539. Wishes, Wins, and Best of 2022 with Sue, JFHobbit, and Maria Vale

[music]

Sarah Wendell: Hello there. Thank you for inviting me into your eardrums. I’m Sarah Wendell. This is episode number 539 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books, and it is time. It is time for the first of several year-end episodes – I love doing these. This year I have invited the staff reviewers and our podcast Patreon community to tell me their holiday wishes, a book that made their year better, and their big win for 2022. This week Sue, JF Hobbit, Maria Vale, and Lilisonna are sharing their picks, and of course no one brings one book, so all of the links are in the show notes to all of the books; never fear.

Hello and thank you to our Patreon community. Thank you for making these episodes possible. I’m so excited to talk with so many of you. If you’ve supported the show, keep me going, make sure every episode has a transcript, plus Patreon members get bonus episodes, a Discord server that is absolutely delightful, and you get to be, you know, part of shows like this. If you are curious, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. Monthly pledges start at one dollar a month, and a very big hello to Amanda, who is our newest Patreon community person. Welcome!

This episode is brought to you in part by my favorite comfortable, washable holiday shoes, Rothy’s. If you have some holiday festivities coming up that you need to attend, or you’re looking for the perfect stylish and sustainable gift for someone, may I suggest Rothy’s? Rothy’s shoes are perfect for holiday parties because they look dressed up, but they’re incredibly comfortable and stylish. And they come in so many patterns and colors, including some with sparkle, you’ll find the perfect match for your favorite party outfit. And as for gifting, well, they’re, they’re perfect. They feel great out of the box because they are woven, so they stretch to fit, and I do suggest, though, order a size up if you’re getting the Points. Rothy’s are made out of recycled plastic, so they’re durable, sustainably made, and best of all, they’re machine washable. I know you’ve heard me talk about this; it is still my favorite thing: chuck ‘em in the washing machine; they come out looking like new! And heads up: if you’re giving yourself a fabulous gift this year, Rothy’s just released merino wool slippers, you know, for when your day is actually over. Get stylish shoes versatile and durable enough to wear all the time with Rothy’s. Get twenty dollars off your first purchase at rothys.com/SARAH. That’s R-O-T-H-Y-S dot com slash SARAH.

This episode is brought to you in part by Stamps.com! Yep, I still get excited saying that. It is time for holiday mailing and shipping and sending cards and sending gifts to people all over the place, and it’s not too late to get your holiday mailing and shipping needs under control completely with Stamps.com. Stamps.com has everything you need to make your holiday season a lot easier. It’s a twenty-four/seven post office you can access from anywhere: no lines, no traffic, no hassle. Know that one guy who’s always mad that they’re in the post office line? Like, it’s a post office; there’s a line. Calm down. With Stamps.com you skip all of that. I get exclusive discounts, terrific rates on shipping, and I don’t have to wait in the line with that person. Stamps.com lets me print official postage right from my computer and saves me money. I used to have a specialty printer and I had to buy special labels for it? Not the case here. Stamps.com, I use my regular printer, no special supplies needed. It’s fast; it’s easy; it’s streamlined. Shipping is never stressful. This holiday season trade late nights for silent nights, and get started with Stamps.com today. Sign up with promo code SARAH for a special offer that includes a four-week trial plus free postage and a free digital scale; no long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to Stamps.com, click the microphone at the top of the page, and enter code SARAH.

If you are ready to hear holiday wishes and just good vibes and a big, warm, fuzzy podcast, let’s do it right now. On with the show.

[music]

Sue: My name is Sue. I am coming to you from the greater Los Angeles area, and I have been reading SBTB since 2005?

Sarah: Wow, that’s when it was founded. That was the original year, yeah.

Sue: When you and Candy met, ‘cause you, someone was looking for cat food or dog food.

Sarah: That was right! Yep!

Sue: For your sensitive pet.

Sarah: Wow.

Sue: Yeah!

Sarah: So you’re like a long-time – you’ve seen all the redesigns and everything.

Sue: Yeah. I’m OG. [Laughs]

Sarah: Thank you! For being part of the Smart Bitches community. I’m, like, really honored!

Sue: Thanks! I’m like, I remember when the Ladies were only like three, and she had to make a whole new Lady –

Sarah: I did!

Sue: – and it was difficult because of the style, and I read the whole thing and I was like, that’s a lot of effort –

Sarah: Yep.

Sue: – for a –

Sarah: Yep! And I still look for images. Like, if I’m a stock image site I’ll do a couple of keyword searches to see if there are any images that I could then, like, have my, my design team at Waxcreative, if they could take that and, like, change the style into –

Sue: The –

Sarah: – a Lady, and it is a –

Sue: – distinctive colorway.

Sarah: – it is a lot of work, and it’s a very specific style.

Sue: Back then you still had your day job, right? Like, this was –

Sarah: Mm-hmm! Oh yeah.

Sue: – ways back.

Sarah: Oh yeah, this was, this was something I did, like, on the sly, on my lunch break. Oh yeah. This didn’t become my full-time job until 2010, so five years after the site was founded.

Sue: Wow. Wooow!

Sarah: Yeah.

Sue: Well, congrats!

Sarah: Thank you! I’m still in awe that this is my job. But it is the best part of my job, ‘cause I get to, like, you know, hang out and talk to people like you! Hi!

Sue: [Laughs]

Sarah: So what are your holiday wishes for everyone? Let’s start with the happy stuff.

Sue: Ooh, okay. So my holiday wishes – I thought about this – my holiday wishes are that we all get to enjoy ourselves in whatever capacity that means.

Sarah: Yes.

Sue: So, like, if it means going to see your family and that, you know, contentious uncle and, like, having a screaming fight and you enjoy that, ‘cause some people do, then go for it, right?

Sarah: Mm-hmm!

