694. Holiday Wishes II with Agnés, Emily, Sarah Jane and Jenn

Sarah Wendell: Hello there. I am recording this intro on November the 25th, and we have hit our goal. Hooray! Thank you so, so, so much! All dynamic ads will be turned off and kept off from now on, thanks to your generosity.

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[intro]

Sarah: Hello, and welcome to episode number 694 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell, and again, my guests are all of you! We are going to speak with Agnés, Emily, Sarah Jane, and Jenn – and Min the Cat – and in the outro you’ll hear from ShoesforAll, also known as Sarah. There are many Sarahs. There are many of us. I was one of five in my elementary school one year, so Sarahs, Sarahs everywhere.

I also have a compliment. Yay! Two compliments, in fact.

To Jane A.: A lot of people read auras, and surprise! So do I! Yours is warmth and comfort, because you make the people around you feel safe and seen. But there’s also the sort of slight hint of vanilla and sugar, because your treats are the best treats.

And to M.: There are constellations in the sky that spell your name, but it’s hard to spot them because the Earth moves around and then while you’re not looking the stars spell out words that describe you, like, fantabulest and elegantest. They’re working on using real words, but still, the sentiments are genuine.

If you would like a compliment of your own or you’d like to join our fantabulous Patreon, come on in. The URL is patreon.com/SmartBitches. Patreon support helps me procure more issues of Romantic Times, it keeps the show going, and it makes sure that we have an artisan, handcrafted transcript from garlicknitter. Hey, garlicknitter! [Hey! Happy holidays and best wishes to all who celebrate and all who don’t too, because we all deserve them – gk] Your support means a lot, especially right now, and I’m deeply grateful.

And if Patreon support isn’t in your cards, may I please ask you to leave a review wherever you listen? Or just tell some people. Most of all, thank you for listening. I am so happy that you are here.

And I have a special announcement! I have a special holiday offering, in fact. Smart Bitches Candles: I partnered with Wax Cabin Candle Company, an independent small chandlery, to offer two limited edition candles just for the holiday season. They are on sale now, Friday, November 28, through early January, and you can buy one or both in a gift set. The Smart Bitches Twentieth Anniversary Candle is an eleven-ounce hand-poured soy candle with notes of sea salt, book pages, sandalwood, and jasmine. And the Bad Decisions Book Club Candle, also eleven ounces, is designed to be the perfect pairing for late-night reading with scents of sweet tobacco, book pages, leather, rose, and sandalwood. I was really going for mellow and elegant scents, and I had a marvelous time picking them out. So if you’re looking for the perfect gift for yourself or the book lovers in your life, there’s a link in the show notes for the 2025 Smart Bitches Candle Collection. You can shop small, support the show, and spread light and warmth this year. Happy holidays from all of us.

Are you ready to start this show? Let’s do this: on with my Holiday Wishes from Agnés, Emily, Sarah Jane, and Jenn.

[music]

Agnés: Hello, everyone! I’m Agnés. I live in The Netherlands, which is where I’m calling in from. Which means that it’s early evening for me.

Sarah: Good evening! I know you’ve been listening for a very long time.

Agnés: True! I got a podcast app when I started working in sort of the next town over –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Agnés: – or two towns over? Which meant that I was – okay, I’m sorry – biking, which is probably the most Dutch mode of transportation.

Sarah: Very on brand. Story checks out.

Agnés: Yes! Which meant a forty-five-minute bike ride up and down, and I wanted it – so I sort of went looking, and this was the, the early days of podcasting.

Sarah: Wow!

Agnés: So I went looking for stuff, for people who talked about books, and I think I’d been reading the, sort of off and on, the blog? And then figured, I found out through the blog, I suppose, that you actually making a podcast. So yeah!

Sarah: That’s a really long time! Thank you for sticking with me for so long.

Agnés: Continues to be a joy, so here we are!

Sarah: I would like to know what book or books rocked your world this year.

Agnés: For, for purposes, especially for purposes of this website, I really wanted to shout out Rosie Danan’s The Intimacy Experiment?

Sarah: Oh, such a good book! Holy cow!

Agnés: [Laughs] And I wanted to highlight it because it made me laugh on my – I find that, I have a new job, so I work at The Hague now, which means that I spend a lot of time on the train, especially on sort of stacked commuter trains?

Sarah: Oh yeah.

Agnés: So, so I was sort of sardined into my spot, and I was laughing out loud, so there were people looking at me sort of sideways, sort of half worried, half jealous –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Agnés: – which is perfect! [Laughs]

In, in case anyone may need any more recommendation, it’s about a rabbi who hires a sex educator/former sex worker to set up a series of seminars about intimacies? It was perfect.

Sarah: I know so many people who are just like, Sarah, have you heard about this book? I’m like, Yes! And they’re just like, Oh my God, I loved it so much. It was so charming; it was so perfect. One person said that it gave them the same feelings as watching one of the classic ‘90s rom-coms? Like, the old kind of rom-coms like we used to have.

Agnés: Fun?

Sarah: Yes! The ones that were fun and didn’t rely too much on slapstick humiliation of the heroine, which I hate. This is very much a book that is, is like a direct link to some of the really good rom-coms of the ’90, ‘90s. I love that about this book.

Agnés: Yeah. So, absolutely. No, it’s so, you know, if you’re considering sort of a midwinter or midsummer presents, stick this one on your list.

Sarah: It’s a good call. Do you have any other –

Agnés: Yeah!

Sarah: – books you want to mention?

