699. Holiday Wishes VII with Katie, Kate and Adam

[intro]

Sarah Wendell: Hello, Happy New Year, and welcome to episode number 699 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books – holy cow. I’m your host Sarah Wendell, and this week we are talking to two Kates and an Adam. We’ve got book recs, wishes, spreadsheet discussions, dungeons, and some wishes that don’t violate the Hatch Act. There’s also a rather appalling poo adventure immediately after my first interview. (Pew, pew!)

Books and links and more will be in the full show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast under episode 699. Again, holy cow!

I have a compliment this week, which is so lovely!

To Alexandra M.: Mermaids, talking seals, and some orcas are hosting an entire undersea party to celebrate you, and they’re handing out party favors that are warm, sparkly, charming, and very inspiring because they remind them of you. So the next time you go swimming, don’t forget to wave and say hi.

If you would like a compliment of your very own, please have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. Our Patreon community is awesome. They are the reason that there are no dynamic ads before or after the show. With listener support, I was able to turn them all off, to avoid ads for ICE and other right-wing propaganda. So instead of Patreon offering ad-free episodes, our Patreon community made every episode free of dynamic ads for every listener. Thank you, y’all.

In addition, Patreon support helps me get new issues of Romantic Times, helps me keep the show going, and they help ensure an artisan, handcrafted transcript from garlicknitter. Hi, garlicknitter! [Hi! – gk] Your support means a lot. If you’d like a sample, there is a collection of our bonus content at Patreon, and I’ll be adding some new samples in 2026. And if you’re feeling it, you can gift a membership! Patreon.com/SmartBitches/gift! So if you’d like to join the Patreon community, we would love to have you.

And if Patreon support isn’t in the cards, please may I request that you leave a review wherever you listen? It makes an enormous difference.

But most of all, thank you for listening. I’m really honored that you’re here. There are a lot of podcasts to choose from. Like, a lot. A lot-a lot. So thank you for listening to us! We’re really happy you’re here!

One more thing: the Smart Bitches candles are still available, but only until January 5th. There’s a 20th Anniversary Candle and a Bad Decisions Book Club Candle. They both smell lovely, and they are available individually or as a set. Thank you so much to everyone who has ordered and told me how much they love them. This is a limited-time offer, sales will end in early January, and they ship so fast; holy cow. Look for the link in the show notes to learn more.

All right, are you ready for more Holiday Wishes? Let’s go! On with the podcast.

[music]

Katie: Sure! Hi, everybody. My name is Katie, and I am in Silver Spring, Maryland!

Sarah: What book or books really rocked your world this year?

Katie: Okay, so I finally read Murderbot.

Sarah: [Laughs] Yay! [Sings] I get to talk about Murderbot!

Katie: It was, it’s been a really bad fall, and a friend recommended them, and I got them on audiobook? And –

Sarah: Oh, they’re so…

Katie: – Kevin R. Free’s just so good. Such good narration. And I fell in love with them.

Sarah: It’s so good in audio. I could listen to it over and over. Like, it never gets old.

Katie: Yeah, yeah. I was like, Can I take these out again from the library? Just, like, over and over again? Maybe! Maybe I will! [Laughs]

Sarah: Do we have Hoopla?

Katie: I do have Hoopla.

Sarah: Yeah, they are, they should be in there.

Katie: Yeah, they are; that’s how I listened to them.

Sarah: Yeah.

Katie: It’s just able to get five books a month.

Sarah: I love his narration, and there’s a, like, low-key campaign on Reddit in the Murderbot subreddit for him to do the voice of ART because he does it so well. I know they’re going to go with, like, somebody big, like a big name like, there, there’s always like a surprise voiceover. I would love it if it was Kevin R. Free; it would be so great!

Katie: It would be so great. He’s so bitchy.

Sarah: Yes!

Katie: …so perfectly –

Sarah: He’s such a queen. He is, ART is such a queen. He’s such a diva –

Katie: Yeah.

Sarah: – and, I mean, Kevin R. Free nails it. I love it so much.

