526. Fall Book Wishlists and Trends

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Sarah Wendell: Hello there! Thank you for inviting me into your eardrums. I’m Sarah Wendell, with me is Wilbur, and this is episode number 526 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. Today, Amanda and I are catching up on what we’re looking forward to this fall, and in particular what books we’re looking forward to. Amanda shares some trends that she’s noticing at the bookstore and in the books that are being promoted to us as bloggers, and we’re taking a look at what trends will probably continue well into 2023, because as you know, if you’re in publishing, you’re probably working on like 2025 right now. Never fear: all of the books we talk about will be in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.

Hello and thank you as always to our Patreon community. Hello, folks! We are planning some big, fun things in the fall: stickers, possibly a Discord, possibly quarterly gatherings where we hang out and do crafts and you get to watch me curse at my quilting. It’s very fun. Quilting involves cats and cursing, but I would love to have you join the Patreon community, which supports the show, keeps me going, makes sure every episode has a transcript from garlicknitter – hi, garlicknitter! [Hi! – gk] If you would like to have a look at the Patreon, patreon.com/SmartBitches. Monthly pledges start at one whole dollar a month, and every pledge is absolutely fabulous.

Wilbur: Meow!

Sarah: Wilbur, did you hear? He agrees. He thinks that you should also join the Patreon, and if you do I promise more pictures of Wilbur. Is that what you’re angling for? No, he’s actually angling for food. You should see the look of anger I’m getting right now that I have not thrown food for him to go chase.

This episode is brought to you in part by In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae. In the Event of Love is a queer spin on classic Hallmark holiday movie tropes featuring two women who find a second chance to move beyond friendship to something more. With her career as a Los Angeles event planner imploding after a tabloid blowup, Morgan Ross is not headed home for the holidays so much as in strategic retreat. Her hometown of Fern Falls is built on one heartbreak on top of another. Take her one-time best friend turned crush, Rachel Reed. The memory of their perfect, doomed first kiss is still fresh in Morgan’s mind – way fresher than the freezing mud that Morgan ends up sprawled in on her very first day back, only to be hauled out via Rachel’s very sexy lumberjane muscles. When Morgan discovers that the Reeds’ struggling tree farm is the only thing standing between Fern Falls and corporate greed destroying the whole town’s livelihood, Morgan decides she can put heartbreak aside to save the farm by planning her best fundraiser yet. Delicious vanilla lattes, acoustic guitars under majestic pines, a cozy barn surrounded by brilliant stars. But she and Rachel will absolutely not have a heartwarming holiday happy ending, because that would be unprofessional and unlikely. Right? Wrong! Y’all, so many authors have blurbed this book, it is a buffet of blurbs. Rosie Danan called this ultra cozy and heart-meltingly sweet; Rachel Lynn Solomon calls this book wintry perfection, a cozy flannel blanket of a book; and my favorite, Dahlia Adler, who has been a guest on this show, says, “Move over, Santa – ’tis the season for sexy Sapphic lumberjanes!” [Laughs] What a great blurb! So if you are looking for a big, warm, fuzzy hug in a book, look no further than In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae, on sale now wherever books are sold. Find out more at kensingtonbooks.com.

Are you ready to get this party started and add an absolute –

Wilbur: Meow?

Sarah: – bucket-ton of books to your TBR this fall? Wilbur is right here yelling at me about it. Yes, I know! Fall books are really great! You get to sit on them. On with the podcast.

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Sarah: Periodically you’ve been updating me on what you’re looking forward to doing. You schedule things to look forward to do.

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: My, my summer has been complete chaos, and I’m glad that I –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – and of course fall, for me, is back to school and all, suddenly all this stuff on my calendar and –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – lots of evening things. Although having a child who has a driver’s license means that I have to –

Amanda: That’s true!

Sarah: – do a lot less schlepping! I mean we only have one car in the house, ‘cause he’s got mine, but!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Less schlepping! It’s a form of liberation. It’s like when our kids stopped going to daycare and switched to public school, all of a sudden it was like, wow, where did all this money come from?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: One, one other parent at the time described the, the raises that you get when you have a child. Like for example, when you switch from formula to milk?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: It’s much cheaper, much, much cheaper.

