595. Holiday Wishes from Amanda, GarlicKnitter, Alanna, and Claudia

Sarah Wendell: Hello! Happy almost New Year, and welcome to episode number 595 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell, and with me today are Amanda and garlicknitter and Alanna and Claudia. We are traveling around the world with book recommendations and good wishes and wonderfully terrible jokes – which is really the reason everyone’s here, right? Of course!

I will have links to, of course, all of the books that we talk about in this episode in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast under episode 595. Wow, we’re getting close to 600! My goodness!

I have a compliment this week, and that gives me so much joy.

To Molly L: You are the human personification of a perfectly baked cookie. In fact, you are the human personification of the perfect cookie table with every kind of cookie, all baked perfectly, and if you’ve been to a wedding in the Pittsburgh area, you know what a cookie table is. In other words, Molly L, you rule.

If you have supported the show, thank you. Our Patreon keeps me going, keeps me happily commissioning transcripts from garlicknitter – hi, garlicknitter! [Hi! – gk] – and you’re making sure that the show continues for everyone, and it’s accessible to everybody, too! You can have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. Monthly pledges start at a dollar, and if you are a member of the Patreon, you get bonus episodes, a Discord, access to the full PDF scans of the Romantic Times magazine, which is a wild, extremely weird experiment in time travel, and it would be lovely to have you join us. I want to say hello to YM, who’s one of our newest members. Welcome!

And I think, in order to get closer to 600, at this very moment we should start the episode. Shall we do that? Let’s do this. On with the podcast.

So everyone knows who you are, but you get to introduce yourself and tell the people who are listening who you are and where you are in the world.

Amanda: Okay! Hi! Hi, everybody! I’m Amanda. I am part of the site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for, what? We hit eleven years now?

Sarah: Eleven years now, yep!

Amanda: Eleven years I’ve been part of the site, which is wild! So yeah, if you –

Sarah: Copilot, mastermind, yeah.

Amanda: Yeah! If you spend a lot of money ‘cause of Books on Sale, that’s my fault, and I will not apologize for it.

Sarah: [Laughs] Sounds good!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: All right. So what is a book that you really, really enjoyed this year?

Amanda: So it’s one that I didn’t wind up reviewing, and I will explain why, but it’s You, Again by Kate Goldbeck. It was a, it was a debut, and it was a contemporary romance that came out in September, I believe. I just thought it was a really lovely contemporary and went through a really good progression of people meeting for the first time.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: And I don’t like friends-to-lovers; that’s not my jam, but!

Sarah: No, you don’t!

Amanda: No! But there is an element of friends-to-lovers, and I think I’ve sort of identified the flavor of friends-to-lovers that I don’t like, and that’s, like, we’ve been friends for years, but we can’t date because of reasons! I don’t like that. But in this book, the main characters are sleeping with the same woman, and so they start at odds with each other, and then the woman stops seeing both of them, and they kind of like build a friendship over that, like, really weird circumstance?

Sarah: Okay!

Amanda: And it’s just very sweet, and so we see like a progression of like how they’re, how they initially meet; like, what brings them together; and then how things progress. And then the, the heroine is a comedian, and I feel like that’s the first time I’ve read a, a romance with a heroine who is a comedian. And I just thought it was really lovely. There’s really great descriptions of, like, mental health issues and, like, you know, career stuff of, like, Hey, where am I going with this? The hero is a chef. And I thought it was really good.

I didn’t review it because, one, I find books that I’ve enjoyed really hard to review?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: Because I know as a reader, if I read a review – like, I think I would have given this an A grade – but I know for me, as a reader, if I’m reading a review that’s nothing but positive, I’m suspicious.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: And I don’t –

Sarah: You’re allergic to hype!

Amanda: I – [laughs] – and I don’t trust it, ‘cause I’m like, There’s always got to be something bad. And I find those really hard to write, because I, I don’t want – I don’t know, like, the outward squeeing of a book?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: Is not something I – I don’t know if I’ve ever written a Squee grade? I might have written like a, a Squee from the Keeper Shelf –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – where it’s like a nostalgic book? But I can’t remember if I’ve ever written a, like a Squee grade book just because I’m, I’m always like, There’s always something that I, I –

Sarah: So you wouldn’t be able to write the review because you’d be allergic to your own hype.

