382. Our Favorite Books of the Year, Part Two: Shana, Sneezy, and Aarya

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Sarah Wendell: Hello there, and welcome to episode number 382 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and today we are still looking back at our favorite books of the year for 2019 with the Smart Bitches team of reviewers from around the world. Shana talks about the books she thought were perfection; Sneezy shares the books that she loved most this year, especially those that taught her how to human more; and Aarya breaks down all of the elements that worked for her inside a book that’s coming out at the end of the year.

I do want to mention two potential trigger or content warnings: at 27:19 there’s mention of beating up an assaulter and of violence, and at about 52:25 there’s a discussion of a character with wow! Islamophobia. Now, there’s a spoken warning for that one, but in both cases you want to skip ahead about thirty seconds.

I really hope you enjoy these reading recap episodes, because we have had so much fun connecting and talking about books, and obviously I would love to hear from you too. If you would like to get in touch and tell us what books you loved, you can email me at [email protected], or you can leave a message at 201-371-3272. Now, there is a three-minute limit, so try to trim what you’re saying, or you’re going to have to keep calling back, which I know is super annoying.

We have a special treat for the transcript and the podcast sponsorships!

Today’s transcript is sponsored by Once Upon a Duke, a free e-book from New York Times bestselling author Erica Ridley. Fans of Tessa Dare, Christi Caldwell, and Julia Quinn will love the laugh-out-loud Regency romps in the Twelve Dukes of Christmas series. Once Upon a Duke is a second-chances reunion romance featuring a spinster in a counting house, a grumpy duke, a snow-covered castle, and a pygmy goat named Tiny Tim. What could go wrong? Absolutely everything! When holiday humbug, the Duke of Silkridge is summoned to a wintry mountaintop village of perennial Yuletide, the last thing he’ll do is rekindle the forbidden spark crackling between him and the irresistible spitfire he’d left behind. Or is she exactly what he needs? Find out why USA Today bestselling author Darcy Burke says, when I want to feel good, I devour Erica Ridley’s swoon-worthy romps. Once Upon a Duke is yours for free wherever e-books are sold. Find out more at ericaridley.com.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by The Viscount’s Tempting Minx, a free e-book from New York Times bestselling author Erica Ridley. Yes, free! So you can find out why The Viscount’s Tempting Minx is a fan favorite in the bestselling Dukes of War series. Certain individuals might consider Lady Amelia Pembroke a managing sort of female, but truly, most people would be lost without her help. Why, the latest on-dit is that rakish Viscount Sheffield is canceling the event of the year because he hasn’t time for silly soirees. He doesn’t need time – he needs her! The Viscount’s Tempting Minx is yours for free wherever e-books are sold, and stay tuned after the episode, where you will get an exclusive sneak peek of the audiobook! Find out more at ericaridley.com.

It’s getting very close to the holidays, if you’re listening to this before the holidays begin, and if you need a gift for yourself or multiple someones or just someone you really like, you can give them, and possibly also yourself, the gift of an Audible membership. Now is the best time to do it, with a special offer of fifty-three percent off your first three months. Right now, for a limited time, you can get three months of Audible for just six dollars and ninety-five cents a month. That is more than half off the regular price! You can choose one audiobook and two Audible Originals absolutely free every month. Visit audible.com/TRASHYBOOKS or text TRASHYBOOKS to 500-500. Yes, that is so cool!

Now, I went on a small shopping spree, which was included in my membership, so I didn’t actually spend anything, and the Audible Originals for December are really cool. The Half-Life of Marie Curie is terrific if you really like cranky, bantering ladies, which I really do. Plus, Kate Mulgrew is in it. This is a limited time offer: three months of Audible for $6.95 a month. That’s a great gift for you, for other people, for everyone you know. Visit audible.com/TRASHYBOOKS or text TRASHYBOOKS to 500-500. That’s A-U-D-I-B-L-E dot com slash TRASHYBOOKS, or text TRASHYBOOKS to 500-500.

Deep, effusive, holiday-spangled thanks to the Patreon community who keeps the show going each and every week. If you would like to join our Patreon community and support the show, monthly pledges start at one dollar, and every pledge is so deeply appreciated and, like I said, keeps the podcast going every single week. Have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches to find out more!

I know you know what music this is, but I’m going to tell you at the end of the episode, and I will also have a pretty terrible joke at the end of the episode as well, because I love ending with a bad joke! I love finding them! I like torturing my family with them, and then I like sharing them with you. That’s the best part.

But let’s get on with our around-the-world tour of what the Smart Bitches review team thought were the best books they read in 2019. On with the podcast.

[music]

Shana: I’m Shana, and I’m in Sacramento, California, today.

Sarah: Fabulous! Do you travel a lot?

Shana: I do travel a lot for work, but I actually live in Sacramento; it’s my home base.

Sarah: Very cool. All right, so tell me: what are your favorite books of 2019?

Shana: Oh my goodness, this is really hard! [Laughs]

Sarah: It is really hard! I have no mercy here. It’s, it’s really terrible with me.

Shana: I know. When you told me that I couldn’t choose more than five I thought, oh, this is going to take me a while! But actually, when I went back and looked, I think I’m such a nitpicky reader that even books that I loved, I kept thinking of something that I wanted to fix in them?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Shana: So I actually only have a few that I feel like are truly perfect books from 2019. And –

Sarah: Okay!

Shana: – and the first one is Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan. Milan’s one of my favorite writers, so that’s a little bit of a bias, but it’s basically about one of the side characters from her previous books who kind of was a scene stealer. She is this older woman – she’s in her seventies – Bertrice Martin, and she’s just hilarious! She really hates men. She’s a widow, and she’s just kind of, I think in the previous book is when she first starts talking about how she’s over men, and so she’s going to start dating women. And it’s unexpected in a historical – this is, like, a historical book – and the whole, this whole book is about her falling in love with another woman who’s in her late sixties, who also has dealt with a lot of the entitlement of men, and they’re both really frustrated with the same man, which is Mrs. Martin’s nephew. She refers to him as her Terrible Nephew, like, and both are capitalized, for the whole book. I don’t even remember his name! I just remember he’s the Terrible Nephew, and –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Shana: – you know, Violetta, the love interest, she was the manager of the Terrible Nephew’s rooming house, where he wasn’t paying his rent and was just generally terrible, as she would expect, and was super entitled, and ultimately she ends up getting fired because she’s trying to hold him accountable. And so she cooks up this whole scheme to convince his aunt, Mrs. Martin, to help her, and they end up going on this adventure full of hijinks, all trying to convince the Terrible Nephew that he’s horrible, and, and of course in the end they win, so it’s this, like, I don’t know –

Sarah: Yay!

Shana: – [laughs] – this feminist wish fulfillment with lesbian sex, and it’s with two older heroines! I don’t know, it just made me really happy.

Sarah: I’ve, I’ve noticed a theme in a lot of the books that people are naming as their favorites, and there’s often a thread of revenge.

Shana: [Laughs] Yeah, this is pretty good revenge fantasy, and it’s totally irreverent and whimsical and not super realistic way, but just, they really torture the Terrible Nephew. Like, his come-down? So good.

Sarah: And it’s so rare to see that actually happen?

Shana: Yeah. If only it happened in our regular life as often as we would like, which is why it’s so nice to read about!

I also loved Can’t Escape Love by Alyssa Cole. It’s, it’s a novella from her Reluctant Royals series? Well, I love that series. I don’t know; I, I’m, I think you like it too. I feel like I’ve seen you talk about that, yeah.