Agnés: Honorable mention were, I’m reading the third part of Claire North’s Penelope trilogy right now?

Sarah: Oooh!

Agnés: Yeah! First two were really good, so I’m sort of, I’m fully sort of blind, I’m sort of, expect part three to be perfectly fine as well, so that one was really fun?

And The Kingdom of Copper, The Empire of Gold, Chakraborty’s trilogy. Which is a mythology –

Sarah: Ooh.

Agnés: – I don’t know really well, but it was really, really good.

Also, I’ve read Hench again. [Laughs]

Sarah: Hench! Hell yes!

Agnés: Sort of preparing whatever, whatever she’s going to throw at us…

Sarah: I remember so clearly when I interviewed her, at the end she talked about how she had a lot of tabs open about how animals with exoskeletons go to Bone Town, so I have some hopes for book two –

Agnés: Ohhh!

Sarah: That are very specific based on what she told me like two years ago!

[Laughter]

Sarah: It’s very important! Hench was so good.

Agnés: I know! And I, I think it must have been the fourth time I read it? And I sort of, I raced through the whole book in two days, sort of, and I’d seen sort of the tiny little blurb that you put on Goodreads?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Agnés: So I sort of looking for sort of the specifics that, on sort of one of the characters that is coming back in, in the next one, so I’m really excited about that?

Sarah: That was one of the first books I remember reading post pandemic that were, that the heroine was just angry to the marrow of her bones. She was fucking pissed. And she had so much reason to be pissed. And I, I don’t know why I responded – I mean, actually, no, I do know why I responded to that so well. I responded to that like, This is incredible! So I recommended it to my husband, and he’s like, She’s so angry, and I’m like, Yeah! Yeah, she’s real mad! And he’s like, But she has reason to be. But she is so angry, and I’m like, Yes. And I just, it, it occurred to me it is rare to see a heroine who is driven by rage throughout the entire – like, it’s her motivation! She is mad, and she wants revenge, and she does not care what happens, and the revenge is quite comprehensive, I might add. But it was one of the earliest books that I read where I was like, Wow, she’s angry, and it’s, and the story is not how does she not be angry anymore? The story is what is she going to do with this anger? Which, I felt so seen by just that part. Not We need to resolve your anger, but Yes, you’re angry; what are you going to do?

Agnés: Part of that is take a bit of rest, because rest is a weapon.

Sarah: Yes! That was one of my favorite messages too. That is such a goo rec. I might need to reread that book again too.

Agnés: Oh! Sort of in the run-up to sort of the next book coming out.

Sarah: Yes. I’ve got to refresh!

So any other books you want to mention?

Agnés: No, but I did want to mention that after episode 658, I wrote this down in my, in my, in my notes?

Sarah: Ooh!

Agnés: The episode where you had a conversation with Jane Buehler? So in the comments of the episode we sort of had a, a bit of a, a convo flipping point, a convo about frozen shoulders and whatnot, and sort of inspired by that I had a call with my GP, got a cortisone injection, and I have, as of two weeks ago, had my, my last physical therapy appointment. So I’ve –

Sarah: Yay! You got your frozen, you got your frozhen, frozen shoulder treated! Oh, I’m so excited!

Agnés: Yep! So I’m, so I’m, if, if you have a chance, or if she listens to, if you, anyone has a chance to tell her, thank you!

Sarah: Oh, I will tell her. I’m sure she, I know she listens. I know Emily listens, but I’ll make sure to tell her. I was in physical therapy a lot this year for my neck, and I met so many women who were in there like, I just, I can’t move my shoulder. I don’t understand what I did. I – Do you remember an injury? No. Did you fall? No. Oh, this is frozen shoulder; we see this all day. And then by the time I left there were like three different patients with frozen shoulder.

Agnés: What are we doing…

Sarah: And it’s wild that it’s this one weird symptom, right? That’s very weird.

Agnés: But, you know, it, my GP has been very helpful.

Sarah: Yay!

Agnés: Physical therapist has been very helpful. So, so that, but it took sort of someone telling me, This is not something you just have to – there’s, there’s stuff you can do.

Sarah: Yes! This is a problem that has a solution. The problem is actually that no one talks about the problem or the solution. Right? Like, that’s the thing where I was like, Oh wait, this is a menopause thing? How many other things are menopause things?

Agnés: So many!

Sarah: So many.

Agnés: So many! So, yeah, I wanted to say thank you for that, and everyone else, this is a problem that might just be solvable.

Sarah: Yay! Thank you, Emily.

So what are your wishes for 2026 for everyone? I mean, and you work in The Hague – wait, hold on, I just realized: you work in The Hague. Do you take requests for people who I think should go to The Hague and stay there for international tribunal purposes? Do you, do you have a, do you have a request line? Does The Hague have a request line? I can alphabetize it? I could put it in order of, of, of severity. I could put it alphabetical by country. But I have a list.

Agnés: A list. Well, it’s, I work for the department of agriculture, so my, my…is limited, but –

Sarah: Okay, I have a list of potential fertilizers. Is what I’ve got. [Laughs]

Agnés: We’ll do that, we’ll do that off broadcast.

Sarah: Yeah, let’s, let’s not put that on a recording, because that would be unwise, especially for me. [Laughs]

Agnés: [Muffled]

Sarah: It’s not a conspiracy if you tell everybody who’s listening! [Laughs]

Agnés: Is that, is that the loophole? [Laughs]

Sarah: Yeah, just tell everybody. Here is my conspiracy, everyone! [Laughs]

So what wishes do you have for 2026?