Amanda: Yes! I’m like, Do I –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – and I’m like, Do I really feel this way? Is this really that good? And then, like, as Sarah knows, like, I just started being more consistent about writing reviews in like the last two months.

Sarah: Mm-hmm!

Amanda: Like –

Sarah: And you’re a good reviewer!

Amanda: I’ve been hitting deadlines; I’ve been finishing books. So that’s good, but, like, that hasn’t happened for a while where, like, my reading brain and my writing brain are really aligning to where I feel like I, I can get stuff done.

So yeah, I, I really liked it; it was a really great debut. Maybe I’ll, you know, rustle things up and write something, even if it’s just a Lightning Review for it of, like, It was great!

Sarah: Oh yeah! An LR would be great!

Amanda: But yeah, that was my favorite book, and it was like a, a surprise, ‘cause I haven’t been gravitating towards contemporaries a lot lately? Because I get frustrated with them and, honestly, don’t feel like being in a contemporary setting right now.

Sarah: No!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Don’t feel like being in a contemporary setting and am bored of books where the character’s job is their personality?

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: That’s very dull. I am not interested.

Amanda: And then I feel like I’m, I know I’m overly critical of contemporaries, where I’m like, Real people aren’t like this.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: A, a person would never say this. Or I’m just, like, tired of, like, twee characters who are just, like, tripping over everything and spilling things on people and just, like, I don’t know; I’m like, Get it together. See a therapist. Like, you know –

Sarah: And slapstick is very – I, I, I think that, I suspect that one of the things that happens is in order for a book to be positioned or marketed as a rom-com, comedy is added? Or it’s added in a way that isn’t organic, and so it becomes slapstick, and it’s not integrated into the story in a way that’s, like, comfortable? Like, there are some contemporary romances that I have read that have cracked me up, and I will still laugh thinking about them, but it wasn’t because of pratfalls and slapstick and secondhand embarrassment. It’s never that for me. I, you’ve, no, thank you.

Amanda: I feel like contemporaries right now skew one way or the other, where they’re just like kooky, slapstick comedies, which aren’t my thing; or, like, really over-the-top, melodramatic stuff.

Sarah: Angst.

Amanda: And I like some angst, but I, I’m not looking for melodrama right now.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: And this kind of like was situated right in the middle, and it didn’t really skew one way or the other to me, and I just, like, it felt like I was reading about pretty normal people that I feel like would exist in the real world –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – and not, like, a Hallmark movie.

Sarah: Yeah. Not some fantasy, weird contemporary world that is kind of scary for its homogeny.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah, I agree.

Amanda: And I thought the, the cover was cute. It’s very fall – I’m going to go look at it again; by Kate Goldbeck – it’s very fall, and just, like, it’s two people hanging out, probably in Central Park, with these gorgeous leaves. But I really liked it, so that’s probably the book I would choose to put on everyone’s radar.

Sarah: Okay!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Cool. What are your holiday wishes for people who will be listening?

Amanda: Okay, so I can’t remember what I wished last time. Was it Do something scary? I think that’s what my wish was last time.

Sarah: I think it was.

Amanda: Tangentially related to Do something scary – ‘cause when I said Do something scary, I think it was more, like, external? Like take that class! Travel to that place! And now I want it to be like, Do something scary internally. Be a vulnerable person.

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda: That is my, my lesson for this year is to be a vulnerable person, and I might get emotional because I grew up in a terrible household – [laughs] –

Sarah: Am familiar with both your –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – terrible household and mine! Yes.