Katie: Every time. He nails it, yeah. No, I love it.

Sarah: Yay! What a good choice! Do you have any other books you want to mention?

Katie: I do; I have two.

Sarah: Woohoo!

Katie: One is Everyone Is Lying to You.

Sarah: Isn’t it so good?

Katie: So good!

Sarah: So good!

Katie: And I’m not one for thrillers, but I read it and I was like on the edge of my seat, and also I was like, These horrible men need to get it! They need to –

Sarah: Ah!

Katie: – get just murdered all over the place.

Sarah: I just, I was so very satisfied with the degree to which terrible men met terrible ends? Like, it was –

Katie: Yes.

Sarah: – it was lovely. I had so much fun reading that book?

Katie: Mm-hmm…

Sarah: Wasn’t it just so perfect and exactly on, on time?

Katie: Yes. It was; it was exactly the right moment to read it. I took a reading vacation with a friend this summer, and I read it all in one day, which was also perfect? Like, I didn’t want to put it down when we stopped to have dinner?

Sarah: Yep.

Katie: It’s so good!

Sarah: Yep. I, I had to, I Big-Gulped that book too. I, I totally downed it in one sitting. I was like, Nobody speak to me. This is important.

Katie: Right.

Sarah: And the way in which she unpacks how influencers really work? Like the part where they rent houses to film all their stuff, or they have staged houses; that blew my mind. Then of course I was like, Yes, of course they do. Who wants to clean their house that much?

Katie: Right, and well, the whole thing with, like, the kids hate the one day a week where she does all the filming –

Sarah: Yep.

Katie: – and they have to keep changing in and out of their outfits, and then she had a whole, like, separate house!

Sarah: Yeah!

Katie: In the back that was, like, their house.

Sarah: Wait, which was messy!

Katie: Yeah! And was, like, lived-in and, like, didn’t have bread in it, right? [Laughs]

Sarah: Right. And, like, had cereal on the, cereal boxes on the counter and spilled things, and it was fine. I, I think that’s so interesting? Like, I personally will forever struggle with influencer children? Or the children of influencer families? Like, this is my soap box: it is – like, you know how when there’s really old stairs in an old building? They sort of wear down where the footprints have been?

Katie: Yeah.

Sarah: That’s how my soap box is. I have climbed on it about this topic so much, there’s actually an indent where my feet go.

You, your children cannot consent; they cannot consent; they cannot consent. There are no laws protecting that income. There’s no – Coogan laws don’t apply to influencer children, so a lot of these kids are growing up and it’s like, Okay, well, you know, I’ll go off to college; bye! Hope you make some videos –

Katie: Right.

Sarah: – while you’re there. There’s no protections except maybe in Illinois. This is, it makes me so angry, and I love how the book showed the ways in which this person was building her entire career off this performance, but also protecting her children as much as she could, while also recognizing that they are lucrative, which is just such a gross way to think about your kids.

Katie: Yeah. No, and I thought that was all really interesting, and the ending, which I am not going to spoil –

Sarah: Right.

Katie: – but at the end, she went in a direction that I was not expecting. She just – you’re in that life, and it’s hard to get out.

Sarah: Yep! And she’s like, You know, let’s, well, maybe not. I also love the part where they talk about how the pressure of getting those really lucrative sponsorships? Like, once you get a Pampers deal, it’s economically viable to keep having children so you keep that Pampers deal? The Disney deal, once you’re hooked in with Disney you want to have Disney-age kids, so, like, that is mindblowing!

Katie: I know. Just how much these companies are driving individual family decisions, and then, like –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Katie: – who knows how much it’s pushing other people to go in that same direction.

Sarah: Yep. And they all have to –

Katie: Yeah.

Sarah: – and they all perform this traditional wife image? And yet they’re running multi-million-dollar media companies, which is very not trad wife?

Katie: Right. Right. I loved the lawyer character?

Sarah: Yes!

Katie: She is the one who was like the real one.

Sarah: Yes.

Katie: She was like, Let me tell you what is happening here.