Agnés: A healthy balance between being very angry and getting enough rest.

Sarah: I think that is a truly inspired wish. Absolutely. Stay mad; get rest. I love it. I, I’m writing this down: stay mad; get rest. That is a perfect wish. Thank you! I, I imagine many people are going to be nodding when they listen to this. Like, Yep, mm-hmm! Yep, stay mad; get rest. Thank you.

Did you bring a terrible joke? It is okay if you didn’t.

Agnés: Oh gosh, I for- – wait! Let’s see if my Tumblr tag still works.

Sarah: I am here for it.

Agnés: Because in the olden days I could use my tagging system, and it’s been in some, in some, one update or another –

Sarah: I love Tumblr, by the way. It’s one of, like, it’s one of, like, it’s like my blog, right? It’s like a very old piece of the internet, and I just, I’m happy every time I’m there.

[Laughter]

Agnés: Eh. Nope. Tagging is wonky as frick. So! No, someone else is going to…going to have to make, do the joking, the joke bit.

Sarah: It’s fine! No worries.

Thank you so much for, for doing an interview with me! It’s a real pleasure to meet you in person after having spoken to you on the internet for so long.

Agnés: Yeah! Thanks for having me! And have fun with the rest of the interviews!

Sarah: I have, I had a record number last year; I’m assuming this year will be even more people, and I’m very excited.

Agnés: Yes! Good. I look forward to hearing them. 

[music]

Sarah: Good morning!

Emily: Good morning, hello!

Sarah: What a fantastic sweater!

Emily: Thank you! You know, I always feel guilty ‘cause when I wear it people ask me if I knitted it, and I did not at all.

Sarah: Somebody did, and they did a great job, and it looks great on you. That’s a good color!

Emily: Yeah, it’s very, very, like, cozy, so.

Sarah: That’s lovely! Well, I have a, I have a compliment for you!

Emily: Oh yeah?

Sarah: Coincidentally, the interview just before yours on my calendar, and so therefore just before yours in the episode, I spoke to Agnés in the Netherlands, and she said, I meant to tell you after listening to episode 658 with Jane Buehler in the comments there was a discussion of frozen shoulder, and I was inspired to call my, my GP, get cortisone, and go to physical therapy. So I think our conversation and your advocacy has inspired a lot of people to get help for frozen shoulder. So good for you and your shoulders, ma’am! Hell yeah!

Emily: Yes! I’m very glad to hear that. Thank you for sharing.

Sarah: Listen, the more I talk about menopause, the more I hear people going, Wait, what are – what? That’s a thing? Absolutely it’s a thing! It’s all a thing, people –

Emily: Yeah.

Sarah: – it’s all a thing. [Laughs] It’s so weird to have your body do strange, unexpected things that do not seem at all to be con-, you know, connected to your hormones or to…

Emily: Right.

Sarah: – sort of aging, and then you do a little tiny bit of research and it’s like, Oh crap, it’s all connected?

Emily: Yeah. And I –

Sarah: Wow!

Emily: – I have the meno-, meno-, The Menopause Manifesto after you interviewed her, and I couldn’t really read it cover to cover ‘cause I was thinking, Oh my God! All this is going to happen? And getting more and more freaked out. But I’m like, Okay, you have it as a reference book, so now you can go look things up in it –

Sarah: Yes.

Emily: – and you don’t have to read it cover to cover. So I need to get, get that out and do that.

Sarah: You know what, that’s a really good idea. I’m going to add that to my Sarah workflow: books about menopause list. It, it’s really handy when I think about Gosh! I should do a post about all of the different menopause manuals and books there are, because I know my community is around my age, and then I think, Wow, it’s a really good thing I have a book blog!

[Laughter]

Sarah: It’s really great! I’m really pleased!

[Laughter]

Sarah: All right, so first of all – this is a really hard question – can you tell everybody who you are and where you are?

Emily: I am Emily Jane Buehler, and I am in Hillsboro, North Carolina.

Sarah: Howdy! Welcome back!

Emily: Yes, it’s great to be here.

Sarah: I’m so pleased that you signed up. Every time I see someone, like the Calendar note appears, I’m like, Ooh, I get to talk to them! Yay!

So tell me about a book or books that rocked your world this year.

Emily: So it was a hard pick, but I decided to share Maiga Doocy’s Sorcery and Small Magics because I just loved everything about it. I was immediately hooked by it. It was one of those stay-up-late-reading books, but it was also just very restful and calming.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Emily: And so thinking back about why I loved it, the two main characters are opposites, so it’s an opposites attract, and I love that they each had preconceived ideas about who the other was, and it was, it was a very Pride and Prejudice kind of setup where they went into it with all these ideas, and then it was just – but you as the reader can see bits of the truth, and then it was just wonderful watching them discover who the other person was and realize that they, they had been wrong about them. And there was a very unique little magic system in there that I loved, where the two people pair up, and one is writing the spells, and the other is performing the spells.

Sarah: Ohhh!

Emily: And so I just found that kind of charming, and the fantasy – so it’s, it’s a fantasy world, but they venture into a forest in it, and I loved that there’s danger and there are villains, but not everyone they meet is horrible.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Emily: Like, there are people who help them, and it, it never got very traumatic. Like, even though things were happening and it was keeping me interested, it was never, like, very upsetting. It’s a slow burn, and so the ending felt very happy and fulfilling to me, but their journey is going to continue, so I want, just want to warn anyone, if you don’t like that slow burn. I find it delightful, but yeah, that one I really, really loved this year.