Sarah: Yes. I love the fact that the characters in that book are unafraid to sort of call each other on their bullshit?

Shana: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Sarah: And I love how they learn to talk to each other.

Shana: Yes! Oh, yeah! I mean, it’s funny –

Sarah: What did you like about it?

Shana: Well, I love that whole series, but I think actually this book might be my favorite in the series. It’s the combination of the main character, Reggie, she’s just this unrepentant geek culture fan. She, she runs this Girls With Glasses website, which is a website that I really wish existed, and –

Sarah: Oh dude –

Shana: – it’s like –

Sarah: – you have no idea.

Shana: I mean, it’s like the Mary Sue, but better. It’s like Jezebel, but, like, in the Gawker years, but better. I mean, like, maybe with romance Twitter. I mean, I just really want this site to be real. I think I wanted all of the pop culture in that whole book to be real. [Laughs] And, and sadly, it wasn’t. So I just love her! She’s just so driven and, like, ambitious, and I like, you know, I like competence porn, but she’s, because she’s into fandoms and because she has this kind of down-to-earth, practical nature, like, she just felt really relatable to me. So even though she’s stressed out, which is how she meets, you know, Gus, ‘cause she, she’s having trouble sleeping and only his, like, deep, sexy voice can help her sleep – [laughs] – I love that part! Yeah, I mean, I just thought they were so cute together, and ‘cause his, his voice is their connection, they have these, like, great slumber parties, and he cooks for her. And the disability rep is really good? Like –

Sarah: Yes.

Shana: – she uses a wheelchair, but it just feels really natural? I mean, you know, one of my pet peeves is when disability is used kind of in place of personality trait? And that just was not here at all. It just was woven into the story really well. I, I thought it was great. Also, her wheelchair sounded really sexy! I loved that she had a bunch of wheelchairs. [Laughs] It was, it was great. I loved Reggie. I love Gus too. You know, I love the way he, you know, takes care of her. I just really wish that book was longer. Just even thinking about it made me want to reread it.

Sarah: I think it’s also, like, the perfect novella: the pace fits; the story fits; there’s, there are stakes, but you know that it’s going to be handled in the space that you have.

Shana: Mm, mm-hmm. Yes.

Sarah: And you’re not lift, left with that sort of post-novella feeling of, oh, I don’t quite buy that they’re together; or, oh, I want more time to spend with them; or, oh, this wasn’t enough. It was a perfect amount.

Shana: It’s true. Although I still want more of them, but not for the story; just because I enjoyed them. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yeah, you can hang out with them.

Shana: I, I want them to be my best friends, basically.

Sarah: That’s such a nice compliment, I think.

Shana: Yeah. Gus is a pretty good book boyfriend, actually.

Sarah: You have a good point there, especially the cooking part.

Shana: The cooking part is key for me. I have a lot of fantasies about men cooking for me and then cleaning up after.

Sarah: Why shouldn’t that be a good fantasy? That’s an excellent fantasy!

Shana: Yes. I wish more books had that.

Sarah: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s a, it’s an interesting way of caretaking.

Shana: Yeah, and, you know, it’s sad because in reality, a lot of romances that have chef heroes, they’re, I don’t know, they can be kind of overbearing in the book? [Laugh]

Sarah: Yeah, it’s a coded, it’s code for alpha.

Shana: Yeah, definitely. And I’m really a beta hero kind of person, so.

Sarah: Yeah, me too.

Shana: Yeah.

Sarah: And it’s not even just beta heroes that I like? I really like when a hero is emotionally fluent and content with themselves.

Shana: Ah, yes. [Laughs]

Sarah: I don’t want all the repair work to be done by the, by the heroine or the other character teaching this, you know, emotionally underdeveloped person how to have normal human feels. Like, I want a person who’s emotionally fluent figuring out how to be with someone else. That’s plenty of conflict for me.

Shana: Mm-hmm, yep. I agree. It’s one of my pet peeves as well, and it’s one of the reasons that I think, when I get frustrated with reading straight romances it can be nice to just, like, take a little break and read one with two women, because I think I’m just more tolerant, even when one of the women isn’t the most emotionally fluent character? I think just because in the world we just ex-, have different expectations for men and women, and I can handle it in lesfic in a way that I just can’t in straight romances.

Sarah: A lot of the time, the, the conflict in lesbian romances is between two fully self-recognized people.

Shana: Right, mm-hmm?

Sarah: You don’t have to wait for them to get all of their emotional crap together. They’re, they already have most of their emotional crap together.

Shana: Mm-hmm, usually. Occasionally, though –

Sarah: Usually.

Shana: Yeah, usually. [Laughs] The ones that I actually –

Sarah: Usually.

Shana: – finish, yes. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yeah.

Shana: Well –

Sarah: What next?

Shana: Well, my next one actually is a lesbian fiction book. It’s The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics.

Sarah: I am not surprised that you are mentioning this book.

Shana: [Laughs] Oh my gosh, I loved it so much! I mean, my obsession with, with this book was so much. I mean, as I was reading it, I, you know, I started highlighting my favorite passages, and then, like, I was highlighting paragraphs and then pages, and then it was really getting to the point where I was going to just start highlighting the entire chapter? Which is not actually helpful?

[Laughter]

Shana: And I, I just went out at that point and I bought the book, ‘cause I had, I had checked it out from the library?

Sarah: Yeah.

Shana: And I hadn’t even finished it yet. I was like, I’m going to want to own this, so I’m just going to go ahead and take care of that. I bought it on e-book. I actually am thinking that I want to buy a physical copy of the book as well, ‘cause I just want to hold it? I really liked it that much.

Sarah: Aw! It’s such a sign of a good book when you pick it up a second time or a third time and, you know, whoops, you’re gone. You’re, you’re sucked right back in, and it’s two hours later, and you’re like, oh! Oops!

Shana: That’s exactly actually what happened with this one, because I was thinking about, oh, what, which books did I love? And I went back and looked at Goodreads, and then, you know, I picked it up again. I’m not supposed to be reading this book; I have other books – [laughs] – books that are due back to the library very soon, and, you know, I read at least two chapters before I forced myself to put it back down and go back to the urgent library book reads? Yeah, it’s a good one. I, I think, you know, I – well, first of all, I just love historical romances that have lady scientists. Like, that is catnip for me.

Sarah: Lady nerds.

Shana: They make me happy. Even when it’s, like, the way that they’re engaged in science is not very realistic, I don’t really care. I, I love it. And, you know, Lucy’s an astronomer, the kind of main character, so I was going to probably enjoy the book just for that?

Sarah: Right.

Shana: But, you know, just the way that it talked about science, it was just really thoughtful and, like, insightful, and I think because the love interest, she’s the widow of a scientist, and so she actually has some bitterness about science, and just, you know, it –

Sarah: That makes sense!

Shana: Yeah! I mean, it’s, I agree completely. [Laughs]

Sarah: This, this has been earned. I get it.

Shana: [Laughs] You know, just, especially the Eurocentrism and, and the insularity around science and, you know, just the male egos. I mean, that all felt super true to me, and it was nice to be able to both, like, revel in the science and acknowledge the limitations, particularly of that time, although sadly they’re pretty much the same limitations now, of, you know, Western science, and to be able to hold kind of both of those divergent truths in one book. I thought it was just really well done. And so, you know, for people who say, oh, you know, romances aren’t, like, smart books, like, this was a really smart book! Just so thoughtful, like, the healing and, and then, you know, even, like, with the swoony, like, romance love story, like, that was great too. I mean, just, everything was wonderful. And there’s all these things around art, because, like, the, the love interest is an artist and, but she does embroidery, and she doesn’t really think of it as art, and she has to kind of learn to challenge her own internalized ideas around art. I, I just thought that was really interesting too.

