’s a little easier to be like, yeah, no, that doesn’t check out, or, oh, yeah, that does check out, and I don’t like that, and I want to change it. Being told –

Amanda: Yeah, like –

Sarah: – helps you identify, yes, this is, this is me, and also, oh yeah, that is, that is me, and I need to do something about it.

Amanda: I would never, like, blame my bad behaviors, like, on my zodiac sign, you know what I mean?

Sarah: No.

Amanda: Like, I know some people who are like, I’m just a whatever, but it –

Sarah: I’m like, no, that means you’re just an asshole.

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: Like, no zodiac, there’s no zodiac sign that’s like, I’m sorry, unilateral asshole: that’s what you are.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: You’re just a giant sphincter. A terrible, terrible sphincter-human.

Amanda: But there was this, like, TikTok series, it’s like People as Zodiac Signs, and, like, one, one was the Aries one, which I remember was like, oh my God, I was such an Aries this weekend? I physically fought a barista to death. And, like –

[Laughter]

Amanda: And there are, like, there’s another one, it’s like, Casey over there is a Libra, and the person is like, wait a minute, that’s a vacuum. Like, yeah, and she’s a Libra.

[More laughter]

Sarah: I am a Gemini, and there are a lot of Gemini traits that fit me: communication, focus. Like, my app will tell me that on a good day Geminis are caring, patient, compassionate, thoughtful, and loyal, and on a bad day we are insecure, suspicious, pessimistic, and touchy. Can confirm!

Amanda: You do have that rattlesnake vibe.

Sarah: I, I – mm, somebody sets off the rattlesnake, we are done.

Amanda: Yeah. But, you know, I just think astrology’s fun. And I think, like, astrology memes are, like, a good way to poke fun at yourself.

Sarah: Yeah, they really are.

Amanda: And in terms of books, there, I used to, I used to follow Astrology Poets, I think is what it’s called?

Sarah: Oh, that’s cool!

Amanda: And they have a book now! Which is interesting. I mean, I prefer to, like, digest astrology stuff in little, like, bits and bites, like with an app or with –

Sarah: Yeah! Like, even –

Amanda: – you know, like, memes. I don’t know if I’d commit to a whole book on astrology –

Sarah: So –

Amanda: – ‘cause to be honest, like –

Sarah: No.

Amanda: – no offense to the other signs, but I don’t give a shit. I just want to know about myself! [Laughs]

Sarah: So, wait, what was that about Aries being self-absorbed, right?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Was that – [laughs]

Amanda: Yeah! Like, I don’t care what Libras are about!

Sarah: Wait. So once upon a time there were these things called newspapers, and they would come to the house, and when I was growing up –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – we got one in the morning –

Amanda: Horoscopes!

Sarah: – and one in the evening, and my parents would read both of them! Because you didn’t have seven bazillion channels; you had like –

Amanda: No.

Sarah: – six channels; you had what was on. Maybe you know how to program the VCR –

Amanda: And certainly not a twenty-four-hour newsroom.

Sarah: – and definitely you had time to read the newspaper, ‘cause you got two of them every day. Every day.

So in the newspaper, if you think about it, the horoscopes were these little, itty-bitty things! If you didn’t have time to read and finish something, you had time to read and finish that –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – right? I got all excited about the ones on my birthday.

Amanda: I, like, even people, I feel like even people who don’t really believe it –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – still read it, ‘cause they’re just curious. They’re like –

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: – oh, I wonder what my horoscope’s going to say –

Sarah: Right, and it’s, it’s – [exhales] – it’s like I said: it’s easy to look at something and be like, yeah, that doesn’t fit me, or, oh, wait, that does, or that horrible –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – ooh, I feel attacked! feeling.

I don’t think, because, for Sue’s question about whether or not views on astrology align with believing/not believing in ghosts and spirituality and religion? So –

Amanda: I, yeah, I don’t know what corresponds to my sign for those things. I feel like I developed those opinions separate from my astrology sign.

Sarah: Well, I think what she’s asking is, do, does how you feel about astrology seem to fit with believing or not believing –

Amanda: Oh! Interesting.

Sarah: – in ghosts and in ideas about spirituality and ideas about religion.

So I think so, because I’m very comfortable in changing my belief systems, ‘cause I’ve done it multiple times.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: And also, I think it is – so with religion, I think it is the absolute height of hubris for any human to tell another human what happens after we’re dead?