Sarah: It is the first of a trilogy. Hell yeah. I feel like, is it me, or are trilogies kind of coming back?

Emily: Yeah! I –

Sarah: They used to be like the default, right? Like, you get one; no, you’re always getting three. Now there seem to be more trilogies, which I’m, I’m okay with!

Emily: Yes, yes. I’m – especially if you know going in it’s good, so you don’t hit the end and have that surprise.

Sarah: But what about this and this and this and this and that – oh! No, book two.

Emily: And I know there are some people who like to wait till they’re all out so they can just read right through them, and that’s never been me, but lately I realized by the time number two comes out I have forgotten number one, so I might turn into one of those people who need to wait till they’re all ready.

Sarah: I think that there needs to be like a name for when you’re in a series but you don’t necessarily remember the early books in the series, going back to reread in preparation for a new release. I feel like that needs a name.

Emily: Yes.

Sarah: I’m sure TikTok will something, come up with some sort of portmanteau that makes me want to die, but it still needs a name.

Emily: Yes.

Sarah: Now I’m going to think about it. That is such a great rec, and now I want to read that, so thank you. Perfect for, like, right now; I need more cozy.

Emily: Need more cozy!

Sarah: Yes.

Emily: Yeah. Well, I hope you love it too.

Sarah: Thank you!

What are your wishes for everyone for 2026?

Emily: This was hard because everything feels so bad lately that it’s like, how can one little wish make a difference? And I woke up this morning about, Oh no, my talk with Sarah is today, and I, I haven’t figured it out yet! [Laughs] I think, so I just went to the thing that helps me a lot, and so my wish is that everyone will find even just a little bit of time every day to get outside and just enjoy being outside. And even if the only nature available to you is crows in a parking lot somewhere, I still think – well, I love crows, but – [laughs] – just that little bit of birdwatching or finding a plant to check out and just noticing all those little things around you just really brings me comfort every day and when I make the time to do it, so –

Sarah: Yes.

Emily: Yes, the time, the time to take that time for yourself is what I’m wishing everyone.

Sarah: I think that is so important, and I feel the exact same way. Not only because I have trained the local murder to hang out with me since 2020 – I have Bro Crow and Bro Crow’s friends, and they sit – so my office faces my neighbor’s roof, and if I have not put out peanuts and blueberries for them they will sit on the roof, and they will look at me while I’m working and be like, Hey! Hey! Hey!

Emily: [Laughs]

Sarah: Where’s my food? And they will, they’ll caw at me. Like, I know that they know who I am?

Emily: Uh-huh.

Sarah: And it makes me so happy? Especially because my neighbor also has a tree, and I, given how big it is, I probably would estimate it’s like five hundred years old – like, it’s old-old –

Emily: Uh-huh.

Sarah: – and every time I look at the tree I think, Okay, this tree has been here longer than me, and it’s doing fine. I can get through whatever is happening right now –

Emily: Uh-huh!

Sarah: – because this tree’s going to outlast me, which seems, which seems kind of morbid, but actually makes me feel very hopeful!

Emily: Yes.

Sarah: Right?

Emily: Yeah.

Sarah: Like, things endure, and they’re okay, and I will endure –

Emily: Yeah.

Sarah: – and I will be okay.

Emily: And you know, even, so my tree out my window, it’s a dying maple, and, which is kind of the opposite of yours –

Sarah: Yeah.

Emily: – but it, I think it got hit by an ice storm a few years ago and it lost a lot of branches, and the thing is, people keep saying, Oh, you want me to take that down? And I’m like, But the woodpeckers love it. And I saw a, my, my first backyard pileated woodpecker sighting was, I was hearing this bang, bang, bang, bang, and finally I was like, That is just way too loud for the red-bellied, and I looked out, and this thing, they’re giant –

Sarah: Oh, they’re huge!

Emily: – and was just, like, on – and it wasn’t even just pecking. It was like peck, peck, peck, and then it would take a piece of bark and yank it off and fling it. And I also have a great crested flycatcher who I think had a nest in there over the summer, ‘cause I kept seeing –

Sarah: Ohhh!

Emily: – two of them hopping around. So my, my partner Darcy, he has said he doesn’t think it’s going to fall on the house; it just kind of keeps dropping branches. And so I’m, so far I’m like, I, I just want to enjoy watching nature use it as it dies, and I already have a new baby oak tree that came up ‘cause it wasn’t getting mowed, so that’s going to be, like, the successor tree? But right now I’m just enjoying this process of watching one go away while the new one comes up, so.

Sarah: I love that! I love that. I also have a dead tree nearby where the woodpeckers were like, Woohoo!

Emily: Yeah. [Laughs]

Sarah: This is great! Thank you!

So did you bring a terrible joke?

Emily: Oh, I forgot they’re supposed to be terrible! So –

Sarah: Well, that’s fine if they’re good! I like a good one! I usually just –

Emily: I –

Sarah: – inflict terrible on everyone else. [Laughs]

Emily: I have, I have trouble remembering them lately – like everything – so I, I will hear one and then it will just be gone. So this is the one that I, I’m able to hang onto? But it, it takes about two minutes to tell, so if you, if this gets to be too much, feel free to leave this part out. But it’s a good fall joke. So –

Sarah: I’m here! I’m ready; let’s go.

Emily: All right.