Sarah: Yes. I loved that. Like, let me translate all of this craziness so that it makes sense, because it is bonkers, and everyone here is acting like it’s normal.

Katie: Right.

Sarah: Oh, I love that book. What is your third book?

Katie: It’s called The Sudden Sea. And it is a nonfiction book that was written in, I think, the ‘90s. It is about the hurricane of 1938.

Sarah: Ohhh!

Katie: And it is impeccably researched. The woman who wrote it was a, grew up in Rhode Island and was a journalist there, and it affected Rhode Island the most. It’s – I don’t think a lot of people know about the hurricane of ’38, but it, like, was unexpected, it came up the coast, it was a beautiful day, and then suddenly it was not. And what was really interesting was she picked people’s stories, and she sort of alternated with people stories in New York, in Connecticut, in Rhode Island, and then what was happening at the National Weather Service and why no one knew as it went. Like, there was no warning anywhere, and it was because the very nascent National Weather Service hurricane team didn’t believe it could happen –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Katie: – and then by the time reports started coming in, they would come in, but then all of the communications would be down, so no one could warn the next place on the coast.

Sarah: Yep.

Katie: And so it was just fascinating and tragic – many people lost their lives – but it really was also of its time? Right, like it starts off with Katharine Hepburn at her family’s estate on…

Sarah: Oh!

Katie: – coast, and she’s waving to Howard Hughes –

Sarah: As you do!

Katie: – in his plane as he, like, does a flyby before he goes across the ocean?

Sarah: Oh my gosh.

Katie: So it just really felt like the time and the place were there? And I was gripped. I, I think I read it as an auto-, audiobook, and then I also read it as a regular book because it was so good I wanted to know more.

Sarah: It was so huge, and it hit so many states.

Katie: Yeah.

Sarah: Like, just like right in the start of the, of the book about the 1938 hurricane, it looked like a totally normal day! Right? Things –

Katie: Yeah.

Sarah: – looked great at the start!

Katie: Yeah! It looked perfect, and, and it’s incredible how badly it went how fast.

Sarah: Yes.

Katie: Yeah.

Sarah: What a good rec. Thank you for telling me about this book. I think I’m going to have to listen to it, because I, I don’t love True Crime, but I do like true weather!

Katie: [Laughs]

Sarah: You know what I mean?

Katie: Yeah. Well, I grew up in Rhode Island –

Sarah: Yeah!

Katie: – and I tell you, there’s still, like, plaques on the walls –

Sarah: Oh yeah.

Katie: …outside the department stores and stuff where it’s like, This was the high water mark.

Sarah: The high water mark, yeah. Yeah.

Katie: So it felt very present when I read it.

Sarah: Right, like, it, it, it happened long before we were born, but you can still see it? That’s, that’s a really interesting historical reconciliation. Oh, I’m so excited. Thank you for introducing this book to me.

What are your wishes for everyone in 2026?

Katie: Okay, so 2025 I think has been hard for a lot of people. For me personally, it has sucked beyond the telling of it. It’s just been awful.

Sarah: I’m sorry.

Katie: Thanks, yeah. This administration – I used to work for a USAID contractor, so I will stop there.

Sarah: Oh bother.

Katie: Yeah.

Sarah: That sucks!

Katie: Yeah. So I’m hoping that 2026 brings everybody more joy and more time with their loved ones and that also it gives everybody time for more creativity and to bring the creative into their lives.

Sarah: Yes. I love that wish. It, it is so helpful. You’re not even the first person who’s said I wish everyone more crafting; I wish everyone more crafting time.

Katie: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: I am so sorry that you worked for USAID contractor.

Katie: Thanks. Yeah, it’s just, it’s been really hard, and it doesn’t – you know, I have moments of hope, and I, I really hope the Democrats can get their shit together, right? Like –

Sarah: Please, please, please-please, yes, please. I notice when you signed up that you, you said something really, really nice. If I would be permitted to read it, you said:

>> I spoke with you last year, and it was great. This year has been an utter shit show. I decided to join you ‘cause I’m determined to end this year on a positive note, and your podcast is one of the most positive things I can think of.