Amanda: Oh yeah!

Sarah: No one knows.

Amanda: Or to think, like, their – well, that’s why I, like, I believe in aliens? Like, can you imagine the vastness of the universe, and us –

Sarah: And there’s no other thing.

Amanda: – us being the only ones? Like, come on! We’re not that special.

Sarah: It seems a little hubris, right? Right? Like, special –

Amanda: Yeah, sure, we had Keyboard Cat, but we’re not that special. Like –

[Laughter]

Sarah: We had a fish in a tube, and it was awesome!

[More laughter]

Amanda: But I would, like, I’m open; I believe in ghosts. In terms of, you know, religious systems and religious thought, I would say I’m an agnostic, you know? Like –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – I don’t really subscribe to one religion, but, like, I’d like to believe there’s some sort of –

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: – you know, higher power, whatever you’d want to call it, just because, like, I don’t want to be a complete pessimist about dying. But yeah, I think the, my belief in astrology, and I, I’d be curious to poll, like, have some sort of poll as, like, if you believe in astrology, do you also believe in ghosts or –

Sarah: Right.

Amanda: – like, you know, religion or –

Sarah: And it’s –

Amanda: I’d be curious to see a study on that.

Sarah: It’s interesting, ‘cause one of the things that has happened since both of my kids had their bar mitzvah was that they are more and more quest-, more, more and more comfortable questioning the idea of how to behave based on what somebody who is dead thinks you ought to have done, and they’re like, yeah, that’s bullshit. I’m like, okay!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: That’s fine! You, you are an adult now in Judaism; you get to decide what you think is true and make decisions accordingly. So if, I think that if you are the type of person who is flexible about, just open to the possibility that you might not know everything? Then sure, why not?

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: It could be true, could be crap, but, you know, it’s –

Amanda: That’s a hard pill for me to swallow, but –

Sarah: Yeah, yeah!

[Laughter]

Amanda: I’m self-obsessed in everything. I don’t know everything?

Sarah: Yeah. The longer I live, the more I realize I don’t know shit. I don’t have any astrology books to recommend, though.

Amanda: Yeah. I’m just –

Sarah: I like my app! It comes with so much text!

Amanda: Yeah! I mean, what I like about the app is you can kind of like just personalize it to the stuff that you just care about.

Sarah: Mm-hmm!

Amanda: And I think Co – Star, I don’t know about Sanctuary, but Co – Star lets you add friends? So, like, I’ve added Stephanie, my roommate, and it can kind of show you, like, how your signs are connected.

Sarah: Aw!

Amanda: You know, like what sorts of things you’ll have in common this week in terms of, like, experiences or feelings or whatever.

Sarah: That’s cute!

Amanda: So if you, if you want a more social aspect to your astrology, I really like Co – Star. And, you know, if anyone joins Co – Star, happy to be friends –

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: – on Co – Star.

Sarah: All right, we have a rec request before we do the ad.

Amanda: Yeah, I feel like they’re, the rest of the questions are all book-related.

Sarah: No, some of them are and some of them aren’t.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: But are you ready for a brief –

Amanda: Yeah. Yeahyeahyeah.

Sarah: Here’s a brief interstitial:

[Duck Tales theme plays]

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah and theme music: Woohoo!

Sarah: I hope everyone sings along when those play.

Amanda: Also, shout out to Jeff from, it was like the Big Gay Fiction Podcast, who commented on our theme song episode and was like, you should have a bracket competition for best theme song.

Sarah: Yes, Jeff is right about that.

Amanda: And I, I’m all for it, Jeff. I think that’s a wonderful idea, and I, I would love to challenge my Duck Tales to whatever contender you want to throw into the bracket.

Sarah: This is, this is a hard question.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: So this rec request is from Liz W. You want to read this one?

Amanda: Sure!

Sarah: Hit it!

Amanda: So Liz is looking for recommendations of historical, atmospheric romances with ghosts or paranormal elements.

I’m in love with Simone St. James, Susanna Kearsley, and K. J. Charles, and I’m so excited Gothic romances have been making a comeback. I can’t wait to read The Wife in the Attic by Rose Lerner, and any other authors I should check out.

Sarah: Gothics are definitely making a comeback, which is awesome, and when I had Rose Lerner on the podcast, she had all these really cool reasons why Gothics come back in popularity?