Amanda: That makes sense!

Sarah: And I could not breastfeed, so I was spending a lot of money on formula. And then when you switch from, like, childcare to public school, wow! Wow! And then you have the time raises where as they age they need less oversight and less involvement, until they do, and then it’s like full attention, all-hands-on-deck attention.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: But having a child with a driver’s license is frigging great! So my fall is mostly, oh, hey, it’s back to school, and we just went on vacation –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – so maybe we’ll do something in December, but for the most part it’s waiting for the weather to be less ass. ‘Cause the weather is ass.

Amanda: Yes, for sure.

Sarah: I read somebody in a, in a Discord that I’m on who lives in the area that I live in – it’s called the DMV – they, they pick out a prize for themself every year to, for making it through the DC summer. It is so disgusting, it is so humid, it is so hot, and every year they pick out a prize for themselves as their gift to themselves for making it through the DC summer –

Amanda: For doing it!

Sarah: – and I feel like I need to adopt this.

Amanda: Did they list any past prizes?

Sarah: Yes, they did, as a matter of fact! There was a new pair of shoes; there was a handbag; there was a trip to a specific spa; earrings, jewelry, a jacket.

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: Like a really nice thing to look forward to that also goes with the weather not being –

Amanda: So you, you just got to get through all of this boob sweat and then –

Sarah: You get, you get through the swampy, disgusting weather that is, honestly, Amanda, it is like walking out your door and into, straight into an upright bowl of New England clam chowder.

Amanda: Like, you, you don’t have to explain to me –

Sarah: Oh yeah, it’s so gross, right?

Amanda: – [laughs] – explain to me what humidity is like. I –

Sarah: – am from Florida.

Amanda: Yes. I get so irritated –

Sarah: Ah!

Amanda: – when I com- – well, like, I complain about the heat and they’re like, well, you’re from Florida! I’m like, listen –

Sarah: Like, that’s why you’re not there!

Amanda: Yeah, I’m not there for a reason, but also, listen: Florida existence is about getting from one place with AC to the next place with AC.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: You go to your house with AC to your car with AC to a restaurant with AC. It’s none of this, like, I leave my house with no AC –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – get to stand at a bus stop or a subway station –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – with no AC to go to a restaurant that just loves having its windows open and has no AC.

Sarah: No.

Amanda: Like, I don’t know what is with New England’s fascination with eating outside –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – but I hate it.

Sarah: I like eating outside because –

Amanda: So it’s like, there’s a difference.

Sarah: – if I’m going to go out it pretty much has to be outside because there’s a COVID, and –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – and as of right now I am still the most immune I will ever be?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: But I would prefer not to get it again; I did not enjoy it. Seriously, the brain fog absolutely terrified me. Absolute – I forgot the name of my street.

Amanda: Almost –

Sarah: I forgot the name of my street! I was like, I was sending something to my neighbor, and I’m like, where does she live? Where do I live? What’s the name – I forgot my friend’s wife’s name, and then my, my sister has it right now, and she’s like, I’ve forgotten everything. I’m like, I promise it comes back, but yes, it’s terrifying. And then my neighbor had it, and he’s like, I couldn’t do my job ‘cause I couldn’t remember what I do. Probably something with email, and he’s like, I couldn’t even write those.

[Laughter]

Sarah: So in addition to the cessation of heat, what are you looking forward to this fall?

Amanda: So –

Sarah: I need to pick out a gift for myself. I think you need to pick out a gift for yourself for making it through the humidity.

Amanda: God, for real. So I don’t have, like, a ton of stuff for me personally lined up, but my wonderful partner is taking me on a series of five dates –

Sarah: Oh!

Amanda: – for being very helpful during their move.

Sarah: Oh!

Amanda: So they want to take me on a series of five – I know what some of them are, and some of them are a surprise. So I know, like –

Sarah: Oh?

Amanda: – one of them is a fancy dinner?

Sarah: Always good. Get your eat on.

Amanda: Yeah – dancing. I’ve been a little stressed having to work on Saturdays at the bookstore, so I know, I think it’s this Saturday, I have to work a night, like a closing shift, so I don’t get done at the bookstore until 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Sarah: Oh, no fun! Not fun!