Sue: But if you don’t want to fly for Thanksgiving, you just want to stay home with your partner and pets or by yourself, like, I hope that happens for you too. I hope you get to do the thing you want to do.

Sarah: Absolutely; I agree with you. And that, and that people are able to accept without judgment the things that make them happy?

Sue: Yes.

Sarah: And, like, don’t Should all over yourself.

Sue: Yeah! Like, you Should be traveling for Thanksgiving – y’all, it sucks!

Sarah: No, traveling is the worst.

Sue: And maybe you don’t – yeah – and maybe you don’t really care for Thanksgiving! Then don’t!

Sarah: That’s fine!

Sue: And maybe you don’t like turkey! Then don’t make a turkey just ‘cause everyone says you have to! Like, I feel like the pandemic really changed in terms of, like, my give-a-fuck? I just don’t anymore?

Sarah: Oh yes.

Sue: And now just ‘cause we’re back or whatever, like, doesn’t mean I have to, like, perform whatever it is that we’re supposed to. No. I will say, actually, myself? I used to be a very anti-holiday, humbug-y kind of person?

Sarah: Mm-hmm?

Sue: And I have bought a lot of lawn ornaments.

[Laughter]

Sue: ‘Cause now I want to! Right, so it’s funny, it’s like, I was like, no, I’m actually really looking forward to this! Because, in some ways because I get to choose to?

Sarah: Yeah.

Sue: I really want to, as opposed to before, where I was like, no, I don’t want to do this; I don’t want to do that. I had, like, maybe ten trick or treaters this year? I was the most amped person on my block. Like, I was so excited.

Sarah: Aw!

Sue: I, like, did the thing where you ask, like, what are you? Like, one guy dressed as a, one of those traffic cones? And he’s like, I’m not going to get hit; I’m really safe; and I was like, you get double candy.

Sarah: Yo, yes! [Laughs]

Sue: Well, I was like that, like, I was that neighbor this year! [Laughs]

Sarah: Mm-hmm! But that’s also sort of you being yourself in your home and having your home represent how you feel your, in, in your interior.

Sue: Yeah.

Sarah: Your exterior of your home is representing how you feel inside about Halloween this year, and that’s awesome!

Sue: Yeah. And it’s festive af this year.

Sarah: Heck yeah!

So what was a book that made you happy this year? It does not have to be a 2022 book, but bonus points if it is.

Sue: Going for the triple word score. I looked, I looked at my reading log, ‘cause my friends and I do a reading log, and the book, not published this year, but that did make me extremely happy, was The Bodyguard? She works for a security company, and he’s like a movie star or whatever, and it was extremely fun, and she was very competent, which is why I liked it.

And then another book that you guys recommended that I have meant to be reading forever but didn’t was, I finally started the first Murderbot –

Sarah: [Gasps]

Sue: – and I loved it.

Sarah: So is this The Bodyguard by Katherine Center?

Sue: Katherine Center, yes.

Sarah: Yellow, yell-, mustard yellow cover?

Sue: Yes, mustard yellow cover. I was going to say, you know, with the two figurines on it! Doesn’t help.

Sarah: Yeah, the, the two illustrated people? That also doesn’t help. The two people illustrated as standing back-to-back, not touching? Still not helping.

Sue: Yeah. Sometimes one’s above and one’s below? Still doesn’t help.

Sarah: Nope, still not happen-, hap- – it’s like when we get a HaBO request and someone’s like, okay, so this was a historical and there was a ball. And I’m like, I’m sorry; I cannot help you. [Laughs]

Sue: She wore a gown and, like, something, something on her gown snapped.

Sarah: Yep, yes. This is an, an illustrated cover with two people standing back-to-back, not touching, but this is The Bodyguard by Katherine Center. Got it; awesome.

Sue: Yeah. So she, that was amazing. It was nice to see sort of a competent woman doing physical security?

Sarah: Oooh.

Sue: And how much of it was mental and not just, like, physically overpowering people?

And Killers of a Certain Age.

Sarah: Oh gosh!

Sue: It’s so good.

Sarah: I just inhaled that book.

Sue: It was awesome. Yes! And then Murderbot, which I, I love the Murderbot itself, the bot that murders, but choose – could murder, but chooses to watch soap operas. Been there. But the other thing I liked was, I don’t remember the, the, the captain of the exploratory team? The Ph.D. scientist? She was awesome, and the way that the Murderbot recognized competence –

Sarah: Yes. Mensah, Dr. Mensah.

Sue: – Dr. Mensah – and was like, I like Dr. Mensah, and I was like, I like Dr. Mensah too!

Sarah: Yeah!

Sue: So I haven’t done the rest of the books ‘cause I, I’m trying to savor them?

Sarah: Oh yes.

Sue: But I, I plan to continue reading the Murderbot ones.

Sarah: So what was a big win for you this year?

Sue: A big win for me was that – this is going to sound crazy – but I DNFed a lot of books. I used to never DNF them. Like, I would read them while yelling, just, like, mad the whole time. Right?

Sarah: [Laughs] I’m reading this while I’m angry.

Sue: Just, like, angry and, like, texting my friends how much I hate this book.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Sue: And not, like, in an F+ way. Like, I love an F+, right? Like, an F+ is, like, aces. This was like, she’s stupid; he’s stupid; I hope they all die. Like, I hate this book! Right? And I would throw this book if it weren’t actually on my e-reader and belonged to me and would only hurt me. Like, I really, I’ve had ones where I just, like, I would like, I would physically put it down and have to take a, take a lap of the room I’m so mad? And then I used to read them all, and then, worse – and the reason I wouldn’t read fantasy or sci-fi or paranormal is, like, I was like, no, it’s in a series; I have to finish the series. Like, there was this thing where I was like, so I just wouldn’t start series, right? And I would tell all my friends, like, I don’t care how good it is; like, I don’t want to read it. I, I’ll have to read it forever. Like me and Outlander.