So there’s a squirrel, and he is the new, like, squirrel commissioner who’s in charge of the community, and it’s, you know, it’s his first fall, and so he’s, he’s really nervous. And so some of the squirrels come up to him and they’re like, Hey, commissioner! Like, you know, what’s the winter going to be like? Is it, is it going to be a bad one? Should we gather more nuts? And he’s thinking, I don’t know! How does anyone know this? So he says, Yeah! Yeah, why don’t you gather some, gather some more nuts? And so the squirrels scamper off and start gathering nuts, and he goes and he gets on the phone and he calls up the national weather bureau, and he says, Hey. Hey, what do you think about this winter? It’s going to be a bad one? And they’re like, Yeah, it seems like it might be kind of bad. So he, he nods and he goes back, and so the next time the squirrels come and they say, We’ve gathered nuts; what do you think? He’s like, Oh, you should gather some more; it’s going to be a bad winter. So again the squirrels go out, they’re gathering more nuts, and the squirrel commissioner, he, he starts worrying again, so he calls, he calls the national weather bureau again. He’s like, I, I just want to check: you still think it’s going to be a bad winter? And they’re like, Oh yeah, it’s looking really bad. So he nods and is glad. So the third time all the squirrels come he’s like, It is going to be the worst winter ever. I want you to go gather as many nuts as you can! And so they’re, you know, Okay, okay, we will! And they go out and they’re just gathering every nut they can find and every acorn and, you know, stuffing them all in their hiding places. And so the squirrel commissioner, he’s like, I, I better just check one more time, and he calls the national weather bureau, and he says, So, what’s – you, you really, you think it’s going to be a bad winter? And the guy says, It’s going to be the worst winter we’ve ever seen, and the squirrel commissioner says, How do you know? And the weather bureau man says, Well, the squirrels are gathering nuts like crazy!

Sarah: [Laughs] That’s awesome.

Emily: I love that joke.

Sarah: Every time I, every time I see a squirrel now I’m going to think of that joke. [Laughs] Thank you! And thank you for doing an interview at the end of the year. It’s really lovely to see you again.

Emily: Yes, you too. And I’m, I’m looking forward to this show. It’s always nice to hear everyone’s recommendations and wishes.

Sarah: It’s my favorite thing to do at the end of the year.

[music]

Smart Bitch Sarah: Would you please – it’s the hard question – please introduce yourself and tell the people who you are and where – oh, oh, hang on. Oookay, cat! ‘Kay, first I’m going to need you to introduce the cat, and then I’m going to need you to introduce yourself.

Sarah Jane: Well, hello. This is Min, M-I-N, the orange juice box of love, empty-headed garbage boy.

SB Sarah: [Laughs]

Sarah Jane: Our old man.

SB Sarah: I too have an orange, empty-headed old man!

Sarah Jane: He has many nicknames. And my, I am pleased to be his servant and owner, and my name is Sarah Jane, and we are coming to you from Indianapolis!

SB Sarah: Well, hello there, both of you. I, I, I don’t think that my orange dumbass has the brain cell right now, so maybe it’s with yours?

Sarah Jane: [Laughs]

SB Sarah: Hello, bu- – oh yeah. Nothing in that brain but a VCR screensaver, right? Just –

Together: [Humming Nintendo Wii song]

SB Sarah: Yep.

Sarah Jane: [Laughs]

SB Sarah: Oh yeah, orange cats are the greatest. I’m so excited you’re both here!

Sarah Jane: Yay!

SB Sarah: So, what book – or books – rocked your world this year?

Sarah Jane: So I, I have three, because of course when you asked for one readers give you three –

SB Sarah: I do not mind –

Sarah Jane: – but –

SB Sarah: – bring it on.

Sarah Jane: – top of the list, if I had to choose, would be A Gentleman’s Gentleman by T. J. Alexander, which I was kind of in a reading slump, and I just found this in a bookstore, bought it on a whim, and gobbled it up in two days. Which I have not done in a long time, and it was just so lovely. It’s a Regency; it’s trans and queer and just lovely, and oh my gosh! And it has a happy and realistic ending. Like, that’s, that’s always a choice when you’re reading queer, like, Regency especially. It’s like, well, you can have a happy ending, or you can have a realistic ending, and T. J. Alexander said, Nope! Both. And I –

SB Sarah: I –

Sarah Jane: – love that.

SB Sarah: – love this –

Sarah Jane: I love –

SB Sarah: – so much.

Sarah Jane: – the cover! It’s just so pretty! It’s like, oh! Gorgeous. Stunning. So yes, that was my –

SB Sarah: Holy crap! Holy crap! Yes! Okay, so –

Sarah Jane: Right?

SB Sarah: – I do not –

Sarah Jane: The –

SB Sarah: – I do not remember words very well on covers; I just remember the images.

Sarah Jane: Mm-hmm.

SB Sarah: As I’ve joked many times, I am the patron that libraries hate: It’s a book, and she’s wearing a yellow dress, and she’s facing away.

Sarah Jane: Yes, yes, yes. [Laughs]

SB Sarah: Yeah, like, okay, you weirdo. I remember this cover. I didn’t remember the, the, the name card on the front, but oh my gosh!

Sarah Jane: Isn’t that gorgeous?

SB Sarah: That man looks like he is wearing Wedgwood china.

Sarah Jane: Right? Oh, just delightful.

SB Sarah: Holy cow.

Sarah Jane: And again, I just, I just gobbled the book up. It was fantastic.

SB Sarah: Mmm!