Amanda: I grew up – yeah – I grew up in a terrible household with a narcissistic parent and really had to grow up and harden myself and become independent at a very early age?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: I am the eldest sibling; I only have one other sibling, but I am the older one. I had to take care of my brother for a period of time, and so, like, it really hardened me as a person? In sor-, in terms of communicating to people and in terms of receiving love and communication. I was like a brick wall. And through therapy and through meeting my current partner, who is a sensitive person, and it’s taken a while for me to unlearn that sensitivity is not a negative connotation. Being sensitive isn’t bad. And so, like, through talking with Brian and learning that, like, I can be a bit harsh in my communication, and I don’t have to, like, be a brick wall? Like, conflict resolution isn’t about winning. It’s about finding the best result for both people or all parties, and so that was a, a lesson I had to unlearn of, like, Brian’s not going to hurt me in this conversation. I don’t have to be defensive; I don’t have to hurt them before they hurt me, because that’s not going to happen. So through therapy and, like, meeting a person who’s also in therapy – shout-out to our therapists –

[Laughter]

Amanda: – it’s really helped me learn to be a more sensitive and vulnerable person with people who I’ve collected in my life – ooh, I’m going to cry, Sarah!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: Who I can trust with these things, and I think trust is, is very big, and I know it’s very hard, but I promise that there are, there’s a net positive to vulnerability, and it is scary, and it is frightening, but I think the returns in what I’ve gotten from being vulnerable to people and with people have really enriched my life, especially this year. [Laughs]

Sarah: I’m so glad, and I’m so glad that you are living in a relationship that is safe!

Amanda: Yeah! It feels great. Like, I don’t feel judged. It’s such a great feeling not to feel judged, and to feel safe to communicate your feelings –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – with friends. Family is not a factor. [Laughs]

Sarah: Sometimes family is not deserving –

Amanda: Yeah, right.

Sarah: – of hearing your feelings.

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: Sometimes they are not on that level.

Amanda: Yeah, but in the, the personal relationships you may choose to cultivate, I hope you give yourself a chance and the grace to be vulnerable and also fuck up that vulnerability sometimes. It is a, it is a muscle you have to learn to flex.

Sarah: It is.

Amanda: So –

Sarah: It is very true. Very true.

Amanda: – I hope everyone gets a chance to flex, flex those muscles next year.

Sarah: Flex those vulnerability, squishy –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – squishy, flabby muscles.

Amanda: [Laughs] Squishy, flabby muscles; they’ll get stronger!

Sarah: Those are the noodle muscles.

Amanda: The noodle muscles! [Laughs] That’s my holiday wish.

Sarah: That’s a lovely holiday wish. I’m very happy for you.

Amanda: …potato!

Sarah: Did you bring a joke?

Amanda: I did, and I don’t remember if I’ve ever told this one –

Sarah: That’s okay.

Amanda: – but it’s one that I’ve remembered for most of my life. I can’t remember the first time I heard this one. Probably like eight or nine, and I still think it’s one of the funniest jokes I’ve ever heard in my life. Because it’s, it’s a little gross – I love a potty humor. So my joke is:

Sarah, if you’re an American outside of the bathroom, what are you called inside?

Sarah: What?

Amanda: You’re a-peein’.

[Laughter]

Amanda: That is one of my all-time favorite jokes, and I have remembered it for decades…

Sarah: So when you go in the bathroom somewhere you’re like, I’m European now!

Amanda: I’m European now!

Sarah: [Laughs] Well, thank you! And thank you for another –

Amanda: You’re welcome!

Sarah: – another good year!

Amanda: Yeah! This one was good!

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: No notes.

Sarah: All right! That’s the best thing you can say about a year. Ready, ready to move on; no notes.

Amanda: Yeah, no notes.

[music]

Chris Johnson aka garlicknitter: Hi, I’m Chris Johnson! And at least five thousand listeners just said, Oh, I know a Chris Johnson! Which is why when I’m online I tend to use garlicknitter, because that’s searchable, and Chris Johnson is not. And I live in the Garlic Capital of the World! The one in California.

Sarah: Hence the name garlicknitter?

Garlicknitter: Yes, and I have a certain hobby. Well, more than hobby at this point; I also knit professionally.

Sarah: Do you knit garlic?

Garlicknitter: No, not so far. I actually do have a pattern for a stuffed garlic, head of garlic, which I have not knit, but I should and then use it as my icon.

Sarah: So most people will know you as the person who transcribes every episode. Thank you for that, by the way.

Garlicknitter: Thank you for hiring me!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Garlicknitter: It is still my favorite gig.