[Laughter]

Sue: Right, around book six I was like, this is the worst! But did I buy it? Yes. Did I read it? Most of it. I don’t remember a lot of it, but I was like, I will – ‘cause it was just like, I’m like, who’s keeping score? Who cares?

Sarah: Yes!

Sue: And, and, like, I felt like DNFing stuff or, like, quitting series was like a, a, a reflection of me.

Sarah: Yeah.

Sue: Like, I didn’t have stick-to-it-ive-ness; like, I, like, don’t, you know, like, whatever. And then –

Sarah: It’s some sort of moral failing if you don’t finish –

Sue: Yeah! Or, like –

Sarah: – this book you started, right. Yeah, I –

Sue: – yeah, or, like, I don’t, you know, I don’t have book mojo, or, like, I’m in a reading slump, and then I was like, you know what? It’s not my job to write a book that is compelling. Right, and, like, I’m not, obviously I’m not going to, like, go tell the author, like, I hated your book. Like, I’m not going to do that, but at the same time –

Sarah: No.

Sue: – it’s my private decision to be like, this book sucks; I’m putting it down and I never have to see it again.

Sarah: Yep! And that goes back to what you were saying about the pandemic and decorating your house, that you are going to be yourself unapologetically, and you’re going to set your own reading boundaries according to what you want to do, and there’s no Should or imperative at all.

Sue: Yeah, and, like, who cares, right?

Sarah: Who cares? No one’s keeping score.

Sue: Yeah, I’ve DNFed books like two chapters in. I’m like, you know what? It might get better, but I don’t care enough to try. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yep! And I, I love that idea, that no one’s keeping score. No one’s keeping track of what books you finish, and there’s no, like, there’s no tally or receipt at the end. Like, I’m sorry; you have, you have left too many books unread! You’re going to the Bad Place. What?!

Sue: You’re, you’re, I’m, I mean, I’m going to the Bad Place regardless? That’s fine.

Sarah: That’s fine.

Sue: But also, like, I feel like the tracker actually really helped me because I used to be like, oh, I didn’t read that many books this year –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sue: – and then when I was like, if you, if I’m allowed, allowed – who’s allowing? Whatever – if I log DNF books, I, I try a lot of books.

Sarah: Oh yeah, me too!

Sue: I try a lot of books in a lot of different genres, and, like, it’s not like, I’m trying, and, like, if I hit a book slump – so if I look at my tracker, I hit a book slump February through May. I just couldn’t really – I, I, I read one book. But –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sue: – I was like, I DNFed a couple in the middle, and I was like, no! This is, it’s just not hitting, and when it hits is, is when it’ll hit, and we’ll see what it takes. The one it took was, apparently, an eight-hundred-page historical fiction novel. [Laughs]

Sarah: As you do!

Sue: Like you do! I was like, who, who knew a tome –

Sarah: Which book was that?

Sue: It was – I think it might be seven hundred and something pages – it was, Alison Weir does historical, historical fiction? She’s a historian herself, but she also writes fiction, and so she wrote an Anne Boleyn novel that I was like, I’m in a slump; this looks good.

Sarah: Yeah! I also find that tracking when I haven’t finished a book is also a good indicator of maybe there’s something going on like in my brain that I need to be aware of? Like, oh, okay, something’s going on; let’s – so for, recently, I was having a really hard time in, like, late October, early November, finishing books, and I switched to audiobooks, and it worked so well for my brain. Once I found two series that I liked and I could switch back and forth, I was, I was getting that, that good book feeling?

Sue: Yeah.

Sarah: Like, oh, I’m not here right now, I’m in this book, and it’s very restorative and soothing for my brain? But also, DNFing a book gives you more time to find the ones that do hit and that do work, so you’re actually doing the right thing for your brain by making sure that what you’re enjoying – you, you have more time for what you’re enjoying.

Sue: I, I will say, I do sometimes miss, like, the rage texts I used to send to my friends.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Sue: ‘Cause, like, that was actually legitimately hilarious.

Sarah: Yeah.

Sue: I was like – and my friends were like, why are you reading this? And I’m like, so that I can yell about it! Keep up! It just gives me a lot more time, and also I want to say that this wasn’t this year, so, but it was a win in years past –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sue: – and I want to say of you guys and one of my friends who was like, reading is just hard for me; you guys were like, audiobooks count as books; and I was like, oh, it does count as books!

Sarah: Absolutely it does. Fanfic counts –

Sue: So –

Sarah: – audiobooks count; anything – if it’s a narrative and you’re enjoying it, it counts.

Sue: And it helps so much, because, like, I do a lot of, like, kitchen cleaning or folding laundry while I’m listening to audiobooks –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sue: – and then it’s like, I don’t sit there reading and be like, oh, I should be doing something else, or like, I have a lot to do today, but I’m really enjoying this, and I feel this, like, push and pull. And then it’s like, I can enjoy all the things I want to do –

Sarah: Oh yeah.

Sue: – and then also, there are some books that, honestly, Bad Blood, that Theranos nonfiction?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sue: I fell asleep like three times trying to read it. I just, like, I couldn’t get through it –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Sue: – but in the audiobook, it was so good! And so it was just like the, it just depends on the medium sometimes. Like –

Sarah: Absolutely.

Sue: – what your brain can, can, can read and can’t read versus can hear or not hear. Like, I really have a hard time with fiction and romance as audiobooks, but I have no problems speeding through it as a written, and then it’s exact opposite for some nonfiction. I just, I can’t read nonfiction; it’s too, it’s too dry for me? But somehow with a narrator it’s like someone’s telling me an intensely true gossip story.

Sarah: Oh, I love that. And I love listening to audiobooks or listening to things while I’m doing chores? I think of it as dressing up my chores?

Sue: Mm.

Sarah: Like, this chore is not fun, and I don’t enjoy it, but – but I can put on an audiobook. It very much soothes the part of my brain that craves constant narrative distraction.