Amanda: And I think she also had some suggestions, too, like the –

Sarah: Yes! So we will link to that episode.

Amanda: The notes might be helpful.

Sarah: Yeah, so we’ll link to that episode, and I’m guessing you saw it, since, if you listen to the podcast, you might have seen that one –

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: – and you’re already looking forward to the book. I think my best recommendation would be Nicola Cornick, because she writes sort of, kind of like how Susanna Kearsley is an amalgamation of several themes and tropes. There’s almost always a Gothic element, and there’s also dual timelines and dual periods in history. Sometime there’s a, sometimes there’s a time travel portal; sometimes it’s people switching lives without realizing it. There’s lots of different themes, but they are all very Gothic in feel, similar to Kearsley and similar to Simone St. James. So my, my recommendation would be just about all of Nicola Cornick’s backlist of historical, Gothic fiction.

Amanda: So I had a, a, a few book-specific recommendations. So The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller.

Sarah: Good one.

Amanda: If I remember correctly, there aren’t any – I don’t want to, well, I’m going to spoil it; whatever – there aren’t any, like, real paranormal aspects, but the, the widow in question is renovating an old mansion and believes the house is haunted.

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: So, there is that, like, eerie vibe to it.

Sarah: And there’s that sense of, like, the, the uncertainty of a Gothic, where you don’t know if the, what is happening –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – to the narrator and what the narrator is reporting is actually happening, or if it’s being filtered through something that’s happening internal to them? That uncertainty –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – is definitely there.

Amanda: And then Best Laid Plaids by Ella Stainton: it’s 1920s Scotland, and, and it features kind of like a disgraced doctor who’s, like, ruined his career by believing that ghosts exists, ghosts exist. And then the other hero is like a, a veteran, I think a World War I veteran, who’s trying to finish, like, his thesis, and he’s doing it on, like, delusional thinking –

Sarah: Right.

Amanda: – and thinks the doctor in question would be a good subject, but – spoiler alert –

Sarah: Mm-mm!

Amanda: Well, it’s not a spoiler, ‘cause it’s in the, in the description – the veteran can also hear ghosts.

Sarah: Ohhh!

Amanda: So there is, like, a ghost-y aspect to it. And it was recommended to me, or it was recommended in general with my romance book club a couple months ago.

Sarah: Awesome!

Amanda: And then lastly –

Sarah: The title does not sound like a Gothic title.

Amanda: Best Laid Plaids! It’s a weird title and a weird cover, though it has a cute dog on the cover. It’s got like a, I think a Dalmatian. And a, a charming –

Sarah: I mean, that sounds –

Amanda: – man in a bespoke suit in front of an old-timey car.

And then another author I’d suggest, but it’s more Gothic than romance, but I think some of the books do have romantic subplots?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: But Hester Fox –

Sarah: Definitely.

Amanda: – who Elyse has read and reviewed on the site, exclusively does Gothic fiction –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – with romantic elements, but I wouldn’t say they’re Gothic romances. But they are very atmospheric.

Sarah: All right! We’ll have links to all of those in the show notes!

Amanda: Yeah, of course.

Sarah: So this next question is from Leanne H.

I’m a little late – never late – but one thing I admire a lot about the Smart Bitches and this podcast is how real you are.

Do you want to sneeze right now? On cue?

Amanda: [Sniffles] No.

Sarah: [Laughs]

You always acknowledge the realities of life, as opposed to perhaps pretending everything is perfect and fine all the time. Ha-ha. See other social media sometimes. So I’m wondering, how do you take care of yourselves when things are not great? This might be covering a lot of ground that you’ve already covered in past podcasts, but even little things like what you treat yourselves with when needed or how you monitor whether you are stressed or not would be interesting to hear about. But only if you feel comfortable. Thanks for all that you do, and looking forward to whatever questions you decide to answer.

I love this question, because we do talk a lot about what we do to take care of ourselves and what we do to deal with all of the minutia, but I will say, I have a –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – deep-seated, probably a trauma-response allergy to pretending things are fine when they are not.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: I, I, I am so low-bullshit on that. I really appreciate that Leanne noticed, and –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – thank you! What’s your answer for this one? Or do you want me to go first?

Amanda: So I’m, I’m a bath bitch. So I love taking long baths? And there’s just something very calming that I find is –

Sarah: [Laughs] I thought you said bass bitch, like –

Amanda: Bass bitch!