Sarah Jane: I’ve already – I wanted to show it to you, but – you know, hold it up – but I’ve already loaned it out to three people, so –

SB Sarah: See, I –

Sarah Jane: – I have no idea where it is anymore. [Laughs]

SB Sarah: Do not even worry. (a) They’ll all be in the show notes, and (b) I’ll make sure everyone sees this cover ‘cause it’s gorgeous. Oh my gosh, the minute it came up I remember, we had all been, like, screeching about this cover internally at Smart Bitches ‘cause it’s so beautiful.

Sarah Jane: It’s really lovely. There’re, of course, challenges, and there’s some nice level of conflict, and I really liked the ending! It was an ending that I hadn’t seen before in a – and I don’t want to spoil it, but it was kind of an ending I hadn’t seen before in a historical, and like, oh! That’s the choice they’re making! I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone make that choice before! And it was really lovely. So, highly recommend if you’re at all open to reading queer romance. Highly recommend it.

SB Sarah: Fantastic! Thank you!

Sarah Jane: My other, my second choice is The House in the Cerulean Sea, which I feel like everyone else has read, and I finally read, and also loved, by T. J. Klune…

SB Sarah: By T. J. Klune.

Sarah Jane: This is actually down to you, because I –

SB Sarah: Really!

Sarah Jane: – I had been kind of in a reading slump, and I was, like, looking at my spreadsheet, your spreadsheet that you hand out –

SB Sarah: Mm-hmm?

Sarah Jane: – and I’m like, I’m such in a reading slump. I’m going to challenge myself to just get a couple books from the library every week and give myself permission to DNF them –

SB Sarah: Yep!

Sarah Jane: – if I don’t like them, but just read the first chapter and see where it takes me. And The House in the Cerulean Sea was one of them, so. It was great!

SB Sarah: That’s really lovely!

Sarah Jane: It was lovely! And I –

SB Sarah: Yeah.

Sarah Jane: – realize that, like, I say reading slump, but looking at my statistics over the year, I’ve read twenty new books, which I know a lot for non-readers, but for me is kind of a small number.

SB Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sarah Jane: But I have reread over forty.

SB Sarah: Yep.

Sarah Jane: So I’m just doing a lot of rereading, and I’m like, Oh! I’m just doing a lot of rereading; that’s fine. And, you know, taking more chances, getting things out of the library, and you know, it’s been great!

SB Sarah: I also think that rereading when your brain is super-duper-duper tired is a kind –

Sarah Jane: Yes.

SB Sarah: – thing to do, because it’s already done –

Sarah Jane: When you’re stressed?

SB Sarah: Yeah, you’ve already done –

Sarah Jane: Mm-hmm.

SB Sarah: – most of the work. You kind of know what’s going to happen, you don’t got to be anxious about it –

Sarah Jane: Yes.

SB Sarah: – and I, if it’s a good book, I can really sink back into it, and my favorite is to listen to something that I’ve already read, because then I just hear so many different things.

Sarah Jane: Mm-hmm! Yeah!

SB Sarah: Oh yeah, I love it.

Sarah Jane: Speaking of relistening, I’ve also been re- –

SB Sarah: Wait, hold on!

Sarah Jane: Okay.

SB Sarah: So book one was T. J. Alexander; book two –

Sarah Jane: Yeah.

SB Sarah: – was T. J. Klune. Is the third book, the third, is the third author T. J. anything?

Sarah Jane: No, I wish –

SB Sarah: Okay…

Sarah Jane: – I could find another T. J., but –

SB Sarah: [Laughs]

Sarah Jane: I was relistening to one of my favorite podcasts; you might know it. Episode 329 [392, actually] –

SB Sarah: Whoa!

Sarah Jane: – space – wait – Earth Is Garbage; Space Is Horny.

SB Sarah: [Laughs] That is one of Amanda’s faaavorites!

Sarah Jane: Valentine’s Day in 2020 –

SB Sarah: Yep!

Sarah Jane: – and you two were talking about sci-fi romance, and I remember at the time thinking, Oh, I should recommend them this book. I’m like, Oh! I just relistened to this; recommend them the book again, dummy! And it’s Gravitational Attraction by Angel Martinez from 2012.

SB Sarah: Oooh!

Sarah Jane: And it’s a book that I really like, and it’s got a lot of internal conflict and a lot of external conflict, which was something you were both talking about on that podcast –

SB Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Sarah Jane: – about – yeah. So that’s it: my, out of my, my one favorite three books this year.

SB Sarah: I, I love that. I also love that you were deep in the archives. That’s very cool.

Sarah Jane: You know, you guys always keep me company when I’m sewing, and I really appreciate that.

SB Sarah: Oh that’s, that’s so nice of you to say! I have podcasts that keep me company when I’m sewing.

Sarah Jane: Yeah.

SB Sarah: I’m really honored to keep you company! That’s so nice!

Sarah Jane: Today I was making a memory bear for my best friend’s mom, who had passed away, and I was making memory bears of her clothes and listening to you, so –

SB Sarah: That’s –

Sarah Jane: – thanks for keeping me company!

SB Sarah: That is such –

Sarah Jane: In my ear holes!

SB Sarah: – a lovely thing to do. Is it a hard pattern, the memory bear?

Sarah Jane: Oh no, it’s real easy.

SB Sarah: It’s really easy?

Sarah Jane: Yeah.

SB Sarah: That’s cool.