Sue: Yeah.

Sarah: Thank you so much, Sue!

Sue: Thank you!

Sarah: Happy New Year, and thank you for being part of the podcast and the podcast Patreon. It’s really, really lovely to chat with you each day.

Sue: Thanks for doing this for so long.

Sarah: Every year at the end of the year it’s almost time for me to, like, finish the business taxes and file all, like, I have to file an annual report; I have to do all this business stuff. Every year there’s a moment where I’m like, still here! Hell yeah! We’re all still here, and, like you said, no one is keeping score.

Sue: No one is keeping score. It’s one of the best parts of my day when I’m like, what’s the digest got for me today?

Sarah: Yep! Thank you!

Sue: Then I click through, and then I like – oh! I forgot to tell you! This, last week I bought those Loop earplugs?

Sarah: Oh, how do you like them?

Sue: I like them. And I bought the, like, dangly ear –

Sarah: Me too!

Sue: And then yesterday we got Taylor Swift tickets, and I was like –

Sarah: [Gasps] Oh my goodness, that is a big win! Congratulations!

Sue: I know. And I – thank you! – and I was like, I texted my friend; I was like, I’m so excited! Can’t wait to bring the earplugs!

Sarah: Right? Because I can’t go to con-, concerts because my ears ring for a week and a half afterward.

Sue: It’s ear damage! Like, this is, I don’t, people are like, why – ? And I’m like, here’s the deal: even if I didn’t think that it was too loud, I know I’m getting ear damage –

Sarah: Yep.

Sue: – so I’m like, like, nerve damage, so I was like –

Sarah: Yep!

Sue: – the amount of sunblock I wear says that I should pay that – [laughs] – same amount of attention to my ears. But it was like the most forty-year-old thing to text my friend; I was like, can’t wait to –

Sarah: I brought my earplug earrings!

Sue: [Laughs] I’ve got my earplugs for ‘em!

Sarah: And they look good, too; they’re really cool looking! I love how they look.

Sue: They’re really cool, and they dampen and they don’t – my problem with, like, regular – which I was wearing them for a while – was, like, regular earplugs, it muffles things?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sue: To the point where, like, you feel like you’re underwater or something. Like, it’s harder – it’s not as nice?

Sarah: Yeah.

Sue: It serves a purpose, but also it detracts from the experience?

Sarah: Yep.

Sue: So, anyway.

Sarah: And this just dampens all of the extra and makes it so you can – like, I can hear people, I can hear what’s happening, but also I don’t, I don’t hear, like, the laptop fan that bugs me and, and loud noises are turned down. It’s so great.

Sue: Yeah!

Sarah: Thank you so much, ma’am!

[music]

Maria Vale: Hey, everyone! This is Maria Vale from New York City. Thanks for letting me join in. I read a lot of books in 2022, but some of my favorites, there were actually a couple that I wanted to mention.

One was Nettle and Bone. I love T. Kingfisher fantasies no matter what, but I read this one – you know, it’s another upended fairytale – right after the Dobbs decision? And it was a story about choice and autonomy that at the moment I really needed.

And then the other one that I wanted to mention was Sailor’s Delight, which has all the research that I admire about Rose Lerner’s books. I don’t know if anybody else loves Regency romance and the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey-Maturin series, but if you do, this is really for you. Her hero, Elie Benezet, is a gay, Jewish naval agent in love with his client, Augustus Brine, and I can’t imagine a better name for a naval hero. She does such a wonderful job with Elie’s repressed pining, and I really don’t remember the last time I rooted so hard for a character to find love.

As for myself, I published the last two volumes – well, volume and a half – of my Legend of All Wolves, the series I started when I was fifty-seven. I’m proud of those books and sorry to see the end of the Great North Pack, but I’m going to be busy this spring. I was asked to participate in a collection of Fey stories that include some of my absolute favorite fantasy romance writers, Jeffe Kennedy, Grace Draven, and Dana Marton that will be coming out this spring in time for ApollyCon, and just a few weeks earlier I’ll be releasing a love story between the Angel of Death and a waitress at a thinly disguised Hooters. So, two very different stories.

In terms of my wishes for 2023, I’m hoping that we will all be gentle with the world and the world will be gentle with us too. So love to you all.

[music]

JF Hobbit: Well, my online persona is JF Hobbit, or Hobbit for short, and I work in education, so I keep that online.

Sarah: I completely understand.

Hobbit: And I have been reading romance since college, but out loud since, like, mostly COVID, when I just decided I gave fewer fucks about what people thought about what I was reading! And since then have moved to reading almost entirely romance, since I decided, ooh, I can count this on my Goodreads, and hey, I liked reading this a lot more than I liked reading the, like, literary books!

Sarah: Yep!

Hobbit: So yes. Since then I’ve done a lot of catching up on backlists and stuff. Yeah.

Sarah: So what are your, what are your holiday wishes for everyone?

Hobbit: Holiday wishes: so, peace. I wish peaceful family gatherings.

Sarah: [Laughs] Oh yes!

Hobbit: Whether that be with found family or blood family or family that you are just meeting and getting to spend time with –

Sarah: Yep.

Hobbit: – as I raise my hand.

Sarah: Hi. [Laughs]

Hobbit: Yeah. Peaceful, peaceful family gatherings and some quiet time if that is a thing that you desperately need around the holidays.

Sarah: Oh yes, this is a good wish. Especially when you find yourself in community with people who tend to make you feel safe being yourself? That’s, that’s a really lovely –

Hobbit: Yes.

Sarah: – form of peace, I agree. So what was a book that made you very happy this year?

Hobbit: [Sighs] I came up with a short list –

Sarah: Okay!

Hobbit: – of just ones, this, that were published in 2022, and I kind of –

Sarah: Fantastic.

Hobbit: – used that to limit myself a little bit, since I read a lot of backlist this year.