Amanda: But – yeah – but they plan to have a nice little bath time spa thing for me with, like, bath bombs and candles and so, like –

Sarah: Oh!

Amanda: – I’ll just come over, get myself in the bath; they will make dinner; and that’s it!

Sarah: That is lovely!

Amanda: I know! So very nice. I – this is recent, but I bought tickets for this Thursday. There’s a, an emo night at, like, a local – yeah – [laughs] – yeah, like a local ballroom concert hall where a DJ is just going to be playing emo music all night, and I’m ready for it, so.

Sarah: [Laughs] I never would have thought of this, but I like it!

Amanda: It’s super popular! Like, they just play music that I listened to in high school. Lots of, like, Fallout Boy and, like, My Chemical Romance and stuff.

Sarah: Wow.

Amanda: So I’m going to, you know, going to break out the old spiked jewelry –

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: – wear a lot of black.

Sarah: Put your Doc Martens on.

Amanda: Put my Docs on. Eyeliner. And just go! So that’s Thursday.

Sarah: I was going to say jeans and a flannel, but if it’s this week, no. Just the, just the, the, the vibe of jeans and a flannel without the jeans and the flannel.

Amanda: I know. God, I wish.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: Yeah, and just, I want it to be cool. It’s the only thing I’m looking forward to is, like, fucking fall temperatures.

Sarah: Oh, yeah. So I got two questions for you.

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: One, what is on your fall TBR?

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: And two, what trends are you noticing being heavily pushed towards the bookstore –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – in romance and in fiction?

Amanda: We’re still, we’re still seeing a lot of witches. We’re still seeing a lot of witches. I’ve been seeing more, like, horror comedies?

Sarah: A lot more horror! Just generally.

Amanda: Yeah, like, I’m thinking, like, Killers of a Certain Age coming out by Deanna Raybourn.

Sarah: That’s not horror, though. That’s not horror.

Amanda: But it’s like a, like a mystery, myst-, like, quirky mystery? Like –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: There’s also, like, Love in the Time of Serial Killers that’s coming out this month, I think, by Alicia Thompson. Lot of, like, quirky thriller/horror. There’s another one, it’s called Suburban Hell –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – I think is on my list, where it’s like PTA moms accidentally, like, summon a demon.

Sarah: As you do!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: I’ve been to PTA meetings; this does not surprise me.

Amanda: I don’t know; I can’t remember if this, if I put this on an upcoming Hide Your Wallet. I think I might have, ‘cause it looks very interesting, called Reluctant Immortals?

Sarah: Oh!

Amanda: And it’s set in like 1970s California?

Sarah: Right.

Amanda: And it has – oh, late ‘60s California – and it has one of Dracula’s wives and Bertha from Jane Eyre, and they’re just two women trying to live their life.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: And Dracula and Mr. Rochester show up in, in the LA neighborhood, and they’re, the, you know, the women are pissed. They’re like, we’re just trying to live our lives –

Sarah: Please fuck off.

Amanda: – away from you toxic men.

Sarah: Fuck off!

Amanda: So it looks kooky and funny and spooky, so I think, like, that’s top of my, my list –

Sarah: Yeah?

Amanda: – for the next. I mean, I think you, we might have mentioned this. I remember us talking about it on Slack. Mary Robinette Kowal’s upcoming mystery, The Spare Man?

Sarah: Oh yes.

Amanda: We were, like, talking about the cover; it looked really cool.

But still, lots of witchy stuff, like, even into December, on my list. Like, I have a, a witchy romance that’s coming out at the beginning of December, so we’re still on that train!

Sarah: It’s wild, isn’t it? I think, I think there’s a combination of not only just witches, which is women with, you know, some kind of power –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – but also women, women killing people.

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: There’s a lot of women-killing-people-on-purpose-to-get-away-with-it type of books. Like, I know –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – Darby Kane’s next one is, is one of those, like, all of the people conspire to commit murder once a month; like, it’s a club designed to eradicate –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – people?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Like a chamber? But her new book is, what’s it called? The Last Invitation, and it’s about a club where, you know, you get in and oh, gee, you know, your troublesome person has disappeared. Gosh, it’s nice that they’re not bothering you anymore.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: And then –

Amanda: I’m going to add that one to my list! That sounds great!