Sarah: Oh, that’s so nice to hear! Thank you!

Garlicknitter: You’re welcome.

Sarah: Well, I am so excited to have you on the podcast, although I’m sure transcribing yourself will be a bit weird.

Garlicknitter: Yes, yes, I think so.

Sarah: [Laughs] Would you tell me about a book that you really enjoyed this year?

Garlicknitter: Yes. I have several.

Sarah: Whoo! Excellent!

Garlicknitter: Okay. I’m going to start with, I just finished A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by KJ Charles, and earlier this year I read The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, which is the first book in that series. And those were so much fun, and yet also so touch- – sometimes romance books that are super fun are not, they don’t feel as emotionally deep? But these are both, in my opinion.

Sarah: Yes.

Garlicknitter: So, the second – these are all actually parts of series – I’m currently reading Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher, who is one of my favorite authors for many of her books, although I read one of the horror novels and I said, Okay! That was really good and I’m going to probably stay away from the rest of the horror work because I like sleeping. You know, but the one I read was, I think it was The Hollow Places, and there was a lot about, you know, trees clicking against themselves –

Sarah: Ooh!

Garlicknitter: – if I remembering the correct one –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Garlicknitter: – and I live in a rural area, and we have trees that do that sort of thing: they blow around in the night and they rub against each other, and – [deep breath] – I don’t need to think that there’s – yeah, no. So.

All of the books that are set in the world of the, the Temple of the White Rat? I love all of those.

Next on my list of things I want to read is Bookshops & Bonedust, which I checked out of the library, by Travis Baldree? I read Legends & Lattes earlier this year, and it was exactly what it said on the tin: it was low angst and, and wonderful things happened, and I love, I love the end when they found out what the magical item actually did, ‘cause it was just perfect.

Sarah: I think of that series as specifically tea cozy fantasy? It’s not just cozy fantasy; it’s cozy fantasy wearing a tea cozy.

Garlicknitter: Yes. And/or drinking tea.

Sarah: Yeah.

Garlicknitter: You know, a lot of tea cozies would probably make extremely fetching hats.

Sarah: It’s true! It’s very true.

So what holiday wishes do you have for the people who will be listening? And for your future self, who will be transcribing this?

Garlicknitter: [Laughs] My holiday wish for everyone, everyone everywhere, is good knowledge, in two ways. First of all, knowledge that is accurate, factual, true, verifiable – however you want to describe it. Knowledge that is actually real knowledge, because with real knowledge you can make better decisions.

Sarah: Yeah.

Garlicknitter: Not always great decisions, because sometimes there’s not great choices, but the more good knowledge you have, the more better decisions you can make, and I live for that.

But also good in the sense of interesting or useful or fun! Pleasant in some way. That, I, I hope that all the good knowledge that we take in, at least half of it turns out to be fun good knowledge or, or otherwise pleasurable.

Sarah: Yeah.

Garlicknitter: With the rise of artificial intelligence, as they’re calling it – I don’t think we have achieved true artificial intelligence yet, but the language learning models and so forth?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Garlicknitter: Those are going to be fucking us up for at least the next several years, and probably longer –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Garlicknitter: – because we’ve got this internet, and it is follow, full of knowledge, but increasingly it is going to be full of false knowledge, and one of the things we’re going to have to learn is how to tell the true from the false.

Sarah: Mm-hmm. Absolutely true.

Garlicknitter: Yeah. So that’s why I’m wishing everybody good knowledge that, you know, that most of what they see is true, and that if it isn’t, that they can learn to see when it’s not true –

Sarah: Yeah.

Garlicknitter: – and put it to good use.

Sarah: Yeah. That’s a really good wish. Did you bring a joke?

Garlicknitter: I brought an old joke.

Sarah: Oooh!

Garlicknitter: It’s old, but I still think it’s so cute!

Why don’t cannibals like to eat clowns?

Sarah: Why don’t cannibals like to eat clowns? Why?

Garlicknitter: Because they taste funny!

Sarah: [Laughs] I was really thinking about that too! Like, because they taste funny.

Garlicknitter: Yes!