So I was going to start with Alexis Hall. Anything Alexis Hall writes I will eat up, but I particularly loved A Lady for the Duke, the trans Regency romance? It’s like all of the words that I like in one, in one book!

Sarah: Oh –

Hobbit: And it was amazing.

Sarah: – it was so good.

Hobbit: I loved it so much.

And then I also read and loved Love on the Brain, Ali Hazelwood.

Sarah: Yep!

Hobbit: Got to love some STEM, some STEM representation there.

Nobody’s Princess, which I know, like, I loved hearing Erica Ridley on the podcast, and the book was spectacular –

Sarah: Oh, that’s so great!

Hobbit: – and I love all of the, I loved, I love all the Wild Wynchester books. They’re just romps, and I –

Sarah: They’re just fun, right?

Hobbit: Yes. And then for the monsters lovers, I, both of Finley Fenn’s orc romances that were published this year. Actually, she published three, but they were all spectacular, and The Governess and the Orc, the most recent one, won for having my, like, number-one fantasy, which is a well-funded school?

Sarah: [Laughs] Listen, if you’re going to have monster-fucking and you’re going to have orcs, why not a well-supported educational system, right? Let’s just go all the way!

Hobbit: Honestly! Like, like, there’s cooperation, and there is respect for other people’s cultures, and it was just, it was like, this is the perfect school! Why does the perfect school exist in Orc Mountain and not in the world? I don’t know.

An honorable mention for all of the Psy-Changeling books, ‘cause, like, at least one of them was published this year –

Sarah: Oh!

Hobbit: – one of the ones I read.

Sarah: It, last year at this time I started a reread of that whole series, all the way – I think that took me into mid-February. It was great.

Hobbit: I would listen to them all on audiobook?

Sarah: Oh, they’re so good on audio.

Hobbit: Yeah, and I was, I, like, just kind of, like, I have that one friend that I text about all the books that I read, and I was like, she’s like, do I need to just read these so I know what you’re talking about? And I was like, yes, because I can’t be the only one reading all thirty of these in one three-month span.

Sarah: Yeah.

Hobbit: So yeah. So those were my top hits –

Sarah: That is fantastic!

Hobbit: – of the nearly two hundred, according to Goodreads, that I have tracked reading in Goodreads.

Sarah: Nice number! You must be very pleased with that.

Hobbit: I am very pleased with that. It helps that I have a long commute and audiobooks.

Sarah: Oh yeah. Oh, I, I’ve gotten very much into audiobooks, actually.

Hobbit: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: I’ll give you a sneak peek: this week’s bonus episode is going to be –

Hobbit: Yes!

Sarah: – all of the things that I do to combat when I have too, too much brain fatigue to read, but I need to read –

Hobbit: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – and audiobooks are a major component of that.

Hobbit: A huge part of that, ‘cause I don’t love silence.

Sarah: No!

Hobbit: As much as I like quiet, I don’t love silence.

Sarah: And sometimes my brain will choose to fill that silence with things that I don’t want to think about? It’s, like, so not cool.

Hobbit: Yeah.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Hobbit: And my go-to for years was music, but then I, like, there are just some times that music doesn’t scratch the reading itch.

Sarah: Yes.

Hobbit: And so I was like, well, what can I do while, what else can I do while I play stupid games on my phone –

Sarah: Right?

Hobbit: – and color, color by number? And the answer was audiobooks, and I was like, why have I never thought of this before? So I thought for years that I couldn’t do audiobooks ‘cause I have ADHD and just, like, sitting and listening to something without doing anything with my hands is hell.

Sarah: Yep!

Hobbit: But once I was like, oh, but, like, if I do something with my hands like doodling in class, then I can focus to what the professor is saying, on what the professor is saying –

Sarah: Yes!

Hobbit: – so what if that worked with doing something with my hands and audiobooks?

Sarah: Yes!

Hobbit: And I’ll be even more interested because I actually care about what the audiobooks are saying.

Sarah: Yes. Absolutely, that is the exact same thing that is true for me.

Hobbit: Yeah.

Sarah: Oh yeah. So what –

Hobbit: So that was a revelation.

Sarah: It’s amazing, right? So other than that –

Hobbit: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – what’s a win for you in 2022?

Hobbit: [Sighs] Oh gosh. In 2022, I’d say I’ve been trying for as long as I’ve been dating and then married to my spouse to learn German, because they are German –

Sarah: Ah!

Hobbit: – and we are planning on moving to Germany in the nearish future.

Sarah: Ooh! That’ll be a very different culture than what you’re used to!

Hobbit: It will be a very different culture than what I’m used to. I am born and bred Californian.

Sarah: Oh! Extremely different, then! Wow! Woof!

Hobbit: So it will be, it will be a, it’ll be a shift. So I’ve put a lot of time into kind of pre-preparing myself –

Sarah: Yeah!

Hobbit: – for cultural and also for the language, and so, like, after four years of doing Duolingo and being like, I still can barely say a sentence that they don’t say to me first –

Sarah: Right.

Hobbit: – I have actually, like, I went out and found, like, grammar stuff –

Sarah: Ooh!

Hobbit: – and have been able to have, like, very basic conversations? But, like –

Sarah: That’s fantastic!

Hobbit: – whole conversations with spouse and with their siblings who also speak German and grew up in, at least partially in Germany.

Sarah: Oh, that is fantastic! Congratulations!

Hobbit: I’m like, it’s just, it’s a little bit, and they still laugh at my pronunciation because American Rs, man.

Sarah: Oh yeah, the R is in a totally different part of your mouth.

Hobbit: It’s just, it’s so far back, and I’m like, but then I can’t breathe!

Sarah: Yep!

Hobbit: Yeah.

Sarah: Thank you so much for doing this! It’s been really delightful to talk to you. I’m honored to have been part of your quiet, chill moment.