Thank you! I am really, really honored that you said that. Thank you.

Katie: You’re welcome. I, every time I listen to your podcast I just feel better. So.

Sarah: Aw, thank you! That is such a huge compliment, and that is absolutely what I’m going for when it’s, you know, me, my headphones, and my editing software, so thank you!

Katie: Welcome!

Sarah: Do you have a bad joke? It is okay if you do not.

Katie: I do. I do.

Sarah: Okay! Excitement: I am locked in.

Katie: [Laughs] These are courtesy of my nine-year-old daughter.

Sarah: Oh! Best jokes, best jokes.

Katie: And she told them to me this weekend unprompted. Didn’t know that I needed them, but once I, once she heard that I was going to say them on a podcast she’s like, You have to write them down now, Mom.

Sarah: [Laughs] Please say hello to your daughter and tell her I said thank you, because I am the same way!

Katie: [Laughs] So, why shouldn’t you play hide and seek with mountains?

Sarah: Why shouldn’t you play hide and seek with mountains? Why?

Katie: Because they always peak!

Sarah: [Laughs] You know, I try to think, like, what’s, what’s the answer? Like, what’s – that I did not even come close. ‘Cause they always peak! Nice!

Katie: Mm-hmm. [Laughs]

Sarah: I love it. Thank you so much for doing this interview, and thank you for being part of the episodes that everyone else gets a lift from, so I appreciate that very much.

Katie: Well, thank you for doing this every year. These are some of my favorite episodes of the year, and so I’m just really happy to be able to spend time with you!

Sarah: Well, thank you!

So folks, I didn’t say this to Katie, because I try to stay focused and, like, I’ll, like, give you a little behind-the-scenes here: I have the, you know, the Zoom window where I can see people, and I have my recording software. Zoom records, but it’s more of like a backup in case something goes very wrong, and I’m constantly looking at the recording, you know, making sure my voice is at the right level, that I don’t need to do any adjustments, and I’m, you know, I’m very focused. I, I try to, I, I pay attention. And I just need to tell you that while I was recording, Wilbur went in the litter box in my office and fired out, through the little cabinet, out the door, onto the rug, shot a turd. I want to say, I’m looking – oh, nope, excuse me – two turds, and they traveled about a foot. And so I’m trying to be, like, focused and listening, and all I see out of the corner of my eye are flying poo nuggets. It – and now he’s just sitting here looking at me like, My poo is uncovered; will you please adjust this problem? Like it’s my fault, like I’m the one who – you, you fired poops while I was recording! Ah, man, he’s very proud of himself. So that, that’s a little, just a bonus from, from Wilbur. That was tremendous. Now I’ve, I’ve got to go clean things up.

[music]

Kate: Hi! I am Kate, and I’m located on the east coast of Canada.

Sarah: Well, hello! Thank you for being part of the Holiday Wishes. What book or books rocked your world this year?

Kate: Okay, let me open up my Excel spreadsheet.

Sarah: Oh, you, a spreadsheet; you, you brought a spreadsheet. It’s like the quickest way to my heart. [Laughs]

Kate: It’s actually, I, you shared yours, oh, many years ago…

Sarah: Yes, I share it every year, yeah!

Kate: Yes, and so I took it probably five or six years ago, and I adapted it, and I keep tweaking it each year, so I track the things that I want to be tracking.

Sarah: That’s so cool!

Kate: Yes, yes. This was not a great reading year for me, but I have a couple of books that I can mention. One, the book is called When the World Fell Silent by Donna Jones Alward? And so this is historical fiction; it is Canadian historical fiction.

Sarah: I was going to say, isn’t she Nova Scotian?

Kate: She is, yes, and this book, it’s set in Nova Scotia. It’s set in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and it’s set during the Halifax Explosion in 1917? So First World War history: two boats collided in the Halifax harbor; one of them was carrying munitions? And the explosion flattened a good part of the city of Halifax and Dartmouth on the other side of the harbor. So.

Sarah: Ohhh!