Sarah: – like, I was like, but you don’t like fish – what?

Amanda: [Laughs] I don’t eat fish.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: I didn’t say I would be eating the bass, I guess.

Sarah: True.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Could be one of those bass that sing on the wall. [Hums]

Amanda: My parents, of course, had one.

Sarah: Of course!

Amanda: But yeah, so I love taking long baths in very hot water; bath bombs; bringing, like, my iPad in there and just, like, watching stuff. Also love naps! I love a good nap; you know, like, I have, like, a, a very fancy, like, eye mask, like a, like a sleep mask that I’ll put on if I want to nap in the middle of the day.

Sarah: Is that the one –

Amanda: And then –

Sarah: – with the Bluetooth headphones?

Amanda: I do have that one. I have multiple eye masks. All right.

Sarah: See, this is, this is how you do it.

Amanda: [Laughs] But one thing lately that I’ve, is, like, very small, but it makes me feel very fancy, is when I make my iced coffee, I will, I have, like, a little, like, frother whisk.

Sarah: Aw!

Amanda: And just, like, frothing, like, milk and creamer to put in my coffee makes me, makes me happy and makes me feel fancy. So I feel like always, always baths and naps, but a, a new feel-good, treat-myself thing is, like, frothing milk and creamer for my coffee, which has been great.

Sarah: That’s excellent!

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: I am probably more attuned to how I’m feeling now after the great Quarantimes, and –

Amanda: Oh yeah.

Sarah: – I’m much more attuned to how I’m feeling and thinking about all of this because I’ve had to sit and think about my actions for a year. Like, okay, I’m about – wait, do I want to do this? Is this safe? And because everyone in my house went through feeling the Quarantimes on a different schedule, everyone’s coping mechanisms are, are, are different.

Mine are asking myself, is this actually important? Do you really need to do this? Why do you need to do this? Why do you think this is important? What if you didn’t? Like, if you really don’t want to do this, maybe there’s a reason if you’re, if you’re resisting, and when you take everything out of your day and you have like one or two things a day – [laughs] – like during the early part of the Quarantimes I was like, one thing a day! Which was work! There’s a lot more time to be like, do you really want to do this? No? So don’t do it!

One of the things that I read early on that really helped me out was from a Mary Oliver poem called “Wild Geese,” which I believe starts out, you don’t have to be perfect, which, yes, listening? What?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: But also there’s a line that says, you have only to let the soft animal of your body want what it wants. The process of saying to myself, you’re fine exactly the way you are; you are more than enough; you are good; you are doing everything; it’s okay; there’s nothing inherently wrong with you? Whenever I come up against that feeling and feel like arguing with it, then that’s something that I need to examine more, and I have more space for that. The world’s going to get a whole lot busier soon. I’m going to be, have less time for it.

So I think one thing I, one thing that I’ve started doing to take care of myself when things aren’t great is giving myself blanket permission to do whatever it is that I want to do, and including doing nothing at all.

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: It’s hard to do nothing.

Amanda: It is!

Sarah: Right? It’s very hard –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – to do nothing.

Amanda: Yeah, it is very hard.

Sarah: All right. Next question is from Jacquelyn, but first, Ian McKellen has something to say to you.

Amanda: Oh boy.

[Duck Tales theme, as spoken by “Ian McKellen”]

Sarah: That’s not actually Ian McKellen, but the impression is so good?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: I loaded it into the sound bar for you!

Amanda: So this one is from Jacquelyn, who wants recommendations for witchy, garden-y reads.

Sarah: Which is totally your jam, your street, and your house of wheels.

Amanda: Yes!

Trope flavor, all the tummy-flutter reads, and store-bought serotonin in book form, aka feel good, powerful and worth the journey. I recently really enjoyed The Intimacy Experiment, or experience? I can’t remember. What is it, Rosie Danan’s book?

Amanda: So I have a couple, obviously.

Sarah: Figured this is entirely your street.

Amanda: Yep. My first go-to book, and one of my all-time favorites – I think I wrote a Squee from the Keeper Shelf review of this one. It is a major comfort read: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. All of her books are kind of like witchy.

Sarah: And garden-y!

Amanda: And garden-y!

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: Witchy, garden-y, lots of good food, usually Southern settings. I usually describe it as like Practical Magic, but a little fluffier. You have, like, two estranged witchy sisters; it’s set in a small town in North Carolina; the –

Sarah: One is, one is escaping an abusive situation, right?