Hobbit: Yes. Thank you so much! I have been listening and loving your podcast since like 2020 when I decided that I liked romance enough to not care what people thought about it, and –

Sarah: Yeah! Screw, screw people who have opinions about your reading; it’s your reading! Doesn’t matter!

Hobbit: Exactly!

Sarah: I’m, I’m honored to have you on the show this year as we celebrate –

Hobbit: Yeah!

Sarah: – the end of the year. Thank you so much!

Hobbit: Thank you!

[music]

Lilisonna: So my name is Lilisonna; that is the name that I go by on the interwebs. I am in Georgia. So we are in the middle of having our runoff election, which is super exciting. [Laughs] Yeah.

Sarah: It’s only a little nerve-racking.

Lilisonna: Only just a little bit. We’ve done this before! It went okay. We’ll try to do it again. I have –

Sarah: It’s exhausting.

Lilisonna: It is exhausting. I have already voted, so I’m done?

Sarah: Yay! How long did you have to wait in line? Did you have to wait in one of those lines that was –

Lilisonna: I –

Sarah: – nine blocks long?

Lilisonna: It was not nine blocks long, but it was an hour and a half.

Sarah: Great day in the morning!

Lilisonna: Right?

Sarah: So that’s called voter suppression!

Lilisonna: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: Wow.

Lilisonna: We had two people who had never voted before?

Sarah: Oh, how exciting!

Lilisonna: Yes! So we got to applaud and, and clap and tell them yay, so that was lovely. They seemed very excited, so that was cool!

Sarah: To see people vote for the first time is just like –

Lilisonna: Yes!

Sarah: – that’s really nice, right?

Lilisonna: It does! So, so we all applauded and it was, it was lovely.

Sarah: Yeah!

Lilisonna: So yeah. So that’s where I am! I, I do computer work; I’m a manager for Cisco; and so yeah, that’s me!

Sarah: Well, thank you for doing this. It is so nice to have all of these different people and voices on the podcast to talk about the end of the year, so let’s start. What are your holiday wishes for everyone?

Lilisonna: I hope everyone gets a break.

Sarah: [Laughs] Oh God, yes! Cheers to that!

[Laughter]

Lilisonna: Like, I don’t know why 2022 has felt so heavy. Right? Like –

Sarah: Heavy is exactly the right word.

Lilisonna: It’s just been heavy. And, you know, we had, we had the, the peak pandemic years where we were all locked down, and we came out of it kind of, maybe, sort of, all of those things, and 2022 just hit everyone like a brick, so I hope everyone gets a break, and we can all sort of take a deep breath, look at, back at where we’ve been –

Sarah: Yeah.

Lilisonna: – and progress that we’ve made, ‘cause we have made progress, and just have a break! That’s –

Sarah: Just rest.

Lilisonna: – that’s my holiday wish. Yes.

Sarah: That’s a, that’s a good wish. That is a good wish.

Lilisonna: Get some rest. Take a nap.

Sarah: Oh gosh! So what was a book that made you happy this year?

Lilisonna: I have, it has to be, it’s a trilogy; so it’s the Scholomance series.

Sarah: Oh-ho! And, listen, everyone I have asked this to has brought more than one, so if you –

Lilisonna: Oh good! So I get to bring more than one. Excellent!

Sarah: – don’t, don’t feel the pressure that you can’t bring more than one.

Lilisonna: Excellent. So I read the, part of the first one when, when the Scholomance first came out. I don’t even remember the name of the first book. I read part of it, and I got about two-thirds of the way through, and I went, ahhh, I just can’t! It’s, it ends on a cliffhanger; it doesn’t complete; I just, I just can’t read this book. I love Naomi’s work; it’s great. I love all of her stuff. Spinning Silver is just, it is my heart book, and I read it almost every year. I love it so much. I think I read it five times during lockdown. [Laughs] And I was like, I, I trust her; I trust that this is going to work out; but I just, I can’t. Too much stress; I cannot do it.

Sarah: Yep!

Lilisonna: So I put them on the shelf, and I preordered both of the, the others, and then the last one came out and I was like, okay, it’s out; it’s complete; I can do it. So I went back to the very first one, and I read all of them in like four days.

Sarah: Oh my gosh! That’s a lot!

Lilisonna: It was a lot, but it was so good. And just, it was exactly what I needed to hear at the time. It was all the right words in the right place, and it was just fantastic.

Sarah: Isn’t it lovely when it is the exact right, like, flavor? Like, oh, this is –

Lilisonna: Yes.

Sarah: – exactly what I wanted?

Lilisonna: Precisely what I needed.

Sarah: Yep!

Lilisonna: Yeah. And it was just, it was happy and good and had a huge conversation about a whole lot of things that I was also having conversations with in other places, so it was just, it was the right book at the right time with all the right words, and it was fantastic.

Sarah: That’s lovely. That is really lovely. And the nice thing is, because the trilogy is complete, you can reread it!

Lilisonna: Yes! Yes! So it’s done! I can go back, I can reread it, which I have.

Sarah: Yep.

Lilisonna: I’ve reread it at least once and sections at least two or three times ‘cause I read sections.

Two honorable mentions that I have to, to do: Ursula Vernon’s Nettle and Bone, which is just, it’s delightful. It was a happy fairy- – not happy. She doesn’t write happy; she writes weird and twisted, but comforting; weird, twisted, and comforting all at the same time?

Sarah: Yep!

Lilisonna: So that one was great.

And then a nonfiction that I read, which is Unmask Alice.

Sarah: Oh, is this the one about Go Ask Alice –

Lilisonna: Yeah!

Sarah: – that was like, this whole thing was a big fat lie?

Lilisonna: Yes!

Sarah: [Gasps] I have heard about this book! Tell me about it!

Lilisonna: It is good! So I read Go Ask Alice as a kid; I absolutely did.