Sarah: Yes, and the idea that there are, there, there are art forms for women that are not as valuable, and yet they’re incredibly intricate and difficult and skilled.

Shana: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sarah: And as someone who does embroidery, I loved that part.

Shana: Yeah! Did it feel realistic? ‘Cause I, of course, don’t know anything about embroidery.

Sarah: Oh gosh, yes. One of the things that I really liked about the show The Bletchley Circle, which I had a hard time watching ‘cause it’s also about sexual violence –

Shana: Mm, mm-hmm. I love that –

Sarah: – is that –

Shana: – I love that show.

Sarah: Right! So you know how they’re codebreakers, and then in an early episode you see the main character and she’s knitting?

Shana: Oh, mm-hmm?

Sarah: Because knitting is code.

Shana: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: All of the embroidery patterns are code. So you’re reading a code, and you’re deciphering it, and then you’re translating it to another medium, or you’re designing your own code to share with other people, so it’s, it’s a puzzle, and it’s a code, and it’s a, art or motif, and one thing I do – and also you’re stabbing something a lot, which is very satisfying.

Shana: [Laughs]

Sarah: I have large projects that I work on, and I have small projects that I work on, and one of my small projects is to make a greeting card for someone’s birthday, so I’ll do maybe a two-inch-by-two-inch square of fabric, but I find a tiny pattern. Some of these patterns that are, you know, maybe four inches, five inches square?

Shana: Mm-hmm?

Sarah: They could take several hours because of the intricacy of the stitch work that you’re doing and the, and the skills that you’re learning. And so I loved the ways in which embroidery was, was talked about in terms of how the understanding and value of it changed.

Shana: Mm, mm-hmm? Yeah, I used to make costumes for a, a local community theater many years ago –

Sarah: That’s cool!

Shana: – and, and I still love to sew, and you know, I remember one show I worked on, I had to make, I don’t know, like maybe twenty, like, corsets and bodices? And, like, that’s hard!

Sarah: Oof!

Shana: And –

Sarah: That’s a lot of boning!

Shana: Like, it’s a lot!

Sarah: Not, no pun intended!

Shana: [Laughs] Yes. And, and, you know, it’s just, it just really made me think about kind of women’s work and the work even to kind of maintain those garments in the past? Let alone to kind of build them? And that expertise just being seen as tied to women’s adornment and not actually about skill or artistry?

Sarah: Yeah.

Shana: Yeah. It’s obviously something I love about this book.

Sarah: I am thinking about teaching myself to sew this year.

Shana: [Gasps] You should do it!

Sarah: You think I should do it? I have, like, a, I have a machine that I want picked out, and I have, like, a whole list of projects and patterns that I want to try, like I want to make pajama pants, and I want to make a dog bed. I have all these ideas, and I’m really thinking, okay, you can do this, you can do this. I think I’m basically psyching myself up to do it.

Shana: I think you should definitely do it! And those sound like good, easy projects. I mean, if you can embroider, which just to me feels like this amazing skill?

[Laughter]

Shana: You’re like, sewing is easy in comparison. Although, to be fair, I started off with costumes, where they’re meant to be seen far away, so I had a lot of duct-taped hems and, you know, things superglued together.

Sarah: Yep.

Shana: It’s actually harder for me to finish things in a way that when people are only a few inches away it, it looks like it’s done well?

[Laughter]

Shana: So dog, see, a dog bed is perfect, because will a pet care if your seam is a little uneven? No! They will not! And the same way with pajama pants.

Sarah: Plus I can get all these fun fabrics to do, you know, to do it with. And then work my way up –

Shana: Yep.

Sarah: – to other things, like shirts or dresses or, you know, learning to hem my own clothing.

Shana: Yeah! Yeah. Do you, do you take them out right now when you need to get something hemmed?

Sarah: No, I just go to a, I go to a tailor and I say, I’m really short. Can you help?

Shana: [Laughs]

Sarah: Or, like, if I go to a department store, sometimes having the store credit card comes with an allotment on your credit card for free tailoring?

Shana: Ohhh!

Sarah: So I’ll go for a sale, and I have a, I have really short legs, so I’ll go in and buy, like, seven pairs of pants, and the seamstress will come in and be like, oh, I remember you. Yeah.

Shana: [Laughs] Like, hello, little one.

Sarah: You’re not going to need a very long tape measure; I have a very short inseam. She’s like, no worries; we got this. And then I come back and I have hemmed pants, but I would love to learn how to do that myself, you know?

Shana: Well, I highly recommend this. It’s super easy, and I, I actually find it really relaxing. So, you know, I don’t knit or crochet, but that’s kind of what I do if I’m, like, watching TV or, you know, listening to music or a podcast. Like, I can just, like, hem at the same time – [laughs] – ‘cause it’s –

Sarah: That’s so cool!

Shana: – it’s repetitive and kind of meditative, and I actually prefer to do it by hand. It’s, like, not worth pulling out my sewing machine for when it’s so much more pleasurable to do it by hand.

Sarah: That, okay, that’s, that’s definitely convincing me.

Shana: Yeah, it’s easy. You should do it.

Sarah: Okay. So. What is your next book?

Shana: All right. Okay, this is actually my last one, so even though you gave me up to five – [laughs] – this is my last perfect book of 2019, and it’s The Bride Test by Helen Hoang. I loved that book, and, and I will say that I was kind of skeptical going in, only because I liked The Kiss Quotient? But I didn’t love it the way – like, there was just this rapturous response to the book, and I think because I’d read that first, maybe my expectations were too high? So while I definitely enjoyed it, I wasn’t obsessed with it? And so I, I think going into The Bride Test I thought, you know, well, we’ll see. I don’t know if it’s going to be as good as people say – but it was better, actually. I really loved that book. I just thought, you know, the themes around, I think, immigration and, and class were just really well done and thoughtful and, and the two characters were just, they were adorable, and I loved their families, and I can’t wait to, wait to read the next book, and it was just, it was really nice to just see a lot of nuance, cultural nuance, I think, you know, as well on the story.

Sarah: Yeah. I, I also think that there’s a theme in your book of characters that you want to hang out with.

Shana: Oh yes! I want them to be my best friend – [laughs] – again!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Shana: I mean, and I will say, just to be clear, I already have three best friends, and that’s kind of a lot to manage, and they can really, they have strong feelings about, like, who gets to be the friend in what area. You know, like the best friend on the West Coast versus the best friend on the East Coast. So in reality, if all of these characters came out and became my best friend, it would be a lot for me to handle. It’s kind of like a polyamorous best friend situation. So maybe it’s safer that I just read about them? But yeah, I loved these characters.

Sarah: That is an excellent list! Are there any other books that you want to mention, or are there any books you’re excited about reading over the next few weeks?

Shana: Oh, so many! I will say that I just finished reading White Whiskey Bargain, which is set in Appalachia? It’s a contemporary, and I was just talking with Claudia about it this morning, ‘cause I almost had her convinced to read it – [laughs] – because she, she mostly reads historicals, but because I liked it so much and she knows that I’m kind of a hard grader, so when I told her how much I liked it she thought, oh! I might even read it! I don’t know; we’ll see. But it was great. It’s about kind of moonshine runners in Kentucky, and it’s just really sexy. There’s a lot of, like, drinking bourbon and speakeasies, and there’s a really, really good cunnilingus scene that happens in the rain on a car? I just have to say, like, it was amazing! [Laughs] So I would, it’s worth reading just for that. But no, it was great. It was a great book, so I don’t know if it can make my kind of top four, but, but I really loved it, and I just finished it yesterday. So I think, it helps when I’m thinking about books months later, I know I love them? We’ll see if I’m still thinking about that book in a few months.