Amanda: Yes, with her, I can’t remember how old her daughter is, but she’s a single parent.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: One sister lives, the older one lives in North Carolina and is trying to get, like, her catering business off the ground –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – and then her sister comes back to town, escaping that relationship, and they’re kind of estranged. But the sisters and their aunts and their family are kind of town pariahs because everyone suspects that they’re witches, and they are. And, like, one sister, the older one, is, like, trying to, like, fit in to a small town that doesn’t really welcome her. And there is romance and lots of yummy food, because she’s a caterer, and she, like, infuses magic into her food and –

Sarah: Really.

Amanda: – it’s just so good and so lovely.

Sarah: When’s the last time you re-read that?

Amanda: I would say maybe last year I think I read it once, re-, reread it last year. And, like, Sarah Addison Allen hasn’t written anything in a long time, and there’s, like, this untitled book on Goodreads, and the release year is like 2055.

Sarah: Oh no!

Amanda: So I don’t know if we’ll ever get it, but, like, her books are very feel-good and, like, soft and warm, and it, it feels like reading a hug.

Sarah: They’re very atmospheric.

Amanda: Yes! Another one that I’d recommend that Sarah reviewed on the site, but I feel like every time I bring it up she has no clue what I’m talking about –

[Laughter]

Amanda: – but it’s called Spellbinding Love by Elizabeth Davis? It’s a third book in a series about witches, but you can read it out of order. All the witches are, like, I don’t want to say like small potatoes, but they’re not like Maleficent or, like, anything like that. They do, like, magic that is helpful!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: Helpful magic.

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: And in this one, the heroine’s a farm witch –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – so she uses her magic to help grow plants and stuff like that, and these are also pretty, like, low-stakes, low-angst romances. And I think they’re quick reads too.

And then for something that’s a little more emotional or angsty, as you said, powerful and worth the journey –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – Dana Marie Bell has a series called the Maggie’s Grove series, so it’s like a small-town paranormal romance. The first book is Blood of the Maple, and each book is a different couple, but one of the main, like, common themes or commonality between them is that a, a dryad – so, like, think of, like, a druid forest –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – creature, nymph – is always part of the romantic pairing. Sometimes it’s the hero, sometimes it’s the heroine, but they’re usually paired with, like, vampires or shifters or whatever. I think book two has, like, the mayor of the small town is a vampire, and it’s like a second-chance romance.

So those are my three, my three suggestions for, like, witchy, garden-y settings and characters.

Sarah: I was thinking in terms of witchy and garden-y, garden-y, the Lauren Dane series, Diablo Lake –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – would be a good fit, because that’s a magical town with lots of different kinds of witches and creatures, but the garden witches – like the heroine’s father is a, is a garden witch, and they are treated with an enormous amount of respect, and it’s very cool how – and there’s politics in the town, like actual, an election and everything – but how the magical politics and the sort of human-side politics influence the story is very subtle and interesting, but it would also be a good fit for witchy and garden-y.

“Ian McKellen”: Duck tales!

Amanda: [Laughs]

“Ian McKellen”: Woohoo!

Sarah: Did a lot of work before this episode cutting up files and loading them into the sound bar.

Amanda: Yeah, I can tell.

Sarah: I had a really good time.

Amanda: I can tell where your time went.

Sarah: I had a really good time! It took me like twenty minutes; I was having a blast.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: All right, so our last question for this episode – and we have more questions for a future episode – mm-mm! Our last question for this episode is from Lisa S.

This might be more difficult for you to do, but do you have any recommendations for romances with a dominant night setting?

Now, I will say I read that and I thought, dominant was the character and the night was, like, a creature? So it was like a BDSM series about creatures who were nights, but I didn’t know what nights were? And I stared at this sentence for a good thirty seconds before I realized that that was not what it was trying to say. And it’s kind of amazing that the word “dominant” makes me go, oh, BDSM romance and then –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – covers, and okay. So Lisa says:

I can barely find any, but bonus points if they aren’t paranormal or ghosts, as I’m looking more for people who just live most of their lives at night due to their work or naturally being night owls. A good example is Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie. They do the nighttime radio, a great sense of the nighttime feeling in that book.

Yes, it’s definitely, one of the best parts of that book is the feeling that you and the people who are listening to your radio show in the middle of the night are the only people who are awake, so you’re the only ones around? It’s like when you’re on Twitter at four in the morning, Eastern time –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – and –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – and all the west coasters are starting to go to bed, so it gets real quiet.