Sarah: We are probably of an age, because that was –

Lilisonna: Yep!

Sarah: – The Book. Like, that book was everywhere.

Lilisonna: Everywhere! I read it when, at an age where, like, half of it went over my head. Like, I got some of it, but much of it was just like, what?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Lilisonna: Yeah! And so it’s all a lie. It’s all made up, and it, like, the woman who wrote it apparently wrote like four or five other books that are exactly like it.

Sarah: Yep!

Lilisonna: They just didn’t get popular. And just reading it was this weird experience of, like – [gasps] – I remember that passage!

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Lilisonna: Oh yeah, no, that traumatized me!

Sarah: Yep.

Lilisonna: You know, and looking at it from an adult perspective, when I’m not like twelve or whatever age I was –

Sarah: Right, yeah.

Lilisonna: – you’re like, yeah, no, that’s, that’s bullshit. [Laughs] That’s entirely nonsense!

Sarah: But at twelve, if you’re reading it in a book and you’re told that it’s a true story, why would you doubt it?

Lilisonna: Yes!

Sarah: ‘Cause at that age it’s like, oh, well –

Lilisonna: Yes, you told me it was true!

Sarah: And it was in print! Surely it wouldn’t be words on the paper in a book if it wasn’t, you know, true!

Lilisonna: Non-, nonfiction books don’t lie to you when you’re twelve! [Laughs]

Sarah: No, not at all!

Lilisonna: Which is a whole other thing that we should start unpacking, ‘cause –

Sarah: Just a –

Lilisonna: – things, yeah.

Sarah: Just a little bit.

Lilisonna: But yeah, so it was, it was a fabulous read.

Sarah: [Gasps] Did it make you really mad? ‘Cause I have a feeling if I read this book, I’m going to want, I’m going to be so mad at this author for traumatizing me and so many other people?

Lilisonna: It didn’t – it made me more sad than mad.

Sarah: Yeah?

Lilisonna: That there was definitely an element of, like, how could – really? Did you really have to do this?

Sarah: Yeah.

Lilisonna: But there is a lot of, like, there’s some tragedy in there that they hit with you at the, like, the last third of the book, and you’re like, oh shit.

Sarah: Oh no!

Lilisonna: Like, but it was, it was satisfying from my perspective because it was just, I remember all of the emotions and all of the things that came up from, from the original book, and having it debunked was this sort of demystifying it, and I think that, oh, yeah, like, all of that could just go away.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Lilisonna: And I just sort of tossed a whole bunch of garbage into the trash that I didn’t even realize I’d accumulated.

Sarah: Isn’t that lovely when you read something that reframes an experience for you, and you’re like, oh, I can let go of this old way of seeing things. I don’t have to think through this frame anymore.

Lilisonna: Yes, this frame is no longer valid, it doesn’t work, it never worked, and now I can see that it doesn’t work, and I can just pitch it!

Sarah: Yeah.

Lilisonna: So that was great.

Sarah: Oh, that’s good. I might have to read this.

Lilisonna: Yeah, yeah.

Sarah: I kind of love the subtitle? LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries? Yeah, that’s going to cover some stuff; there’s going to be some –

Lilisonna: Yeah!

Sarah: – there’s going to be some shit in there. Yeah? Ooh –

Lilisonna: Yep.

Sarah: – damn! Wow! Okay, thank you! Going to have to get that.

Lilisonna: [Laughs]

Sarah: What was a win for you in 2022?

Lilisonna: I mean, I survived. That was –

Sarah: I mean, yes!

[Laughter]

Lilisonna: The real win is my daughter is in her senior year of high school.

Sarah: Oh!

Lilisonna: Yes! We have gotten her to her senior year; she’s gotten the first set of her college applications out.

Sarah: Yaaay!

Lilisonna: Yes! So she, she has picked a college that she really wants; she’s picked backups that she really wants; and, like, I wasn’t that parent. Like, that’s my win! [Laughs]

Sarah: I get it.

Lilisonna: You know, we, we had a lot of conversations about, you know, what do you want? What does it look like? All of those things, and I didn’t at any point say, well, you need to go to this school, or, you need to apply to this school? And I think we, me and my husband and my daughter, all sort of navigated that fairly tricky part through –

Sarah: Very tricky.

Lilisonna: – yeah – senior year and just high school in general without blowing up.

Sarah: I am also in that boat. My older son is a senior.

Lilisonna: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: Early action applications are due on the 1st of December, and he’s applying to music schools, so he has to do pre-screening auditions and then a second audition in January, February sometime? Just finishing the recordings of his pre-screenings for all the schools he’s applying to was such a relief for him? He was like, oh gosh – [deep breath] – I’m done with that part. I can handle the audition. That’s in front of people. Recording himself: not a –

Lilisonna: Yeah.

Sarah: – not a fan. But you’re so right that getting through the process, it’s tricky, it’s so much different than when we applied to college? So much different. And college is something different now –

Lilisonna: Yes.

Sarah: – than it was when we were younger.

Lilisonna: Yeah!

Sarah: The loans that I took out were not the same as the ones that are taken out now.

Lilisonna: Mm-mm. Well, and, like, I, it helps that I went to my first-pick school. It turned out that that did not work out for me.

Sarah: Yeah.

Lilisonna: So I dropped out, was kicked out, whatever; like, sort of a combination of both; and sort of figured out what I was doing for a while and then went to a local state university which I paid for by working a job that covered tuition; and you know what, I’m doing fine?

Sarah: Oh yeah. This is –

Lilisonna: I’m fine.

Sarah: This is not the end-all, be-all decision of your life, and I keep, I keep telling my, my son that. There’s more than one right school. There’s not just one college that is the one right school; there are lots and lots of places, and there’s not one choice. And it’s also, if you, if you go and you’re like, this isn’t for me? Okay, well, then, if your goal was to get into that school, you got in; it’s not for you; there’s nothing wrong with that!