Sarah: I mean, that car scene would probably, you know –

Shana: I will be thinking about that car scene! [Laughs]

Sarah: – remain, remain memorable? Yeah!

Shana: Yeah.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

[music]

Sneezy: I am in Taiwan right now. The island’s so small, it cannot be drawn to scale on the world map or you cannot see it, but we gave you bubble tea, so love us for that. I am a human plant chimera, die-hard romantic, and lover of food. And I will feed you! Most likely soup.

Sarah: Well, I mean, I’m compiling this week’s Gift Guide, and there’s a whole lot in there about your very favorite rice cooker, so I hear this. And what’s your name?

Sneezy: [Laughs]

Sarah: What’s your name? Who are you?

Sneezy: Well, Sneezy. I go by Sneezy, but I do have a real name that, well, I don’t know if it matters or not, but I’ll just keep it mum for now.

Sarah: That’s fine! You don’t have to give your real name. You can go by whatever name you want.

Sneezy: Okay.

Sarah: So tell me: what books did you read this year that you want to tell everyone on the internet about?

Sneezy: Okay. Really quickly, I just saw today I was only supposed to limit it to five, which was evil of you, Sarah! It was an immoral thing for you to do!

Sarah: Sorry!

Sneezy: [Laughs] Okay. But I think, I think my favorite book this year, well, that I decided today, was – I’ll probably change my mind tomorrow, but today I think it’s probably The Kiss Quotient, A Choice of Crowns by Barb Hendee, The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy, and Man vs. Durian by Jackie Lau, and The Pasha of Cuisine by Saygin Ersin.

Sarah: That is a very wide-reaching list. So why are those your top five? What did you like about, what’s, what’s something you liked about each of them?

Sneezy: Ah – [sighs] – Mona Eltahawy, her book fucking – okay, I’m sorry; can I swear?

Sarah: Oh! Please do!

Sneezy: Okay.

Sarah: It’s all good. Bring on the swearing.

Sneezy: [Laughs] Okay, I’m very dirty-minded, and I’m very dirty-mouthed. I, I used to be a good girl, but then I broke one day, so this is what you get now. The Seven Necessary Sins, the book fucking opens with Mona Eltahawy’s recounting of that time when she beat up her assaulter, and there’s just, I think, I think it’s just one of those things where anyone who’s not, like, a cis, straight, white man would be like, YES! Yes!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Sneezy: Fuck you! I want to kill you! You’re going to die! This is what’s going to happen! Yes! Fuck you! Don’t fucking touch me, and just GAHHH! Oh, it’s kind of like your Mary Sue, but real life.

Sarah: So, so, like violent Mary Sue catharsis.

Sneezy: Yes! Oh my God, and she’s just such an amazing, well-articulated, amazing woman. That book is just, is, is kind of, at first when I, when I started listening to it by audiobook, which, by the way, Mona narrates herself –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sneezy: – it almost sounded a little bit rambly? Like, she’s almost thinking out loud a little bit, but then you start to learn about all these feminists from other place in the world, all these other feminist movements, and all these ways that people are fighting back against the system, and since it’s a systemic problem we’re dealing with, there’s going to have to be change, and –

And then Helen Hoang and Jackie Lau because they’re just kind of the feel-good books that I didn’t know I needed in my life until they smacked me up the head, and it’s just yes. They are yes. That, that’s, that’s all there is.

And then The Pasha of Cuisine I heard about from Shannon Chakraborty on Twitter –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sneezy: – and do not read this on an empty stomach; you will hate yourself so much. So much!

[Laughter]

Sneezy: It, it’s translated, I think, from Turkish? And it’s not necessarily a romance, because it’s not about, it’s not about necessarily the romantic journey that the main character takes with his ladylove, but more about his journey of understanding more about the world through food, or maybe understanding food through the world, depending on how you, how you understand these things, and, and ultimately getting his happy ending with said ladylove, and there’s also this really badass villainess in there that’s like, oh my God, you’re probably going to fuck me over so bad if I ever met you in person, but I’m just like, yeah! You’re, you’re very badass, and I love you!

And I think I talked a bit about the Dark Glass series, which A Choice of Crowns is in?

Sarah: Mm-hmm?

Sneezy: And the entire series, what I found was because the way the author wrote – first of all, the world was kind of, it’s on, like, within two neighboring countries. It’s not the kind of expansive world where the, there’s a nice map drawn, and you can really orient yourself, but there’s this, like, if you got into a fucked-up time machine and it just plopped you in the middle of nowhere and go, welp, there you go! You’re here now! And you’re like, wait, what’s going on? You just have to figure out yourself, and it kind of felt like that for me a little bit in terms of, like, orienting myself in the world throughout the series, and because the voice the author wrote for all the main characters across the series didn’t vary for me. Like, if you read, for example, Man vs. Durian by Jackie Lau, it pans back and forth between Peter’s and Valerie’s perspective, and even though the language is kept very colloquial throughout the book, you can distinctly tell this is Peter talking to me and this is Valerie talking to me, and there’s not that in the Dark Glass series, which for me, instead of taking away from it, it kind of gave me this very surreal kind of living through multiple life times, except you don’t really know if it’s the same person reincarnated or not, but – anyway, if I let myself, it’s a real head trip, and I kind of like that a little bit, ‘cause I don’t have to be in the head trip. I don’t, I, I don’t do that well with mindfucks, depending on the mindfuck. This is like an optional mindfuck, so I like that about it, but also –

Sarah: [Laughs] Optional!

Sneezy: Yeah! [Laughs]

Sarah: You can choose not to!

Sneezy: All, the entire series is about a, a, a woman who gets to basically live three lifetimes, up to a point. Sometimes they get to live through the whole thing; sometimes they only get to a certain point; and in this book, the main character only got to a certain point, and her decisions had really big political and personal ramifications, and it was definitely framed as a, what are you going to do? Are you going to be happy, or are you going to care about the people around you? Are you going to do the “right thing” and basically stand up for world peace, or are you going to, like, take care of yourself? And that’s kind of the dilemma that I remember in, in – I think it’s pretty consistent throughout the series, but this one really stuck with me because –

Sarah: Mm-hmm?

Sneezy: – I found the main character to be, like, the most strong and the most optimistic, and I need optimism right now. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yes, I completely understand. Just about everyone I’ve spoken to –

Sneezy: Mm-hmm?

Sarah: – has talked about how they need books that are going to feel, make, help them feel a bit restored when they’re done.

Sneezy: Yeah! There’s definitely a place for stories like Brokeback Mountain, where the point is you see how bad it is. You see what people –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sneezy: – have to deal with, and you have to own up to your own complicity in the, in the system. But then there are stories that kind of recharge you instead of wearing you down, because this definitely is, is, it is emotional labor to put yourself into that headspace.

Sarah: And what about The Kiss Quotient? What did you like about that?

Sneezy: Oh my God, what is there not to like about it?

Sarah: [Laughs]

Sneezy: Okay, I need to be clear that although I’ve been kind of, like, heavy-handed and being a bit, I guess, cerebral in my answers so far, I love sex in my books? That’s very important to me.

Sarah: Mm-hmm?