Also, Lisa wants to know what song, if any, is stuck in your head right now at the time of reporting the podcast.

Amanda: Well, because of Sarah, it’s “Duck Tales” now!

“Ian McKellen”: Duck tales! Woohoo!

Sarah: [Laughs] That’s my fault!

So let’s tackle the books thing, but I do want to say, for me, I don’t have a song stuck in my head right now, but that’s actually a good thing, ‘cause one of the symptoms of my anxiety acting up, for lack of a better word, is that I will get a song stuck in my head, and the volume is up, and I can’t turn it off, and then my thoughts get loud, so if I have a song stuck in my head at high volume and I cannot get it out, that is my first signal that I’m going to start having, like, a shitty anxiety day?

Amanda: Oh boy!

Sarah: Yeah, so that’s, that’s one of my symptoms, and the song will change? It’s sometimes just a piece of a song? I had this really weird conversation with my sister. My sister is six years younger than me, so we, we grew up like, she’s, she’s an older millennial, and I’m a younger Gen X, and our experiences coming into the world are so different with that six-year gap. But our anxiety is very similar, probably because our upbringing was in the same place with the same people, and they sucked. So –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: [Laughs] Our –

Amanda: I, I know that sibling relationship.

Sarah: Yeah, right? Like, oh, you have that too? Great.

So her anxiety and mine all, both start with songs. So a song will get stuck in your head, or a piece of a song, and then it poisons the song so that if I hear it I start to get anxious –

Amanda: What if the song is “Poison”?

Sarah: Right, what if this – well, then I’m totally –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Wait, which one?

Amanda: Oh, was it Bell Biv DeVoe? What if it’s “Poison”?

Sarah: Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Poison” or Poison, that metal band? ‘Cause it could be –

Amanda: I was thinking Bell Biv DeVoe “Poison.” “POISON!”

Sarah: – like, “Every Rose Has Its Thorns.” No, ‘cause that would just make me laugh!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: But, like, past anxiety songs have included a Niall Horan song that I heard on the radio and then lodged in my head –

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: – and I had bad anxiety.

Amanda: Emma would appreciate that as a One Direction-er.

Sarah: She’s a One Direction-er?

Amanda: Oh yeah.

Sarah: She’s a One-Dir-er?

Amanda: One, One D-er. I don’t know.

Sarah: One D-er. One-Dir-er.

Amanda: I don’t know. One-Dir-er.

Sarah: Who does she think is the cutest One Direction person?

Amanda: Who? I’m going to text her right now.

Sarah: Ask, ‘cause I’m curious.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: Another time it was the Back Street Boys? Sometime it’s a song I really don’t want to listen to, so, but when I have a song stuck in my head at high volume, that’s my signal that I need to back off of whatever I’m doing and get ready, ‘cause my anxiety’s going to be annoying for a day or two.

Amanda: There’s one song that keeps getting stuck in my head that is a nightmare.

Sarah: Oh no.

Amanda: And it’s not a song; it’s a jingle –

Sarah: Oh no! Those are the worst!

Amanda: – from a commercial.

Sarah: Those are the worst!

Amanda: Emma and I, and my dad, when I went down – this is indicative, first of all, of my parents. So there’s this new Allstate commercial where this guy sings a song with his hood ornament, and it is catchy, but it is terrible, and the commercial is fucking creepy.

Sarah: Oh no.

Amanda: I, I will link it in the show notes.

Sarah: Oh no.

Amanda: And, like, it’s just an assault on the senses is what it is.

Sarah: Oh no. That’s bad.

Amanda: But it came on while I was at my parents’ house, and I was like, God, I hate this commercial, and my dad’s like, I do too. And then he’s like –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – then he turns to me and he’s like, you know your mom downloaded this song to her phone, right? And I’m like –

Sarah: No!

Amanda: – this makes sense.

Sarah: [Gasps]

Amanda: So, like, that commercial jingle is one that I have had on and off in my brain for the last few weeks, and it’s terrible. But I would say the most recent song that I’ve been, like, obsessed with and listening to a lot is Dua Lipa’s “Levitating”?

Sarah: Oh, the, the, with the DaBaby remix?

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: I do like that song.

Amanda: So that’s the one that I’ve been willingly listening to a lot.