Sarah: That sounds exactly like up your street, doesn’t it?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: For me, one of the things that I think is going to happen is we have the, the witches with power, and then we have the women killing people who –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – have too much power, and there’s going to be more and more women doing rad shit –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – be- – and, and then it’s just going to be everywhere. Everything’s going to be awesome women doing rad shit. At least, maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

Amanda: [Laughs] Yeah.

Sarah: But there’s also, like, I’m, I’m looking at, for example, Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn comes out on the 9th, or on the 5th of September, and I’ve already read it –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – and I freaking loved it. And then there’s, like, Partners in Crime by Alisha Rai, which is a heist –

Amanda: Yeah, that’s on my list.

Sarah: – so, so there’s going to be heisting and adventure. Like, I think the success of The Lost City is going to mean that people are going to write more adventure heist romances.

Amanda: Yeah! I mean, I hope so.

Sarah: The, the fact that the only real thing that we could compare The Lost City to was Romancing the Stone, which it obviously was a, like a, a parody or a send-up of?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Like –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – that’s a really long gap; we can have more than one.

Amanda: I feel like in terms of adventure romance, I feel like I have a hard time finding books that include like more of the comedy aspects to it?

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: ‘Cause a lot of the adventure romance, I think, that I’ve read or that I’m aware of leans more towards like suspense, right?

Sarah: Right, absolutely. That makes sense.

Amanda: But I’m also trying to think of, like, bookstore stuff, like what I’ve been seeing a lot of lately. A lot of, a lot of, like, very – I mean, lit fic is sad.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: They have lots of, lots of very sad generational stuff coming in, which I don’t read and I don’t care to read. Seeing a lot of that lately.

Sarah: Downer family sagas?

Amanda: Yeah! Lots of downer family sagas, like generational trauma stuff for sure. Which, like, if you find that to be cathartic, have at it! You, there’s like a ton of stuff!

Sarah: It is your season.

Amanda: Yeah. A ton of stuff. I’m also –

Sarah: Maybe it’s, maybe it’s a trend of, of emotional catharsis books.

Amanda: Maybe! I’m also super excited about – I’m surprised this wasn’t on my list? Alexis Henderson’s new one, House of Hunger –

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda: – comes out: like, Sapphic, Gothic horror, gorgeous cover. I think we, I think Ellen wrote a review of their debut, The Year of the Witching.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: So I’m very excited about that one. I would love more, more queer horror. I’ve been seeing a lot more, like, queer horror novels; I think I’ve mentioned a few on the site in the latest Hide Your Wallets. Like, that’s –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – kind of where my attention has been going.

Sarah: Are you doing your Women in Horror panel at the bookstore?

Amanda: [Glumly] I don’t know. [Laughs]

Sarah: All right, well, fuck it then. We won’t talk about it.

Amanda: Yeah, like, I don’t know. Like, I’m super burnt out on virtual events, and –

Sarah: I cannot imagine why. Look at, listen to me: I’m, like, potentially thinking about doing things in person. What?!

Amanda: I know! But, like, I have the bookstore Romance Day panel, and I think, like, after that, I’m not, I’m not looking to schedule a ton more virtual events right now.

Sarah: Ooh! One book that I, one book that I am really looking forward to? A Restless Truth by Freya Marska comes out –

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: – on the 1st of November?

Amanda: That one’s on my list!

Sarah: It looks so good, and it took me a while to get into A Marvellous Light.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Like, the, the opening scenes are a little violent, and I was like, ooh, I can’t do this if there’s going to be – ooh –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – that was a – ooh – no. But then –

Amanda: That’s one I hand sell a lot of copies of.

Sarah: – reading that book, reading reviews of that book, where people talked about how cozy it is, I was like, oh, okay, I thought there was like a trend of beatdowns on the page going to continue, but no, it was –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – it was really lovely!

Amanda: Huh!

Sarah: I’m really glad I got past my initial ahhh!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: The sequel is, is characters that I already like, so I’m super excited about it!