Sarah: Well played! Well played. [Laughs]

Garlicknitter: Thank you.

Sarah: Well, thank you so much for doing this!

Garlicknitter: Thank you again for asking me, and for doing this every year. These are some of the episodes I enjoy transcribing the most, so thank you, all, to everybody who participates in this too!

Sarah: Oh! Thank you so, so, so very, very much, and have a wonderful happy holiday to you and yours.

Garlicknitter: Likewise to you and yours!

[music]

Alanna: I am Alanna. I also go by JF Hobbit or Hobbit. I am Californian, but am currently residing in Germany in the Rhineland.

Sarah: Which is a little different!

Alanna: Just a, just a tad. Winter is an experience that I haven’t –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Alanna: – really fully had, but even the mountains of California are not comparable to northern, a more northern winter. We’re in what’s known as the “warmest” area of Germany?

Sarah: I love how much sarcasm was built into what you just said. [Laughs]

Alanna: And I think the thing that’s getting me the most is the, the lack of sun, relative lack of sunlight.

Sarah: Oh yes.

So what is a book that you really enjoyed this year?

Alanna: Oh, so many. I wrote them down over the last week, ‘cause, because of the, you know, international move, I had zero recollection of what I read in January. I had to look back at my Goodreads and be like, Ohhh! That was this year? Because my year was very much two parts, and that was the part, like, before and after, and there was a good chunk of about three months where my brain was entirely moving?

Sarah: Yes.

Alanna: Adjusting, and I finished like one book maybe. So yeah. But some books that I absolutely loved this year:

Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light and A Restless Truth: I read both of them twice this year and just finished the reread of the second one. Still have not gotten my hold for the last book in from the library –

Sarah: Ooh!

Alanna: – and I’m like, I need it to come, because I need to know! I need to know what happens.

Sarah: Yep.

Alanna: I heard it’s a really spectacular ending to the trilogy. And I love, I love her prose so much, and I love her characters so much, and I’m just very excited about it.

And then I also started the year reading Season of Love by Helena Greer, and then I just this week got my hold for For Never & Always in and read it, and I think I said in the Discord, like, I spent the first sixty percent of the book alternating between giggling and crying because of the angst? And –

Sarah: It’s a very emotional book, right?

Alanna: It was a, it was a whole ride. And, but I loved every second of it. I was like, This is so great! And my spouse was like, Are, are you, are you okay? And I was like, It’s fine! I just, it’s fine! There’s just a lot of feels.

Sarah: [Laughs] And, and, and it’s so weird to be like, No, no, no! The fact that I am sobbing over my book is a good thing!

Alanna: They are also an avid reader, so they understand the, like, I’m just having emotions about this thing that I’m reading! But I’m a little bit more prone to crying than they are…

Sarah: Yeah. I, I know how that happens.

Alanna: Yeah. So yeah.

So other things that I read somewhat obsessively: I devoured Risdaverse by Ruby Dixon for something completely different. Ruby Dixon of Ice Planet Barbarian notoriety? Fame? I love, I love the Ice Planet books, and my friend was like, You should read Risdaverse because it’s, like, in the same universe but has different, different, like, aliens and kind of a different world setup, and I finally listened to her and then read them all in about a month. All fifteen or some, or something? They’re what I call potato chip books. They’re absolutely potato chip books, and then once you stop you just can’t – like, once you eat one there’s, there’s no stopping until you’re done. And –

Sarah: They are absolutely potato chip books, and that is not a bad thing. Like, that is not an insult.

Alanna: No. No, I love them so much. And because then I was not done with my Ruby phase, I went back and reread a bunch of the earlier Ice Planet books in between, like, her new releases when they come out.

So yeah. I also – oh, I finally read Sarah MacLean?

Sarah: Oh!

Alanna: Which I hadn’t somehow? I, I’m unsure how I, like, missed it in my great – I think it was a couple years ago that I read like three hundred plus books, and a lot of it was reading backlists of people that I’d heard about for years and hadn’t really, like, put a toe in to that particular water?

Sarah: Yep.

Alanna: But I read all of her Hell’s Belles books that have been released so far, and I, I love a strong female cast, and I love a crew, and I love hijinks, and I love found family, and it’s all of those things and also lots of explosions, which is always a good time.