[Scrap of song from the creepy Allstate commercial]

Amanda: You’re listening to it right now?

[More of Allstate commercial song and message]

Sarah: That’s the Pet Shop Boys!

Amanda: Is it?!

Sarah: That’s the Pet Shop Boys, yeah! That’s a, that’s a Pet Shop Boys, I want to say, God, like, ‘80s? Hang on.

Amanda: Okay, well, the commercial is horrifying.

Sarah: Well, the, there’s a lot of things horrifying going on in that with the, with the hood ornament singing?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Oh God. Yeah! The Pet Shop Boys’ Make Lots of Money is from, oh wow, it was released as a single in 1985 and then reissued in 1986.

Amanda: And that’s the actual song.

Sarah: Yeah, “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money).” Yeah, I remember that song!

Amanda: Oh God!

Sarah: Oh, well, you know, you know how there’s always the cool kids and they’re obsessed with this one particular genre of music that you’re kind of like, okay, that’s a thing, but –

Amanda: Sure! Everyone needs a hobby!

Sarah: So when I was growing up, the people who were super obsessed with a very particular kind of music among the popular kids, it was always Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, synth-y, British pop music, basically. I don’t know why that was all, like, one thing, but I have very particular memories about certain people and Depeche Mode; it’s very weird. But yeah, this was 1984, 1985. I’m like, I remember this song from when I was a –

Amanda: That’s why Emma and I are like, I don’t know what this song is, but we fucking hate it. Probably because it has a singing car ornament in the commercial. Like, the commercial –

Sarah: Is creepy as –

Amanda: – isn’t doing it any favors.

Sarah: – fuck! It’s creepy as heck! Holy balls! 

Amanda: It’s bad!

Sarah: It’s alarming. I hope the Pet Shop Boys are all of a sudden just like, wow, I, I, I do have lots of money. Thank you, Allstate!

So books set at night. I do want –

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: – I have, I have, I have a Netflix recommendation. I don’t have a book recommendation.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: So –

Amanda: I, didn’t you just – no, did you review this on the site, or –

Sarah: I wrote a post about it. No, I wrote a post about it.

Amanda: That’s what I’m remembering.

Sarah: On Netflix, there is a show imported from Japan called Midnight Diner? And then part two is Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories. And it is about a man, a mysterious man with a scar who operates a diner between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m., and it’s the type of place, as it says in the intro, where people who are on their way from one place to another stop and get food, but the food and the people who meet and the food that they ask for – ‘cause the diner has one menu, there’s one thing on it, but if you order whatever it is that you want, if the guy has the ingredients he’ll make it, so there’s a lot of comfort food and food from people’s childhoods and things that remind them of another place or time, and so there’s a lot of food and connectivity and serendipitous, you know, evolution of a story, but it’s all at night. Everything is at night, and it’s got that same sort of Charlie All Night feeling, like we are the only people awake, even though it’s Tokyo and, like, everybody’s awake.

Amanda: Yeah! So I have three book recommendations. And I also suggest, like, this could be a really cool Rec League, which I’d be –

Sarah: That could definitely be a good Rec League. Let’s –

Amanda: – totally open to doing.

Sarah: – let’s do it! Let’s do it, let’s do it!

Amanda: Next Rec League for the site?

Sarah: We’ll do this one.

Amanda: I think we’ll do this one –

Sarah: We’ll do this one.

Amanda: – so keep an eye out, Lisa.

So the first one that I thought of, which is one that, like, a lot of people I’ve seen talk about on, like, Twitter and, like, other, like, book communities that I’m in that prompted me to, like, take a look at this one –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – is called Drag Me Up by R. M. Virtues?

Sarah: Mm!

Amanda: It’s a Hades/Persephone retelling in kind of like a, a stand-in for Vegas. Like, they don’t really say it’s Vegas, but that’s, it’s Vegas. And everyone from Greek mythology is there, and it’s, which is totally up my alley, and the pairing is a Black trans woman silk aerialist, so they’re like a, a night performer, and the romantic partner is a Black demisexual casino owner.

Sarah: Huh!

Amanda: So it’s very, like, seductive and steamy, and I think the nature of having sort of like a, a Vegas-esque setting is it’s very, like, nightlife- and night entertainment-focused.

Sarah: Yeah. Vegas is one of those places where you expect it to be more active at night than during the day.