Sneezy: Straight up. [Laughs] And I, I just, in, in both Man vs. Durian and The Kiss Quotient, it’s like sex is such a positive thing, and no one’s – like, if there’s a person who might have a bit of hang up, the author’s like, hey, it’s okay! Like, we’ll figure this out! You know, it’s, it goes back to the enthusiastic consent thing? And, and it’s also, it helped me learn more about the autism spectrum. I read a really good article about understanding what the autistic spectrum is, you know.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sneezy: Like, if you met one person with autism, you met one person with autism, is the way that person phrased it, because if you think of, like, the rainbow, if you met a purple person, you’ve met a purple person, but there’s also red and yellow and blue people on, on the rainbow as well, right. So thinking about that, I was like, oh, okay. Well, this helps me understand a lot more, and, and then reading it in a narrative kind of helped me understand that even more, and then the afterword, where, where Helen Hoang talks about how she figured out as an adult that she’s on the spectrum and how she understood certain behaviors that were starting to affect her adversely, like her habit, for example, tapping a specific number of teeth instead of her fingers because she noticed that people were getting annoyed with her if she tapped her fingers?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sneezy: Right, and then her teeth were starting to be affected by that, but she couldn’t stop, ‘cause, like, oh, and then she found out about it, and then going, and then knowing that and going back to reading the story again is, it’s just kind of, I understand more humans now, and that’s always a good thing.

Sarah: Yeah. I, I know what you mean. So are there any other books you want to mention? I know that you had a long list.

Sneezy: [Laughs] Okay. Well, first I want to give a shout-out to Muted by Miranda Mundt. That’s my favorite webtoon this year, and it’s just getting, like, all, it’s, like, building up to more and more these lesbian feels, and it’s just like, oh my God, you’re so cute! I can’t take it! Just kiss already! Just don’t do this to me!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Sneezy: But they’re, they’re very good, and, and they have shit to sort out, and she got me to a point where the, yeah, yeah, I know you could die right now, but can you just, like, revel in this lesbian moment just for me, please? But –

And then, and then I, I recently found this webtoon series called Halal Gurls – gurls spelled with a U – and it’s from Australia, and it talks about, like, kind of the experience of being, like, a, a, a Muslim woman and trying to figure out, like, her, her love life and, and trying to make it as a lawyer while, you know, at the, currently at the moment trying to, like, deal with all the corporate bullshit of being a Muslim woman in the law firm and still be, like, a lowly paralegal and, and then the, the kind of stress she has from her family, and then she has two sisters, which are kind of at first made out to be only these car-, cartoonish caricatures of what people think, like, Millenials are or like a, a badass – [laughs] –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sneezy: – smoking, violent woman is, and it’s just, and all of it is just so great, and I loved it so much.

And I really loved The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai. The Bride Test as well, also by Helen Hoang. Oh yes, and then obviously the two books currently out by Chakraborty. I am waiting for The Empire of Gold, and I, I just need a time machine to get the last book.

[Laughter]

Sneezy: She has been killing us over Twitter for the past year. I’m not okay, and I’m not going to pretend to be okay!

Sarah: [Laughs] What did you like about the, The Right Swipe?

Sneezy: The Right Swipe, again, is, like, enthusiastic consent is, like – it’s going to sound like I fucked up, and you’re going to wonder, like, how I function as a human, but honestly, like, these sort of romance novels kind of teach me how to human more in relationships than, like, actual relationships I’ve been with, been in, and yeah. [Laughs] Because there’s just so much that we internalize – or at least I’ve internalized – that I thought was normal and that I had to put up with, and then there’s all these women being like, no! Fuck you! I’m not going to do that! And it was like, oh yeah, I can just walk out! And then The Right Swipe is like – obviously, first of all, the main character is, like, a badass. She’s out there making it, and I think there’s a lot of women, including me, who are like, oh, what if someone finds out this about me, and I can’t explain myself really well, and, like, patriarchy, like, punishes me as it punished so many other women? You know, this, it’s that thing where you know what’s wrong, and you know any sensible human would be like, fuck this shit –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sneezy: – but then you also know from looking at all the other women that this, this is what we’re dealing with, right, and it was just, it felt so good to see things fall in place for her, and it felt so good to see that, you know what, maybe there will be times in your life where hard work doesn’t pay off and you will question everything in your life, if you have wasted years, if you’ve done everything wrong and put all of your eggs in one basket, but you can start all over, and you do have it in yourself to just get everything you want, including the hot guy! So yeah.

Sarah: [Laughs] Which is another sort of form of rage catharsis, right?

Sneezy: Yeah. Wow. I’m, I’m kind of letting, letting out that I’m just a very angry person. I’m, I’m –

Sarah: It’s okay; you’re not alone in that.

Sneezy: [Laughs] Thank you!

Sarah: You are not alone.

[Laughter]

Sneezy: I really appreciate that, but I would also like to assure everyone I’m quite short, so I’m not that intimidating.

Sarah: I think we, we are taught that rage is something that we’re not supposed to have; it’s not appropriate for us?

Sneezy: Yeah.

Sarah: But it gets the job done. Are there any other books you want to mention?

Sneezy: So we’ve been talking about Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn, and if anybody –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sneezy: – is interested, Ghost Signs by, yes, by Frank Mastropolo, and it talks about, like, all the old signages in New York City that you can see traces of and the ways they’ve existed and whatever. I just, like, one, one is, like, the fiction version that’s a bit magical, and the other one is kind of like the traces of the magic that was a bit, and I just feel like reading those two books simultaneously is kind of really beautiful and magical, and I love it so much.

[music]

Aarya: So I’m Aarya, and I’m currently in the northeastern US. I guess it’s okay to say that I’m in Philadelphia; it’s not some big secret. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yeah, and be-, and it’s a pretty large metropolitan area; I don’t think anyone’s –

Aarya: Yeah.

Sarah: – going to wander around Philadelphia, be going, Aarya! Although it would be kind of amazing if they did.

Aarya: It would.

Sarah: It would be pretty great.

Aarya: Yeah, especially if they’re going off the picture I have in the bio.

Sarah: Oh! That’ll really narrow it down. So what are your books for 2019 that you want to tell everybody about?

Aarya: So, okay, the – this is hard, right? So I have twenty-two books. I’m not –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Aarya: But I’m not going to talk about twenty-two books. What haps – the problem is, I read two-fifty books this year, and when you re- –

Sarah: Nice!

Aarya: Yeah, and when, when you read that many books, you tend to have a lot of favorites. And if you –

Sarah: You know, you could do your own podcast. Like, these are all of my favorite books for, like, three straight years.

Aarya: Yeah. Definitely. And then, for, first of all, narrowing it down to twenty-two was incredibly difficult, and then –

Sarah: Yep.

Aarya: – you told me, oh, we can’t talk about twenty-two, which, understandable.

[Laughter]

Aarya: Understandable, so I –

Sarah: Right.

Aarya: – I picked five, and these aren’t, like, the, the, the top five, because I don’t think I could rank them into a top five. I picked five because they kind of give a snapshot of my overall reading year, which was, I read mostly contemporary – that’s three out of five – and then I, I picked one historical and one paranormal, so it’s, like –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Aarya: – a good snapshot of the genres.

Sarah: Are you mostly a contemporary reader, or is that a shift for you this year?