I also, speaking of stuff that turns, the historical that turns the drama up to eleven, I heard the recap episode that you did – I forget who it was with – but about the Mackenzie saga?

Sarah: Ohhh, that was with Melody from Heaving Bosoms – The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie.

Alanna: Yes. Yes. So I heard those episodes, and I was like, What? I, I need, I need this, and then proceeded to read all of the books –

Sarah: Oh boy!

Alanna: – in the whole saga. Like level one in ridiculous drama?

Sarah: Yep!

Alanna: Hundred percent. I was, I was big into escapist. Yeah, just, like, please take my mind off of everything else that’s going on?

Sarah: Yes.

Alanna: Whether that was, you know, the existential crisis of existence or trying to move an entire life from –

Sarah: Halfway around the world.

Alanna: Yeah, halfway around the world?

Okay, two more: My Rogue to Ruin by Erica Ridley. I love the Erica Ridley Wynchester series.

Sarah: Well, you’ve got hijinks and a heist and a collection of people and banter and, yep, all of the things you like are in that series!

Alanna: Exactly! And queer, good queer rep; good disability rep, which I’ve been reading more of. Especially, like, for the past couple years in California, I was working in SPED, and so I started becoming a lot more aware of, like, Ah, we need really good disability rep, because there’re definitely things that my students have to deal with that they should not have to deal with, ‘cause they have enough things going on!

And then, ah yes, something – speaking of queer and found family – Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly was another one that had me crying because of the angst. A little bit close to home as a queer person with some religious background in there, but also she made a significant reference to Tamora Pierce, and for those who paid attention, my name is Alanna, and yes, I have read and loved Tamora Pierce pretty much since I found her books when I was like thirteen? I saw that in the book and I was like, Oh, my heart! Like, yeah, it just, it hit very deep for a lot of reasons. And speaking of Tammy books, I, they’re just like kind of a constant?

Sarah: Mm-hmm!

Alanna: I, I’m always reading one of them at some point, because I read like five different books at a time, depending on how much my brain can focus on one thing at a time. Whenever I’m in a lull, I just go back and read, I read – they’re my comfort books. Especially, like, I like the audiobooks.

Sarah: Yeah.

Alanna: I listened to the audiobooks after having reread, reread the actual books that I owned. Listening to the audiobooks, I was like, Oh, I’m hearing things that I have never heard before, and I, like, have these books half memorized.

Sarah: Yep! It’s a completely different experience.

Alanna: It’s so wild! So yeah, Something Wild & Wonderful, though, was amazing. I love any Alanna rep.

That’s my list. Just, just like, just a few.

Sarah: Just a few!

Alanna: Just a few.

Sarah: If you’re reading five books at, at the same time, that’s what’s going to happen: you’re going to have a very, a very robust list.

So what holiday wishes do you have for people who will be listening this year?

Alanna: That you would find some light and joy and be able to appreciate it, even in the midst of all of everything –

Sarah: Yeah.

Alanna: – that is happening worldwide. Yeah, be able to carve out that peace and hope for yourself in whatever way you can.

Sarah: Very, very true. Now, do you have a joke? It is okay if not.

Alanna: Oh. Oh, I, I, I have a joke.

Sarah: [Laughs] Oh God, the way you said that! Oh. Oh, nonono. Nonono, I have, I have a joke.

Alanna: There, there are always jokes. I considered looking at the jokes channel for some of the ones that I shared there, but I found one that my friend just sent me?

Sarah: Ooh!

Alanna: And it’s a, well, it’s a meme. So it has, like, has a picture of medieval tapestry people doing clothes dyeing things, and so of course it’s Making colored fabrics has historically required good hand-dye coordination.

Sarah: [Laughs] Nice!

Well, thank you so much for doing this!

Alanna: Yeah! Absolutely, thank you! I love these episodes; I love listening to them. I may or may not have downloaded like three of the books that were mentioned in the last one that just aired, so.

Sarah: Oh, as I edit these, I keep adding things to my wish list, and, and it’s just, yeah, mm-hmm!