Amanda: Yes. And then –

Sarah: Not least because it’s a bazillion degrees.

Amanda: – the next one is Love on the Night Shift by Radclyffe. So this is part of Radclyffe’s, like, medical romance series, which might not be for everyone, but I know Tara on the site loves this series, loves Radclyffe.

Sarah: Not ‘cause it’s lesbians, but because it’s medical, y’all.

Amanda: Yeah, and –

[Laughter]

Sarah: Just to make that clear.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: The problem is not lesbians; the problem is the medical –

Amanda: Yeah, medical, not because two women smooching. But the, the main characters work the night shift at a hospital.

And then the other one, which I think was mentioned on the site in some capacity, maybe in a podcast or Books on Sale, ‘cause that, it’s very familiar, and I know we have it in the Repo, I think, is Turn It Up by Inez Kelley?

Sarah: I was trying to remember this book. Like, I had, like –

Amanda: This one?

Sarah: – I had, like, this tiny –

Amanda: I said, I know we have one where it’s like a nighttime radio show.

Sarah: Yes! I –

Amanda: I know we –

Sarah: – I had, like, it’s like when you have a song stuck in your head, except that it’s like three notes? I had –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – three little wisps of plot, and it was not getting anywhere.

Amanda: So it’s, it’s friends to lovers, and they host a nighttime relationship and sex advice show.

Yeah, and so those are the three that I would recommend in terms of characters that have careers that are mostly at night –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – or a lot of the, the plot happens mostly at night, but we will do a Rec League for this one.

Sarah: Oh, for sure. Absolutely.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Now, we have more questions for our next episode, which we will record at a later date, ‘cause I don’t want to take up all your energy in talking, but I do want to ask, are you reading or doing anything that you want to tell people about and recommend?

Amanda: Am I doing anything?

Sarah: Well, I mean, like, streaming something, watching something, making something?

Amanda: [Laughs] I started battle, battle royal, Battle Royal by Lucy Parker?

Sarah: Oooh! Is it good?

Amanda: I started reading that one. I’m not super far into it. But, like, I’m still playing World of Warcraft, and that’s been fun. I made, I made a hunter, and her name is Crunchberry, and all of her hunter pets are named after pasta. So.

Sarah: I love this!

Amanda: [Laughs] I have a unicorn pet named Alfredo; I have a spider pet named Linguine.

Sarah: Obviously –

Amanda: And, and she is a void elf, so she’s purple and blue, like a purplish-blue color, and her name is Crunchberry.

So yeah, the new Lucy Parker – I mean, it’s Lucy Parker, right? Like, there’s something that she taps into as a writer that is just very, like, comforting?

Sarah: Oh yeah. She writes high-grade feel-good books with people who you like hanging out with.

Amanda: And I’ve been on, like, a food romance kick. Like, this one, I loved Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall. Like, I’ve just been in, like, a baking romance kick lately.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you to everyone who asked questions in the Patreon community thread. We will have part two of this episode coming up very soon, so if you are in the Patreon community and you want add a question, find the thread and add one! We’ll be doing this again very soon, and I love hearing what you want to know about.

I’m also curious: what are your thoughts on astrology? Do you think beliefs in astrology align or don’t align with beliefs in other venues? What did you think? Do you have books to suggest? I would love to hear from you. You can email me at [email protected].

Thank you again to our Patreon community for making sure that this episode has a transcript, and thank you to garlicknitter for transcribing all of our discussion. [It’s a pleasure! – gk] Thank you to Amanda for hanging out with me, and thank you to everyone who listens to the end, because that’s where I put the bad joke.

I would never forget the bad joke. I mean, sometimes I do, but I just go back and add it in, because that’s how recording works, but I’m not going to forget this one; I like this one a lot. Are you ready?

What name should you give a person so that they will be the happiest individual ever?

What name should you give someone so that they will be the happiest individual ever?

Sarah Tonin.

[Laughs] And there’s only one other joke with my name in it, which is:

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Sarah.

Sarah who?

Sarah doctor in the house?

Which when I was really little I thought was kind of doofy, because who knocks on a door and asks if there’s a doctor? Do you go door to door? But I’m all about naming somebody Sarah Tonin. That’s – [laughs] – it’s very silly. Thank you to the person on Reddit who posted that in the Dad Jokes forum; it completely made my week.

On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend, and we will see you back here next week.

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to listen to at frolic.media/podcasts.

[pretty music]