Aarya: Ah, interesting that you would ask that. [Laughs] No. Okay, this is really strange. So I, before 2019, I, I did not think that I liked contemporary, and I don’t, I’ve always been drawn more to paranormal and historical. I guess my views are always like, oh, paranormal is just contemporary plus werewolves. Like, it’s everything that, that a contemporary has, plus extra stuff, like, plus extra something else. Like, I didn’t really see the point of reading contemporary, ‘cause I wasn’t, ‘cause it’s real life, right. Like, it’s –

Sarah: Yeah.

Aarya: – I can go outside. I’d nev-, I never saw the point of it, and now that’s an incredibly stupid thing to think, because I am one person. I cannot possibly have the experience of billions of people, and there’s really interesting, literally interesting things to read about, about everyone else. So I’ve definitely had a shift to contemporary.

Sarah: Very cool! So what are your books?

Aarya: Yeah, so my very first book is Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn.

Sarah: Oh, such a good book!

Aarya: Did you finish it?

Sarah: I did! Oh gosh!

Aarya: Okay. Okay, well, I have a question, ‘cause I told someone about this, and they were like, you can’t put that on your list, ‘cause it’s out December 31st, and I read it back in October.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Aarya: And I was like, okay, but I’m not going to put it in my 2020 list, because I would have forgotten it by then.

Sarah: Nope, it’s, it’s hard when a book comes out on the last day of the year. Technically, it is a 2019 book, because the pub date and the, and the copyright date are 2019, so for the purposes of the RITA it’s a 2019 book, but publishers will call it a January book because it comes out on the last day of the year. You can call it whatever you want.

Aarya: So I am declaring it to be a 2019 book.

Sarah: Totally fine. What did you like about it?

Aarya: Uhhh, everything?

Sarah: Okay! Well, that is a –

Aarya: That’s –

Sarah: All right!

Aarya: That, that narrows it down. I think Kensington totally missed out an opportunity to make this an illustrated version. I know that books with illustrations are really expensive, but every single time she talked about her, her lettering I was like, I would love –

Sarah: I want to see it!

Aarya: – to see a picture of it.

Sarah: I want to see it! Yeah!

Aarya: Yeah. This was a book to – the words felt like pictures to me. It really did.

Sarah: The way that words are formed is part of the story. Like, they go hunt down typography, and they look at different signs, and they, and she talks about how the construction of letters is a different feeling. It’s almost like this is her partic-, the character’s particular synesthesia. If anyone is listening and they’re not familiar with this book, the heroine is a calligrapher, and she does custom layouts for people’s planners, and she does invitations and illustrations, and she’s an incredibly talented artist, but the way text is formed in the book and the way the heroine interacts with words is another layer to her character that adds a dimension of her art. It’s, you’re totally right; an illustrated version would be incredible.

Aarya: So the story kicks off because the hero comes in, into her shop, and she recognizes him as the fiancé of one of her clients from last year, and she feels terrible because in their wedding program she had put a secret message that was a mistake, because she thought that they were a bad couple and that they were going to break up, based on the small interactions that she had seen in the meeting, and he –

Sarah: She wasn’t wrong!

Aarya: Yeah, she was not wrong. And he, and he confronts her about it. And then it’s –

Sarah: Because he recognizes patterns, which is –

Aarya: Yes.

Sarah: – so interesting!

Aarya: And it was, I won’t tell you what the pattern was, but I was like, I would not have gotten that.

[Laughter]

Aarya: If it had been my wedding program, I would not have gotten that.

Sarah: No, I wouldn’t have either.

Aarya: The interesting thing about this book is that the relationship with Reid is one thing, and then I was equally invested in the relationship with her roommate; the other friend that she makes, which I don’t want to give away; and even the owner of the shop that she works in. Like, everything –

Sarah: Yes.

Aarya: – everything felt equally important, which makes sense. Like, when you’re in a relationship, like, that can’t be, like, the one-hundred-percent thing in your life. Like, you have got to have other things.

Sarah: You’re not in a relationship and you don’t see any other people in the world. Like, when you’re in a relationship, there are other people that you interact with who affect your life.

Aarya: And, okay, the, the thing with Reid is, so they have a mission, right. She has a client, she needs to come up with a design, and I think she’s, what, what, was it for, like, an agenda or something?

Sarah: Yeah.

Aarya: Yeah, so she has to come up with an ag-, an agenda design, and her idea is to take signs from, from around the city –

Sarah: Yes.

Aarya: – and give her inspiration, because she has, like, artistic block right now, and because – I’m not, I’m not certain why she takes Reid with her. I think it’s because when, when she’s with him she’s able to see the signs more clearly. Or it’s, it’s an adventure, basically, right, because he’s planning to leave New York soon.

Sarah: Right. So he’s also very low-risk.

Aarya: Yes. And this thing with Reid is kind of escape, an, an escape for her because she’s having such troubles with her roommate, who is pulling away from her for no reason at all, and they both know it, and she keeps on asking about it, and the roommate keeps on denying it and says, oh, everything is okay, when everything is clearly not okay.

Sarah: And that’s, and it’s so hard, because she knows something is changing. She can’t fix it, because she can’t identify what the problem is, but it still keeps changing anyway.

Aarya: I don’t want to get into the spoiler-y bits, but the thing I really appreciated about this was – okay, the thing that makes me really angry in a book is that when you have a conflict with a friend or a family member and that person hurts you, and then at the end everyone is forgiven because they are the friend or the, or the family member. Like, we expect the MCs to grovel, but then it’s, when we have a family conflict, sometimes the friend or the family member doesn’t always – like, they’re almost forgiven instantly, and I never feel like they deserve to be forgiven. And I –

Sarah: Yes, the –

Aarya: Yeah, I don’t know how else to describe it. Like, it’s just, oh, you’re my friend, and I fucked up, so here you go. Like, here’s a free pass for you.

Sarah: And often in a narrative, the friend relationships are not given that same space, like you said, for reconciliation and development. They’re not treated to the same beats as the main protagonist’s relationship, and that leads to this sort of feeling of, of being cheated or, or, or not having that full reconciliation that is so satisfying and makes those relationships equally important.

Aarya: And I get why it happens, ‘cause you have limited page count and you want to focus it –

Sarah: Sure, yeah!

Aarya: – and you want to focus it on the relationship, but then if you’re going to introduce a conflict with a friend or a family, or, or a family member, you have got to make it count, because that person is equally important to the hero or the heroine.

Sarah: Yes.

Aarya: Like, so I can’t – like, we, like, we always talk about, oh, the grovel, they didn’t grovel enough, and I didn’t like it, but the same thing applies to the friend. So I, without giving any spoilers, like, I was just really satisfied with the entire arc of that relationship with the roommate.

Sarah: So what is your next book?

Aarya: Okay, so my next book actually has a similar theme. It’s The Chai Factor by Farah Heron. I, I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly. Okay, so this book, this book, I, the, the heroine and I resonate; like, she resonated so much with me. She’s so sarcastic. She’s so guarded. She’s so – I don’t want to say mean, because I don’t want to call myself mean.

[Laughter]

Sarah: You’re not mean.

Aarya: No, but you know what I’m talking about. Like, she’s so – like, she snaps at, like, she’s so defensive, she snaps a lot. Like, she’s so protective of, of her family. Like, the instant she thinks that she’s being attacked she, like, jumps at a, to the defensive, and she’s okay with that, and, like, you know what, that’s, that’s an okay thing to be. It’s okay – you don’t always have to be quiet and nice. I just loved Amira so much.

Sarah: She’s the type of character who owns her prickliness.