Amanda: And I just love the covers, too.

Sarah: Oh, they’re so pretty. I mean, we’ll see more of that, because I think it really did work, the silhouette and filigree?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah, I think –

Amanda: And it’s, like, very striking colors too –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – very bright, very attention-grabbing.

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: I don’t – as most people who have listened to me prattle on for a while – I don’t read a ton of historical romance?

Sarah: I am aware.

Amanda: Yeah. But I do have one coming up on my list; like, probably the only one I’ve had on my TBR pile in the last six-ish months? The Boxing Baroness by Minerva Spencer: it’s her –

Sarah: I’m sorry!

Amanda: It’s her new series, and it’s, like, based on a real person, The Boxing Baroness. But yeah! The heroine’s a boxer!

Sarah: That’s very cool.

Amanda: Yeah! And I saw the cover of the second book; there’s going to be a second book in the series, and I think it features a heroine who uses a cane? So I don’t know; like, Minerva Spencer I feel like can go either way with me?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: Some of her earlier stuff is very Old-School-y?

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: Which doesn’t always land with me, depending on my mood, but I know a boxing baroness – it’s being published by Kensington, so we’ll see.

Sarah: Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty?

Amanda: Yeah! That’s the cozy Midsolar Murders!

Sarah: Oh, is that what that is?

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: That’s right! Dur.

Amanda: Midsolar Murders is the series.

Sarah: The series! I had written down –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – the Midsolar Murders and forgot, and then missed the connection to what I had written down for you earlier.

Amanda: The cover is, we’ve talked about the cover on, like, Cover Awe before?

Sarah: It’s gorgeous.

Amanda: It’s so beautiful. I’m very curious what it will look like in person? Yeah, super pumped about that one.

Sarah: So what other fall books are you curious about?

Amanda: So in bucking with my personal Amanda tradition of, like –

Sarah: [Laughs] Oh no!

Amanda: – not, not, like, usually reading historical romances and I have one, but in not reading holiday romances!

Sarah: Oh my gosh! A holiday romance?!

Amanda: I have one on my list!

Sarah: You do not!

Amanda: I do!

Sarah: I am amazed. Tell me all about it.

Amanda: It’s called A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone, and the main character is a plus-size sex worker. She’s an adult film star, and I’m like, all right, if you’re going to get me to read a holiday romance, that’s how you do it. [Laughs]

Sarah: This is, this is, this is the flavor of cookie to hide under the box with the stick to trap Amanda.

Amanda: Yeah. I will – so it’s like a steamy plus-size holiday rom-com about an adult film star who is semi-accidentally cast as a lead in a family-friendly Christmas movie with the former bad boy pop star she falls in love with. So she’s like a film star who accidentally gets cast in, like, a Hallmark movie. [Laughs]

Sarah: I love everything about this premise.

Amanda: Yeah. [Laughs]

Sarah: I love everything about it.

Amanda: And that one comes out in September, even though it’s a holiday romance, but that was like, I don’t read holiday romances, but I’m making an exception for this one.

Sarah: I, I can think, I can think of –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: – like four people I need to tell about this book right now.

Amanda: Yeah. So.

Sarah: Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Now, I have, I have (a) I have a book I forgot to tell you about, and (b) I have another book –

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: – that I’m very curious about. So as you know, I borrow cookbooks from the library –

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: – and my system is that I borrow it digitally, and then if I start bookmarking it – because it’s kind of a pain in the ass to cook from a digital book-, bookmarked cookbook; I don’t enjoy doing it – if I bookmark something more than four different recipes, then I borrow a print copy from the library –

Amanda: Ohhh!

Sarah: – so that I can actually, like, make the recipes and put Post-it notes in it and write, like, if I’m really invested in the cookbook then I’ll borrow the print copy, and then if I read –

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: – the print copy and I’m like, holy crap, I want to eat everything in here, then I’ll buy myself a copy. But I try not to accumulate too many cookbooks that I only make one recipe out of, which is, it’s a very easy habit for me to get into.

So I borrowed this book, I Dream of Dinner (So You Don’t Have To). Amanda, this, this cookbook is so up your street.