Kate: And so it’s told from two perspectives: two women who were in the city, and the aftermath of, of how their lives unfolded following the explosion. And it’s, I lived in Halifax for a couple of years, and so I can picture all of the places that are mentioned, but also the storyline, it’s a, a storyline that has, has stayed with me since I read it.

Sarah: I see from the summary that it’s about two women. Is there any romance, or is this more historical fiction?

Kate: There, yes, there is romance. It’s not, I’d say secondary plotline being romance?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Kate: For one of the women.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Kate: Yes. Yeah, one of the, one of the women in this – no spoilers, because this happens in the opening chapter, but she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and unmarried.

Sarah: Ruh-roh!

Kate: Yep. So a soldier who’s gone overseas, who then doesn’t reply to any of her letters. But then in the aftermath of the explosion she’s, she’s a nurse, and she meets a doctor in the, as they’re working in the aftermath of the explosion in the hospital, so that is the romance that unfolds over the, the course of the book.

Sarah: Ooh! ‘Cause Donna Alward also writes for Harlequin. She writes series romances, and I’ve met her at conferences. She’s very –

Kate: I did not know that!

Sarah: Yeah, she’s very cool, but under Donna Alworl, Alward she has written a whole bunch of, of Harlequins. I think she might have been winning awards for them, but it looks like she pivoted to historical fiction, which is so cool!

Kate: Yeah. Oh, it’s a, it’s a great story, a great story.

The other one, I’m going to cheat a little bit for the other one, because it was the third or fourth in a series that I read this year.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Kate: It’s the Kelley Armstrong series; A Rip Through Time was the first one? And –

Sarah: Oooh!

Kate: Yes. A Rip Through Time: it is time-slip; it is murder mystery; it, there is a, a romantic subplot, but not the main plot. The main character is a Canadian police detective who ends up in the body of a Victorian housemaid in Scotland in the 1860s.

Sarah: As you do.

Kate: Yes, yes, and the, it’s – [laughs] – it’s really well researched, so that the, a lot of the plot of the first book is her trying to figure out how to be a Victorian housemaid.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Kate: What is expected of her? How does she behave, what does she do, how does she interact with people without giving away that she is a 21st-century police detective?

Sarah: Oh boy.

Kate: Yeah. So it’s, that, that’s the first one in the series, and it’s carried on. I’ve been listening to them as audiobooks?

Sarah: Oh!

Kate: And the narrator is excellent, because when you are inside Mallory’s head she speaks with a, a Canadian accent or a, a North American accent, but when Mallory as Catriona is speaking, when there’s dialogue, she puts on a Scottish accent, so you can always tell whether you’re inside her head or outside her head.

Sarah: That’s cool!

Kate: And it’s well researched and laugh-out-loud funny in places.

Sarah: I just love the idea of this guy, like, from like, what, 2019 waking up in a Victorian housemaid’s body, and it’s like, you thought you didn’t get sleep now. Wait till you experience this level of not getting sleep. ‘Cause you are in for it.

Kate: Yeah, and, and as a, as a 21st-century police detective, I mean, she’s used to being very physically active, physically fit, and trying to figure out how to do all of this with corsets.

Sarah: Oh yeah. You don’t need to breathe; it’s optional.

Kate: Exactly. You don’t need to be able to bend at the waist.

Sarah: Oh, pfft. Silliness.

Kate: [Laughs]

Sarah: That’s very funny. Thank you! I –

Kate: Yeah.

Sarah: This is one of those books that have been sort of like, I would see it go by and be like, Ooh! I kind of, I think I would like that! I think I would like that. Now I know I’m going to like it, so thank you –

Kate: Yeah.

Sarah: – for telling me more about it.

Kate: Highly, highly recommend it, yes.

Sarah: Excellent. Did you bring any other books? Totally okay if not.

Kate: Um – no, I think, like I said, it’s not been a great reading year, so those –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Kate: – those are the two that really stood out for this year.

Sarah: I’m really excited that you adapted the spreadsheet. I try to add a little thing each year that we post it. But it’s so useful to be able to just see your reading?