Aarya: That’s the perfect word for it. And the premise is, she’s an engineering student, and she’s come home to finish her big project, and her grandmother has invited this barbershop quartet to rent out the room downstairs. There’s this guy, obviously, but – and he’s extremely annoying, and he has a beard, and he dresses like a lumberjack – [laughs] – and sparks fly! And that’s, like, the main premise of the story. And it’s very funny, but the things that I really felt about this book was not how funny it was; it was – oh, how do I talk about this without spoiling it? Okay, I just talked about forgiveness, right? And I think sometimes you can have conflicts where there’s well-deserved forgiveness, and then sometimes it’s okay to write about a plot where you don’t forgive someone. Like, I think it’s healthy sometimes to talk about a person in your life who has become so toxic that you kind of, like, you have to let that person go. That’s a weird thing to feel satisfied about.

Sarah: No!

Aarya: Like, do you know what I’m talking about? Like –

Sarah: Absolutely!

Aarya: – there’s this idea that love conquers all, and maybe it does, but not always. [Laughs]

Sarah: Nope.

Aarya: I don’t know.

Sarah: No, I think what, what these two picks have in common is that they represent the difficult and, and often unpredictable reality of real human relationships. Sometimes love doesn’t conquer all. Sometimes things do fall apart. Sometimes relationships end. They don’t just begin and endure, they also change and end, and both of these picks sort of represent that, right?

Aarya: And okay, the, I really don’t want to talk about spoilers, so I’ll be extremely vague about it. The hero –

Sarah: Things happened. [Laughs]

Aarya: Yeah, I know. I think this is going to be an uncomfortable book for many readers, and I think –

Sarah: Hmm!

Aarya: – that is a good thing. Like, I – so, CONTENT WARNING for Islamophobia – I think it is un-, it is uncomfortable because the hero has a person in his life that does not think that Muslims are human. Like, they are severely racist, and there comes a point when Amira realizes this, and she, like, attacks the hero. She’s like, how can you be complicit? How you can be okay with this person? Like, we cannot be in a relationship and you also have that relationship with that person. Like, she really forces him to think about the relationships in his life, and how can he reconcile that with her? And like, to someone else it might be, oh, why can’t he just be with Amira, and then when she’s away why can’t he go and be with the other person? Well, life doesn’t work that way. Amira deserves better than that.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Aarya: It’s her entire life, her entire family, her entire culture that’s being under attack here, and I, so I want everyone to read this book, because I think it is going to make you uncomfortable, and I think that is a compliment. I think maybe some people need to feel uncomfortable, just a little bit. But it’s also very funny. Like, let me, like, not forget that bit: it’s very funny.

So my next book is Kiss and Cry by Mina V. Esguerra.

Sarah: I loved this book.

Aarya: Yeah, and full disclosure: the author and I sometimes interact on social media. We’re not, like, best friends or anything, but we’ll tweet at each other. That being said, this book changed me. I don’t know how else to describe it. It – so what did you like about it?

Sarah: I loved the subtlety of how it described the feeling of being part of a community but not really part of a community. There’s an incredibly nuanced theme of diaspora in the book, of who belongs in a group and who doesn’t belong in a group, and there’s – and who’s admitted and who is not admitted, and there’s all of these very subtle signals as to where those boundaries are, and the characters are sort of negotiating them, especially the hero.

I also loved how much the heroine was determined to take control of her life. That is one of my favorite themes, where she’s just like, I am now in charge, and I am going to do things my way. And that’s both empowering and really scary. Those were two things I liked best. What about you?

Aarya: So the basic premise is, the her-, the heroine is a retired ice skater, and the hero is a player for the national hockey team in the Philippines, and he’s about to retire, and they’re kind of like the ones who had a chance ten years ago, but then they never really had that chance, and they’re hooking up now in an attempt for closure. And he and, the hero, Ram, he is a first-generation immigrant to the USA, but he still plays hockey for the Philippines. He comes back every year just to play hockey, but he’s an American, if that makes any sense. It’s, it’s weird, I know. It’s, he’s, he’s an American citizen, but he comes back to the Philippines all the time. And the thing about this book, I feel like I can’t even talk about it objectively because I connected so much to the hero, so much so that it alarmed me how much I was connecting to the hero, because I’m also a first – or is it, I guess I’m really the 1.5 generation, the, the kids who moved away to the US when they were children, but it’s not quite the first or the second generation; we’re kind of the in-between kids. So –

Sarah: Yeah.

Aarya: – yeah, I don’t, like – so let me give you an example, right. There’s a moment where he goes back to a restaurant in the Philippines, and he’s eating this dish that he’s been waiting for all year, and right before he eats it, he thinks to himself, I’m really scared that I won’t like it, because what if it’s not as good as it rem-, like, what if it’s not, like, what if the restaurant made a bad batch? Or what if it’s in my memory? What if I, like, hyped this up so much, and then it won’t be good. Or maybe I’m the one who has changed. And when you’ve, I think –

Sarah: Yep.

Aarya: – you don’t have to be an, an immigrant to grasp this, but, like, if you go, if you go back to your home town and you go back to, like, a restaurant that you really like and your entire childhood is there, right, and you eat it, and it’s, like, not the same pizza that you were thinking about when you were away. It’s just, like, it’s normal pizza, but it’s not like the memory that you’ve built it out to be. That’s what, like –

Sarah: Yep.

Aarya: – I feel that way all the time when I go back to Asia. Like, oh. Sometimes the food is really, really good, and sometimes it’s like, oh, well, I’ve had better. Why did I think this was so great? And I don’t know how else to describe it.

Sarah: Because it’s not just, oh, this doesn’t match my memory. It’s a piece of very important memory nostalgia and identity, and it doesn’t fit you anymore, and that’s painful.

Aarya: Yeah, and so another example is he has to fill up an entire suitcase of things he has to bring back to the US, just because, like, there are certain goods you can’t get in the US for his family? And it is like the, the amount of detail the author paid to things like that, I was just like, oh, this is me. I do this. Everyone does this. Like, they, she really got that experience correct. This book, I feel like I cannot be objective about it, just because the hero resonated so much with me, and – but I also think the romance is very good.

Sarah: Oh, it’s, it’s really good.

Aarya: But the hero really, really worked for me.

Sarah: Yeah.

Aarya: Okay, what’s next is, okay, so I’m done with my contemporary. So what’s next is Thrown to the Wolves by Charlie Adhara, and this is book three of a, a paranormal romantic suspense series. And okay, so this actually isn’t my favorite PNR book of 2019; that might be, like, Nalini Singh or something? But also, she’s been my favorite author for, like, ten years, so it wouldn’t be that interesting to talk about her.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Aarya: I was like, oh, I guess I can’t really talk about Nalini Singh again. It’s fine. [Laughs] No, but I really do love this book. I like books with established couples. This is definitely PNR. They were already together in the beginning, and, I mean, ob-, obviously they have conflicts. It’s m/m. If you like werewolves, you will like this. If you like mysteries, you will like this. And the thing that really stands out to me is how pack politics plays in this book, because normally I feel like in a lot of shapeshifter novels there’s this idea that you always have to be one with the pack. Like, no matter, like, at the end, even if you were having struggles fitting in or whatever, like, you are happy with your pack. You, like, go back with your alpha or, I don’t know, your mate or whatever, and in this book, the pack kind of sucks.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Aarya: Like, I don’t know how else to just, like – it’s, so the werewolf is Park, and the human is Cooper, and they’re both federal agents who investigate mysteries, and up till this point, Cooper has not met Park’s wolf family. And they go visit after a funeral, and his family is terrible. But they’re also, like, really political and savvy, but they, they don’t like him ‘cause he’s human, and there’s all this politics involved, and in the end, like, I was expecting a situation where the werewolf would say, oh, but you’re my family and I want to be with you forever and ever and ever. That does not happen. He’s like, oh, you’re my family, and I guess I do love you, but my pack is with someone else, and that pack is with my boyfriend. I just liked that this was a werewolf book where the werewolf does not end up with the pack. He’s very much his own person, and he’s chosen his own found family. I mean, I guess he does make a pack, but it’s not the pack that he was born, born into.