Amanda: Okay, okay.

Sarah: It is very streamlined, very easy recipes. Most of the time it’s a handful of ingredients in one place –

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: – on a sheet pan, in a pot. One of the recipes was so easy I made it for lunch this week, Pan con Tomate or Pain de Tomate. It’s basically toasted good bread rubbed with a garlic clove, and then you take a half of a big tomato and you just put it through the box grater so it’s just the flesh and the juice? And then you mix that up with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and put that on the bread, and then you eat it and it’s, like, fabulous.

Amanda: I love a tomato!

Sarah: Right? So this was tomatoes, white beans, and herbs on toasted bread with garlic, and it was –

Amanda: Oh!

Sarah: – so easy and so good.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: So –

Amanda: We have a copy at the bookstore, so.

Sarah: You should take a look at it. There are so many recipes where I’m like, well, I want to make that, and I want to make this, and I want to make that. The recipe, the thing I don’t like about it is that it lists the ingredients but it doesn’t tell you how much until you’re in the text?

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: So it’s like, you’re going to need white beans and focaccia and tomato, but then you’re going to see, okay, take three large beefsteak tomatoes for this –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – to make four. I don’t like that it doesn’t tell you the amounts in the, in the ingredient listing? But I have been –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – sitting on my couch this weekend reading this cookbook –

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: – and I must have marked twenty recipes that I want to eat.

Amanda: I have just posted in the bookstore Slack, can someone put this on hold for me? So.

Sarah: Yeah. It is –

Amanda: That way I do not forget.

Sarah: – it is a big fricking cookbook, too. Like, it’s a good –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – two inches thick, but I am really liking it, and it’s –

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: – definitely worth checking out of the library.

The other book I’m really curious about, and we talked about this internally in the Slack –

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: – is, one, Ana Maria and The Fox by Liana de la Rosa.

Amanda: You just posted that, and it looks –

Sarah: The cover –

Amanda: – beautiful!

Sarah: – is gorgeous. It is so gorgeous. The cover is amazing. It’s a Mexican heiress and a politician, and there’s a marriage of convenience, and the cover is promising lots of good stuff? Like, I’m super curious; I want to read this.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: The other one is Only Bad Options by Jennifer Estep?

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: We were talking about –

Amanda: I added that! Yes, I added that to my thing after you mentioned it.

Sarah: You’ve added it to your list of things to read?

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: It’s a space opera!

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: And there’s, there’s, like, all of the characters that are in your videogames in a book!

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: This sounds extredibly, this, that part sounds up your street, but then there’s, like, mysteries and, and danger and, and shit blows up, and I’m like, I can read shit blowing up!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: I like shit blowing up; let’s do that.

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: So that, that sounds –

Amanda: Yeah, you mentioned that one in the Slack, and I was like, ooh!

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: Okay! And I –

Sarah: That, that hits, that hits your space horny action –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – taste –

Amanda: For sure.

Sarah: – taste buds.

Amanda: [Laughs] Space horny taste buds.

Sarah: [Laughs] That was a little gross; sorry! Space horny –

Amanda: We’ve got mag-, like, unicorn butthole magic, space horny –

Sarah: Unicorn butthole –

Amanda: – taste buds.

Sarah: Yeah! We’re, it’s a little weird today.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: So are there other fall trends that you’re noticing, or anything that you’ve noticed being pitched really heavily?

Amanda: I’m seeing a lot of YA. Courtney Summers has a new book coming out, and if you like dark, creepy YA stuff, Courtney Summers is wonderful. I think her book Sadie was just on sale. But I’ve been seeing a lot of, like, creepy, like, YA horror coming into my, like, inbox –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – from, like, publicists I would say is like another, another trend. But still mostly just lots of witch stuff! Like, not a complaint, but –

Sarah: I have another one for you.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: You need to look at this cover.

Amanda: Okay. Okay.

Sarah: I’m going to put the cover in Slack for you.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: Literally Dead: Tales of Holiday Hauntings: Ghost Stories in the Winter Holidays, coming in October, available –

Amanda: All right!

Sarah: – for preorder from Alienhead Press. Check out this adorable fucking cover.