Kate: Yeah. Yes, yeah. And then the sorts of things that I like to track, I’ve got a, a blog, and I always do a post at the end of the year, a reading summary for the year and put some of the statistics up there, but I track what books I buy versus what I get from the library?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Kate: I track, I really like to track white authors versus non-white authors, queer authors versus non-queer authors, as well as characters, and when I’m making book-buying decisions –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Kate: – I’m more likely to purchase a book if it’s a non-white or a queer author and borrow it from the library, just in terms of where I, I spend my reading dollars, and having this, this spreadsheet helps keep me on task.

Sarah: Oh yes. ‘Cause I have no, like, I have no memory of things like this. Like, I think I did, but I can’t remember. Amanda remembers everything. My brain is a fog, and it’s only getting worse, so I just accept this about myself.

Would you be willing to share the name of your book blog? You do not have to.

Kate: It’s not a book blog –

Sarah: Ah.

Kate: – it’s very little about books these days. Yeah.

Sarah: Okay!

Kate: I’m a, I’m a pastor, and it’s mostly sermons.

Sarah: Oh! Someone’s going to be like, Why didn’t you get the name of it, Sarah? So can I ask what the name of it is?

Kate: Oh. [Laughs] It’s Kate’s Next Great Adventure, and I’m going to, I just have to pull up the URL because I always link to it: katesnextgreatadventure.blogspot.com.

Sarah: Oh, well, that’s a really easy URL!

What wishes do you have for everyone in 2026?

Kate: My wish is that everyone might find a way to sustain their hope.

Sarah: Oh, that’s a good wish, and very needed.

Kate: To trust, to trust that the, the worst time is never the last time and that no matter how bleak things might seem, that they will get better.

Sarah: Yes. And that’s definitely the promise of romance and most genre fiction too, right?

Kate: Mm, yeah.

Sarah: Like, we enter this, this space, this fictional space because we know at the end –

Kate: Yeah.

Sarah: – no matter how bleak it is, it will be okay.

Kate: Yep, yep.

Sarah: Not a surprise that, like, romance and genre fiction reading goes up in harsh times –

Kate: Yeah.

Sarah: – I can’t imagine why that is.

Kate: Yes. Yeah.

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

Kate: I definitely brought a joke. My very favorite terrible joke, and I keep waiting to hear it on the podcast.

Sarah: Oh, well now it’s your time! Now it’s –

Kate: Yeah.

Sarah: – now it’s your time.

Kate: What is green and has wheels?

Sarah: What is green and has wheels? I give up.

Kate: Grass. I lied about the wheels.

Sarah: [Laughs] That’s funny! Say – [laughs more] – thank you! Thank you for that joke! And thank you for doing an interview with me. This is like my, one of my most fun periods of time in the year. It’s really so much fun to connect with everybody, so thank you for being part of the Holiday Wishes!

Kate: Oh, thank you for inviting me. I’m on Patreon because of your F’ICE campaign, so thank you for that as well.

Sarah: Thank you. That, that, I’m, I am shocked and honored how fast we hit the goal. Like, it took just about two months. I am so grateful for that, so thank you for supporting us becoming more independent and less plagued by ICE ads.

Kate: Mm-hmm! [Laughs]

Sarah: If you’re traveling, I don’t recommend you look at any television screen in an airport because it’s like all ICE ads all the time. It’s gross.

Kate: Yeah, no, it’s – you started the campaign when I was in the middle of applying to a doctoral program in the US –

Sarah: Oh!

Kate: – and in the middle of my application I got a call from the admissions department saying they weren’t going to be allowed to admit any international students, not even Canadians.

Sarah: Okay, that’s terrible!

Kate: Yes, and then a couple of days later I heard your, your, it was the first time you mentioned what was happening with your ads, and it’s like, Okay – [laughs] – this, this gives me an outlet for my rage.

Sarah: I am honored to be the outlet for your rage, and that is hot garbage.

Kate: Yeah.