Sarah Jane: And I’ve – since I do so many of them I’ve got it, like, on, like, chunky plastic, so it’s really nice to see, and you can fussy cut and find the –

SB Sarah: Yep. That’s fantastic! Oh.

Sarah Jane: It is, it’s hard making the first cut, because you’re like, If I screw this up I’ve ruined –

SB Sarah: A piece of clothing!

Sarah Jane: – someone’s memory.

SB Sarah: Yeah, I’ve ruined a piece of clothing that meant a lot to somebody –

Sarah Jane: But –

SB Sarah: – oh crap!

Sarah Jane: – the actual pattern is not that hard.

SB Sarah: That’s awesome!

So what are your wishes for people for 2026?

Sarah Jane: My wishes that I’ve written down here because I can’t do it off the cuff –

SB Sarah: Understood.

Sarah Jane: – I wish that all of us will be able to find a creative endeavor that brings us joy –

SB Sarah: Ohhh yes.

Sarah Jane: – as crafting has been a big balm for me when I’m stressed, and it has been a fantastic way for me to connect with other people when I’m not the best at that? So that’s what I want for other people.

SB Sarah: I love that very, very much. I think that’s very cool. And also, through the act of creating you’re sort of putting your brain on like airplane mode for a minute –

Sarah Jane: Yeah!

SB Sarah: – and you can replenish yourself.

Sarah Jane: …have to think about the world. I’m just making this teddy bear.

SB Sarah: Yeah, exactly!

Sarah Jane: Yeah.

SB Sarah: It’s been a hard year.

Sarah Jane: Oh God. It’s been a hard five years, Sarah. [Laughs]

SB Sarah: Oh God, it’s so true. It really is.

Sarah Jane: I was listening to that, and I’m like, That was five years ago. That was already in the pandemic, and holy shit.

SB Sarah: And what’s funny is I can still hear Amanda in my head saying, Earth is garbage, space is horny, and I want to go to space.

Sarah Jane: Yeah!

SB Sarah: Like, I can still hear her in, in my head saying that –

Sarah Jane: Yeah.

SB Sarah: – and it was, what, five years ago? It’s so hard.

Sarah Jane: [Laughs]

SB Sarah: I’m really honored to keep you company while you make crafts and re-, recharge yourself.

Sarah Jane: Well, thank you!

SB Sarah: No, thank you! It’s an honor!

Sarah Jane: – been a lot of fun hanging out with you guys over the years.

SB Sarah: So do you, did you bring a terrible joke? It is okay if you did not.

Sarah Jane: I, I don’t.

SB Sarah: Don’t worry…

Sarah Jane: Instead I’ll just show you my cat again…

SB Sarah: Please do! Hang on, I’ll take a little capture of you both. Whoo, handsome! [Click] Oh, look at – so regal!

Sarah Jane: Yeah.

SB Sarah: Aww.

[music]

Jenn: Yeah, my name is Jenn, and my pronouns are she/her, and I’m from the Philadelphia suburbs of Pennsylvania!

Sarah: Which book or books rocked your world this year?

Jenn: Oh gosh…

Sarah: And if you brought more than one it’s okay. [Laughs]

Jenn: I, I do, because I’ve read a, a couple good ones this year, but the ones that stand out the most, I think, are My Friends by Fredrick Backman and Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which I know is kind of divisive? A lot of people have opinions about her, but I just love her books, and this one just blew me away. And then over this past weekend – I just finished it yesterday – I finally got a chance to read Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. I highly recommend it. If you have any interest at all in LGBTQ+ advocacy or history or anything like that, highly, highly recommend.

Sarah: That is sort of a – I don’t want to say revolutionary – foundational, that’s the word I’m looking for.

Jenn: Yeah. Absolutely.

Sarah: That is a foundational novel. Like –

Jenn: It is, yeah.

Sarah: – deeply important on many, many levels.

Jenn: Yeah, it is. It is.

Sarah: What did you like about Atmosphere? I’m so curious, because you’re right, there’s been a lot of conversation about it, and I’m curious about your opinion.

Jenn: I mean, I mean, it just, besides the fact that it just made me bawl my eyes out –

Sarah: And there is that.

Jenn: – I do, I love books set in the ‘80s, and just the idea of not only a book about women scientists and astronauts in the ‘80s, but lesbians in the ‘80s, and just – again, I, I work with a lot of LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, so, you know, that sort of stuff really interests me and, and kind of – yeah. [Laughs]

Sarah: Sort of, it, it sort of informs what you read and adds –

Jenn: Yes! Thank you, yeah.

Sarah: Well, it’s going to add a lot of dimension to what you already do.

Jenn: Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, that, so that was a big thing. Plus, I just, her writing is just so – for me – just so beautiful –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Jenn: – and just, it just – yeah. I’m – I’m at a loss for words, obviously. [Laughs]

Sarah: I get it. I, I love, I love writers that when I’m reading the book and, and I, you know, I read digitally, and I’m just highlighting so many pages –

Jenn: [Laughs]

Sarah: – or passages that I like, and it’s like, Wow! I’ve added like twenty-five gigabytes to this file just by highlighting and taking notes on this eBook now. Good job. Yet there’s –

Jenn: I actually found myself doing that with Stone Butch Blues. I, I had a physical copy of it, but I was taking pictures and, you know, highlighting on the, on the, the photo, ‘cause it’s, it’s not my copy, so I…

Sarah: Yeah, I get it!

Jenn: I can’t mark it up! But yeah, that’s how I know a, a book is, has really gotten me is when I’m highlighting it, annotating it, talking back to it.