Sarah: And it, and it reinforces the idea that, like you said earlier, family relationships don’t get a free pass.

Aarya: It’s not like he’s cut them off or anything.

Sarah: No!

Aarya: Like, they’re still family, right, but it’s also, you can recognize, oh, I don’t want to live with you forever, ‘cause being in a werewolf pack is a big commitment.

Sarah: Yeah, and it’s, and it comes with responsibilities, much like other relationships.

Aarya: I think some family is easier to love from a distance –

Sarah: Yes.

Aarya: – and I think – yeah, so –

Sarah: Yes.

Aarya: – I also really appreciated that.

Sarah: Yes, absolutely true.

Zeb: Woof, woof! Woof.

Sarah: And Zeb agrees.

Zeb: Bark, bark, bark! Bark!

Aarya: So this is my last pick, and it’s my historical. It’s Proper English by K. J. Charles –

Zeb: Bark!

Aarya: – who is a fairly well – oh, Zeb agrees with me. It’s an excellent book, Zeb.

Sarah: He absolutely agrees. He’s entirely in favor of this pick.

Aarya: So I, I loved a lot of historicals this year, and the reason I chose this one to talk about is ‘cause I just watched Knives Out, and it reminded me of why murder mysteries are awesome. Especially murder mysteries in houses – [laughs] – in big houses where there are lots of rooms and potential suspects to interview. Have you seen the movie yet?

Sarah: I have not.

Aarya: Okay, you need to go see it right now.

Sarah: Okay, I will do that.

Aarya: [Laughs] No, but it’s, okay, it’s such – okay, so the reason I like mysteries is, it actually goes back to love, to Love Lettering, because I was so satisfied that I figured out the big reveal.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Aarya: When I read – like, but, like, I didn’t know it as a mystery, right. I was like, there were kind of clues. It’s not a mystery, but I was engaged enough that I spotted foreshadowing, and I was like, this is going to happen?

Sarah: [Laughs]

Aarya: And a murder, and a murder mystery is, the entire point of it is challenging the reader to think, what is going to happen? Like, I, do you know how some readers get really angry when they say, I predicted, I, I predicted the, the twist. They get really mad that they see it coming, and I agree that it shouldn’t be, like, totally obvious what the twist is, but if there’s good foreshadowing, if the author, like, really lays the seeds in the ground, like, it shouldn’t be a total shock to you. The entire point is for the reader to go through the journey of investigating with the person. So this is an f/f historical, and it’s just a lot of kissing and, okay, someone dies, and I, honestly, I, I read this book back in May, and I could not tell you who dies or why he dies? I just remember how cute the couple was – [laughs] – when they were kissing and investigating. I guess someone died; I didn’t really miss him that much. He was a bad person, so it’s okay. It just made me really, really happy, and I don’t know what else to say.

Sarah: You know what, and that, that can be the perfect reason to recommend a book, that it made you really happy.

Aarya: I just like murder mysteries, and there was kissing involved, and there were guests who were interviewed, and that is literally all that I need to make myself happy.

Sarah: Okay! Are there any other books you want to mention real quick? Anything else you want to add?

Aarya: God, no. I’m looking at my, at my list of twenty-two right now, and that’s too overwhelming. I will say, my overall favorite book of 2019 was Wolf Rain by Nalini Singh, to absolutely no one’s shock.

Sarah: [Laughs] No, not a surprise.

Aarya: Yeah, but I didn’t want to talk about that because, well, it’s obvious.

Sarah: Yeah! I understand completely!

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. Thank you to Shana, Sneezy, and Aarya for connecting with me at various times in their schedules, and thank you for joining us for another recap of 2019 favorite books! Like I said in the beginning, I would love to hear what your favorite books were. You can email me at [email protected] or leave a message at 1-201-371-3272.

Today’s episode transcript is brought to you by Once Upon a Duke, a free e-book by New York Times bestselling author Erica Ridley. Fans of Tessa Dare, Christi Caldwell, and Julia Quinn will love the laugh-out-loud Regency romps in the Twelve Dukes of Christmas series. Once Upon a Duke is a second-chances reunion romance featuring a spinster in a counting house, a grumpy duke, a snow-covered castle, and a pygmy goat named Tiny Tim. What could go wrong? Absolutely everything! When holiday humbug, the Duke of Silkridge is summoned to a wintry mountaintop village of perennial Yuletide, the last thing he’ll do is rekindle the forbidden spark crackling between him and the irresistible spitfire he’d left behind. Or is she exactly what he needs? Find out why USA Today bestselling author Darcy Burke says, when I want to feel good, I devour Erica Ridley’s swoon-worthy romps. Once Upon a Duke is yours for free wherever e-books are sold. Find out more at ericaridley.com.

Today’s podcast is sponsored by The Viscount’s Tempting Minx, also a free e-book from New York Times bestselling author Erica Ridley. So yes, free! Which means you can find out why The Viscount’s Tempting Minx is a fan favorite in the bestselling Dukes of War series. Certain individuals might consider Lady Amelia Pembroke a managing sort of female, but truly, most people would be lost without her help. Why, the latest on-dit is that rakish Viscount Sheffield is canceling the event of the year because he hasn’t time for silly soirees. He doesn’t need time – he needs her! The Viscount’s Tempting Minx is yours for free wherever e-books are sold, and stay tuned after this outro, which by the way is totally a word. You will receive an exclusive sneak peek of the audiobook. Find out more at ericaridley.com!

Thank you, as always, to our Patreon community, who keeps the show going. If this episode and the other episodes have perhaps made you happy and you would like to join the Patreon, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. Monthly pledges begin at one dollar a month, and every pledge keeps our podcast going every week. Thank you again to our community for being so wonderful and for keeping us going.

The music you’re listening to is Adeste Fiddles from Deviations Project. This is “Three Ships,” the first song I heard from this album, and still one of my favorites. You can find this whole album at Amazon or wherever you buy your funky, funky music.

Of course I will have links to all of the books we talked about in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast, and I will have links to the YouTube and webtoons that we discussed as well, do not worry.

As always, I end with a terrible joke, and I really like this one. In fact, I mistakenly told it twice to my son, and he enjoyed it both times! Maybe he was humoring me; I don’t know. But are you ready? [Clears throat] Saddle up to the holiday table, ‘cause this is one you can torture your family with.

What are Mario’s jeans made of?

Give up? What are Mario’s jeans made of?

Denim-denim-denim. Denim-denim-denim. [Sung to music you will recognize if you get the joke at all.]

[Laughs] It’s so stupid; I love it so much! That is from /gaiusnutcassius on Reddit. It’s so dumb! I love it!

On behalf of Sneezy, Aarya, and Shana, we wish you a wonderful holiday and the very best of reading, and I hope everything where you are is delicious. We will be back next week as we continue to look back at our favorite books of 2019 and look ahead to 2020.

And don’t forget, after the outro we have a sneak peek of the audiobook of The Viscount’s Tempting Minx.

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

[super groovy Christmas music]

[excerpt from The Viscount’s Tempting Minx by Erica Ridley]