Lilisonna: Yeah! Yeah! Like, it’s not a forever choice?

Sarah: No! There are –

Lilisonna: It’s not.

Sarah: That’s the thing: I feel like there’s a lot of pressure, especially on young people, that you must choose, and you must stand by that choice, and if you change your mind it is wrong! Like, no! That’s not true!

Lilisonna: No, it’s not! I do feel like my daughter’s school has done a really good job of emphasizing that it’s not, there is one perfect college.

Sarah: Yeah.

Lilisonna: It is, you need to find the college that matches with you.

Sarah: Yes. Do you want to go to –

Lilisonna: And that’s important.

Sarah: – a giant place, or do you want to go to a small place, or, like, do you want to go where it’s cold?  Do you want to never see snow again? Like, what are the things that you –

Lilisonna: What do you like, and what is important to you? And there’s probably, you know, there’s probably fifty schools out there that are your perfect school. And I remember, we went up, did a tour, and one of the colleges we looked at, she opened the car door, stepped foot on it, and said no.

Sarah: Wow!

Lilisonna: The vibes are wrong and I don’t like it, and I was like, okay!

Sarah: Okay!

Lilisonna: Like, we, we have to eliminate colleges somehow!

Sarah: But what a credit to you that she would trust her instinct and intuition enough –

Lilisonna: Yes.

Sarah: – to say, yeah, this is not my place and then talk to you about it.

Lilisonna: And I, I appreciate that. So, so yeah, we have navigated this, put in her applications. I don’t know if you’ve done the common app thing and –

Sarah: Oh my gosh! I have spent so much time with Common App and the Submit button.

Lilisonna: The fact that it gives you fireworks when –

Sarah: Yes!

Lilisonna: – you click Submit? It’s so good! [Laughs]

Sarah: [Squees]

Lilisonna: We, we had a sign that was already made up to say, like, yay, child, and so we stood there and we waved the sign as she clicked her first Submit, so.

Sarah: Yaaay! That’s so great! [Laughs] I, I kept telling my son, you don’t know how lucky you have it. I had to write my name and my address and all – I had to write this by hand. I couldn’t even type it. I had to fill it out, and it was like a booklet; like, you had to fill in –

Lilisonna: It was awful!

Sarah: Oh! You don’t know how lucky you have it; this is fabulous! [Laughs]

Lilisonna: And none of the, none of the questions were the same for any of the places that I –

Sarah: No, not at all! None of them were the same, and some of them were very, very specific to that school, where you had to do research to answer them? Oh yeah. Congratulations to all of you! You navigated a really hard process.

Lilisonna: Thank you! So yes, that’s my win!

Sarah: Yay! Big win!

Lilisonna: [Laughs] I am a software engineer and a manager by trade and profession, and they always tell you that you should never do anything – maybe six months? Like, maybe you can do something six months out; you can plan for that and make a plan and it’s fine; and when we had our daughter I was like, you’re telling me that I have to spend eighteen-plus years doing this thing, and I get no idea of how it’s going to turn out.

Sarah: That is – yes! Mm-hmm!

Lilisonna: It’s terrible!

Sarah: Yes! [Laughs]

Lilisonna: Like, where’s my feedback loop? What’s going on?

Sarah: I constantly tell my kids, like, okay, until right now I have never had a seventeen-year-old and a fifteen-year-old –

Lilisonna: Yeah!

Sarah: – who are you at your exact ages right now. I mean, I know you think I know what I’m doing. I am often flying by the seat of my pants, and I’m going to screw up, but I’ve never done this moment; I’ve never lived in this moment before.

Lilisonna: Yep! Exactly.

Sarah: I’ve never parented you at this age!

Lilisonna: And you are very different at three than you are at thirteen.

Sarah: Oh, it’s kind of amazing!

Lilisonna: It’s, oh boy!

Sarah: Oh yeah.

Lilisonna: [Laughs]

Sarah: I have a, I have a friend with an eight-month-old who lives on my street, and I’m like, you are still, for a very small amount of time, in the range where you put the baby down and the baby doesn’t move. I just need you to know that time is ending very soon. Get ready.

Lilisonna: Mine, mine crawled by five months.

Sarah: [Gasps] No!

Lilisonna: She hated, she hated not being able to move.

Sarah: Yep.

Lilisonna: And so she was extremely determined, and yeah, at five months she started crawling and I was like, well?

Sarah: Baby gates for all. [Laughs]

Lilisonna: Yeah. Everything gets a baby gate! [Laughs]

Sarah: We will corral you and corral you some more and, yep, and now you’re about to open the baby gate and let her out into the world!

Lilisonna: I’m very excited!

Sarah: Congratulations!

Lilisonna: Thank you!

Sarah: And happy holidays to you. Thank you so much for doing this interview. This has been delightful!

Lilisonna: Thank you so much! I, I love these. Like, when, when you do the feedbacks from various folks, I really, I love listening to them and hearing the community and all that conversation, so I’m happy to contribute.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. Thank you to Sue, to JF Hobbit, to Maria Vale, and to Lilisonna for connecting with me and sharing all of your picks and the things that you’ve wished for everyone. This is so fun! I love doing these.

I will have links to all of the books and everything we mentioned in this episode in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, hmm! Should I join the Patreon? Should I, you know, do this? Absolutely, yes, you should if, if what we do has value, it would be an honor to have you, but I just want to let you know that in the Discord are pictures of Lilisonna’s living room and dining room, and they are exquisite! It is such a friendly, lovely place, so come on over!

This week’s joke is from JF Hobbit, who you heard from in this episode. This is a fantastic joke. Are you ready?

How does a nonbinary samurai kill people?

Give up? How does a nonbinary samurai kill people?

They slash them.

[Laughs] Thank you, JF Hobbit! That completely made my day. They slash them!

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

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

[end of holiday music]