Amanda: Aw! [Laughs]

Sarah: Two little ghosts wearing sheets standing behind a Christmas tree with little Santa hats on, and one of them has feet and one of them has, doesn’t have feet! I love this!

Amanda: And then there’s a little pug in a Santa outfit.

Sarah: And then there’s a ghost dog, because there’s an empty dog suit.

Amanda: [Squees]

Sarah: There’s a ghost dog; there’s an empty dog costume just floating below the tree. I love this so much.

So that’s another thing I bet there’s going to be more of.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Let’s just overlap hol-, Halloween and Christmas happen at the same time; let’s just full overlap them and just –

Amanda: I feel like some, like, cozy –

Sarah: Spooky holidays.

Amanda: – cozy ghost stuff, like, I feel like dead romantics, you know, something cozy, more cozier spooky stuff, spooky stuff.

Sarah: Yeah. Cozy and spooky and scary and creepy?

Amanda: Yeah! I mean, I’m ready for spooky season.

Sarah: I’m just, I’m just ready to not have epic underboob sweat.

Amanda: God, it’s awful!

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: It’s so bad.

Sarah: I’m not a fan.

Amanda: I hate it.

Sarah: I’m not a fan.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of our conversation, but wait! There’s more!

In my episode with Julie Garwood, episode 520 from July 22nd, there was this strange background noise, if you remember? My theory was that it was a phone cord tapping the table, since we had connected by phone, and I was picturing one of those round phone cords like from a, from a landline? You remember those, right? Well, Regan wrote in with a theory – I don’t know if it’s Ree-gan or Ray-gan; I hope I got that right – and Regan wrote:

– I have a former boss who would often call me from her cell phone on speaker while she was putting on makeup, and the clicking sounds in the podcast sound just like her rustling around in her makeup bag. No idea what the sound was in the interview, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking Julie spent that entire time applying makeup on speaker phone.

[Laughs] That is hilarious! I cannot believe that your boss would just sit on the phone and put makeup on speaker. Wow!

And at the end of the episode I asked what your favorite Julie Garwood novel is, and Stacie wrote:

– I love Julie Garwood. My favorite Garwood is Honor’s Splendour. I read it once a year. Sizzle, Murder List, and The Bride are also favorites.

Oh, I love The Bride.

– I am so glad I found Julie as a teen in my high school library. Twenty years later and I still enjoy Julie’s books.

I love learning what books people read once a year. Ritual books like that are so soothing. Thank you, Stacie! You have excellent Garwood taste.

And finally, at the end of last week’s episode I featured a challenge in joke form, or a, or a joke in challenge form. Either way, here is a recap: the joke was from Tara, who got it from the Westfield Athenaeum, and yes, I do like saying athenaeum; it’s a great word.

How many librarians does it take to screw in a light bulb?

According to the joke, six hundred and forty-five point five librarians, and do you know why?

Well, some of y’all knew exactly why. Librarian James from South Carolina was the first to email me, followed almost immediately by Susan and Emily, all of whom knew that, drum roll – [drum roll on desk] – 645.5 is the Dewey decimal code for household items and lighting fixtures, so that’s why it takes 645.5 librarians to change a light bulb. You know, if their budgets aren’t slashed and the light bulbs aren’t being challenged by conspiracy theorists, you know, and all that. But hey! Nice job, James, Susan, and Emily.

This week’s joke is not a quiz! This joke was sent in by Viveka, who saw the joke on Facebook:

Did you know that an antelope can jump higher than a house?

This is because of its powerful hind legs, and also because houses can’t jump.

[Laughs] Tack så mycket, Viveka. I really appreciate your sending in a joke, and please feel free to tell me how absolutely dreadful my Swedish is.

I am very curious, though: what’s on your fall TBR? What books are you really looking forward to? You can always email me at [email protected] or [email protected], whichever email address is going to stick in your memory better. I’m always so excited to hear from you. It’s amazing to me that you might listen and then open up your email and send me a message. It’s really, really cool, so thank you for that.

On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a fantastic weekend, and we will see you back here next week with Deanna Raybourn talking about Killers of a Certain Age. [Squees]

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

[joyful music]