[music]

Claudia: Hi! Yes, I’m Claudia. I am in Las Vegas, and you’ll sometimes see me posting comments as Silence On Birds. Yeah, I’m very happy to be here.

Sarah: Yay! I’m so glad you’re doing this. Thank you! So please tell me what book you really, really enjoyed this year.

Claudia: Okay, so the book is called Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. And so it’s like a, a book from Brazil from like the ‘70s, I think, and it’s also been adapted into a movie; the movie’s also fabulous. But basically this woman has a just very charming rake of a husband who is cheating on her and this whole thing, but she loves him. He dies, and you see her, like, get remarried, but she still misses him, and he comes back as a ghost. And that’s all I’m going to say.

Sarah: I’m sorry. He comes back as a ghost.

Claudia: He does!

Sarah: Oh!

Claudia: And it is – [laughs] –

Sarah: Wow!

Claudia: – it’s amazing! I, I highly recommend the movie for sure. The book is, it’s very long, but very good too.

Sarah: Wow. Okay! How did you discover this?

Claudia: I’m part of a book club where we, like, read the book and then watch an adaptation –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Claudia: – or two if there’s more, and so the last one we did was The Ring, so I’ve read the book and watched both the Japanese and then the American remake. And so this one was very unexpected. I was like, I don’t…And the, you don’t realize there’s going to be a ghost until he’s there?

Sarah: Mm-hmm?

Claudia: And so before that it was kind of like, Why are we reading this? This is so different from, we usually read, like, sci-fi in this group. So yeah, loved it!

Sarah: That’s, that sounds really incredible. It also loo-, like, looking at pictures of the movie, it looks so soapy.

Claudia: Yes, it’s so good.

Sarah: What holiday wishes do you have for people who will be listening?

Claudia: Yeah, I just hope everybody has a very calm new year and with either lots of good books or just good entertainment. You know, this was a hard year for reading for me. But it, sometimes it happens, and that’s okay! You know, I watched Good Omens and Interview with the Vampire. That’s basically reading, and those were fabulous.

Sarah: Oh, you liked, you, you liked Interview with the Vampire? I’ve heard it’s really good.

Claudia: It’s amazing. Absolutely, highly recommend.

Sarah: Awesome. That is excellent. I agree: a quiet, a quiet holiday where you can consume stories in whatever media you, works for you seems ideal.

Thank you so much for doing this! It’s really, really fun to connect with everybody, and it’s really nice to, like, see the people who are usually just listening to me talk into my microphone, so thank you!

Claudia: Yeah! So…thank you for doing it! It’s so fun.

Sarah: It is super fun.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. Thank you very, very much to Amanda, garlicknitter, Alanna, and Claudia for connecting with me. It is seriously such a joy to do these, and I’m honored when I see another person has signed up to talk to me, so thank you.

I also want to say thank you to MiloTWiggins, because I asked for reviews because all of my Apple reviews had disappeared, and all of y’all showed up for me in such an amazing way. Thank you. Milo titled their review “Witty, charming, funny safaris to Bone Town,” and I can’t top that, it’s so perfect. Milo wrote:

>> Sarah Wendell and Amanda are smart and funny, as are nearly all of the writers and others who guest on the podcast. Sometimes they’re making fun of a cover or a trope, but they take each novel seriously, which is courteous and makes everything funnier. Highly recommended for romance aficionados, newcomers, pop culture scholars, and anyone who’s up for a terrific time.

Thank you! I, seriously, I cannot top “Witty, charming, funny safaris to Bone Town.” I, I might have to make swag of that; it’s just so perfect. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. It really helps the show.

I end each week with a terrible joke, and this week is no exception. This week the joke is from Bull, and Bull has some exciting movie news:

Apparently, there’s going to be a superhero mashup of Batman and Groot.

Did you know this? Yeah! There’s a superhero movie coming out with a mashup of Batman and Groot.

His secret identity name is Spruce Wayne.

[Laughs] Please, somebody name their Christmas tree Spruce Wayne some year! A little Batman hat on the top! That would be so amazing. Thank you, Bull.

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

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

Spruce Wayne. [Laughs]

[pretty music]