Sarah: Oh, that’s, yep! Oh yes.

Jenn: [Laughs]

Sarah: Talking back is the sign where it’s like, Girl, you have to write a review now! Like, when I start talking back to the hero of a, of a romance, I’m like, You, sir, are a piece of garbage.

Jenn: Yeah.

Sarah: It’s like, Ohhh, now it’s, now it’s time for me to write a review about this, when you’ve…

Jenn: I’m not the only one that does that, then. [Laughs]

Sarah: No, you’re definitely not the only one! I have written reviews where I’ve yelled back at characters. It, it’s very cathartic. It’s very cathartic!

Jenn: It is, it is! [Laughs]

Sarah: And it’s interesting when the work you do in real life is echoed in the book that you’re reading? Or when –

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – the things that you’re reading about are also happening in the, in the world around you? So it’s, it’s kind of both sad and incredible that we still have this resource in Stone Butch Blues, because we, like, we need it right now, a lot.

Jenn: Right. Right. And it’s, I mean, I think it’s incredible it’s available for free on Leslie Feinberg’s website. I, I run a Little Free Library for an equality alliance that I’m part of, and it’s going right there. So I couldn’t mark it up, unfortunately, but it’s, it’s going right there when I’m done with it, and I hope that, I hope that I can get other people in my community to read it.

Sarah: That’s very cool. And thank you for having a Little Free Library. That’s –

Jenn: Oh, it’s been my dream to, to run one, and I can’t where I live. It’s just, it’s just not – I live, like, on a country road, so –

Sarah: Oh yeah!

Jenn: – there’s just nowhere for people to stop for it, so when I had this opportunity to curate this I jumped at it.

Sarah: Oh, it’s fun, isn’t it? My neighbor has one, and we’re on a dead-end street, but I am still up in there like, What you got today?

Jenn: [Laughs]

Sarah: So what wishes do you have for people in 2026?

Jenn: I mean, I’m sure it’s the same wish for a lot of people: that things calm down. That our government, like, decides to protect its people? But that’s, I mean, that’s a big wish for everybody. Personally, I just, you know, I have some friends going through health issues, so I wish health and, and wellness on them, and I wish happiness on some friends going through family stuff, and my daughter’s going through some mental health stuff, so I really just want 2026 to be a better year for her, and, you know, just general peace. We could all use it. [Laughs]

Sarah: General peace and tranquility is a good, is a, is a good wish. I hope, I hope there is warmth for everyone who’s struggling around you.

Jenn: I, I try to be a source of warmth, but I can’t do it all! [Laughs]

Sarah: No! It, but even if it’s a thimble, it’s something.

Did you bring a terrible joke? It is okay if you did not.

Jenn: I did. I don’t know how terrible it is, but –

Sarah: I’m…

Jenn: – it’s really, it’s one that has stuck in my head forever.

Sarah: Perfect! I’m excited. Bring it!

Jenn: [Laughs] Knock-knock.

Sarah: Who’s there?

Jenn: Interrupting Cow.

Sarah: Interrupting Cow –

Jenn: Moo!

[Laughter]

Sarah: I, I know that joke! Until you said Interrupting Cow I was like, Wait, what joke is – oh, now!

[Laughter]

Sarah: Thank you so, so much for doing an interview. It’s delightful to see everybody –

Jenn: Oh, thank you!

Sarah: – and I love talking to everybody, but thank you so much for being part of the, part of the podcast and for being part of this episode!

Jenn: Well, thank you for doing this! I love the show, and we love you as a host, so –

Sarah: Thank you!

Jenn: – this has been great for me!

Sarah: We have so many, I think I might have like eight Holiday Wishes episodes by the time that I’m done, so it’s going to be so cool. For like the next month and a half –

Jenn: Yes.

Sarah: – we’re going to have such nice episodes.

Jenn: Nice!

Sarah: Thank you for being a part of them.

Jenn: Thank you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.

[outro]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode.

And I have a special outro. I connected with ShoesforAll, also known as Sarah, who has been following the site since the beginning-beginning, when she searched for Sharon Shinn, which was one of the very first reviews on Smart Bitches. Sarah asked me to pass along the following recommendations, wishes, and, of course, a bad joke:

The first book is called Misbehaving at the Crossroads, and she said:

>> I am afraid I will never read a book this good again in my life. It is a life-changing and incredible book. It’s a hard read sometimes, but it is essential, and the writing is truly gorgeous.

Sarah also recommends The Teller of Small Fortunes because it features some of her favorite tropes: a created family road trip. (I do love a road trip.)

Sarah’s Holiday Wish is tranquility in the world and grace and food to eat for every person.

They also wanted me to recommend All the Stars in the Sky, which is another book.

And we will end with a bad joke. This is from Sarah’s father Richard. Hi, Richard!

My sweater was picking up static electricity, so I returned it to the store. They gave me another one free of charge!

[Laughs] I just need you to know that I had to do like three takes because I kept laughing. I got it, I got it done on the third take and laughed at the appropriate time. Thank you, Richard, and thank you, ShoesforAll for adding to this week’s Holiday Wishes.

As always, I will have links to all of the books that we discuss, and that will be at smartbitchestrashybooks.com under episode 694.

And on behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful week with lots of leftovers if you’re in the States, and we will see you back here next week for more Holiday Wishes. And in the words of my favorite retired podcast Friendshipping, thank you for listening. You’re welcome for talking!

[end of music]