Sarah: It is so embarrassing how the government of the United States is treating Canada, so, like, I’m sorry. Like, we owe you the biggest apology? Like, your collective apology is nowhere near the level of apology that we owe you. [Laughs]

Kate: Yes.

[music]

Adam Wendell: Well, I am Adam. I am sitting right next to Sarah in her house because I’m married to Sarah and we share this house?

Sarah: Wait, you also live here?

Adam: I do!

Sarah: Holy crap, what a development!

So the first question is what book or books have rocked your world this year? It does not have to be a 2025 book; it can be any book.

Adam: So at least the most recent of these came out in 2025, but I’m not, I’m not sure how quickly they were written together without going back and checking, but this is the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. It’s been a really long time since I picked up a series of books that completely blew me away. This series had been recommended to me by various people, you know, past probably year or so, but finally this summer someone who I know shares my taste was like, Okay, you’ve got to pick this up. And Will was right, so thank you to Will.

Sarah: Wait, does Will have a podcast?

Adam: No. But you, if you listen to any of the trivia podcasts on the PTE network, you probably heard Will (FLAG _____ 27:37), and so thanks, Will. But it, I mean, since I picked up Dresden Files, well, right around the last year there was a government shutdown, this is probably my favorite thing that I’ve picked up since then.

Sarah: Yay!

Adam: It’s just, it is, it’s a LitRPG, so it’s, you know, apocalypse happens in the first, you know, thirty seconds of the book, and then he’s stuck in this giant dungeon crawl videogame with his talking cat and a lot of other crazy, crazy characters, and it’s just, it is bonkers, it is weirdly horny –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Adam: – it is gory, so if, if that’s not your thing then this won’t be your thing, but it’s just, it has the right combination of mortal peril and silliness –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Adam: – that just right, hits me right in the sweet spot. And it, there are seven books out right now; the eighth book will be out in May, I think, next year, so there’s a lot to read, and it’s not done, and it’s still coming, and he seems to be actually keeping to his schedule as opposed to some other authors we’re not going to talk about. So yeah, that’s absolutely the, the thing that blew me away this year.

I will mention one other series real quick.

Sarah: I’m going to stop you real quick –

Adam: Yes.

Sarah: – and just say don’t move your chair, because the cat is under it. Please continue.

Adam: Oh… So the other series that I read pretty recently and is a short series – it’s only three books, and I read them on vacation like maybe over three to five days – is the Ink & Sigil series by Kevin Hearne. If you read his Iron Druir, Iron Druid – sorry – series, that’s what –

Sarah: Iron –

Adam: – he’s most famous for, and this is set in the same world? But it’s very different; it’s very Scottish?

Sarah: [Laughs]

Adam: Like, the, the amount of Scottish slang that you will learn in this three, short three-book series is amazing? But it’s, you know, it’s an urban fantasy adventure series, but it really addresses a lot of, like, real topics like disability and immigration and, you know, just family and caring for people. It somehow manages to have a lot of serious stuff – and getting older, too – a lot of serious stuff in what is otherwise a ridiculously silly series. So that is something that if you like that kind of thing where, you know, yes, on the surface this is just a silly adventure and it’s funny, but below that is actually saying something? That’s a really good series too.

Sarah: How long did it take you to read through the Dungeon Carl, Dungeon Crawler Carl series?

Adam: I want to say roughly five weeks.

Sarah: Wow!

Adam: More than, slightly more than a month, but less than a month and a half. I, I, I think I took a look and it was five weeks.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Adam: For seven books, the last three of which are pretty long.

Sarah: Yes. I, so I opened this up in Wikipedia, because I, I knew there were two sets of release dates? So the original series was published first in September, October of 2020! My guy. That book was 444 pages?

Adam: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: Then, let’s see, book two, Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, was 362, but then when Ace took over publishing the back-, the, the backlist and did hardcover and paperback versions –

Adam: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – there’s a multipart novella in each one. Dungeon Carl, Carl – all right, listen: I need this person to change the name of this title, the title of this series, ‘cause I can’t say it – Dungeon Crawler –

Adam: You’ve just got to say it like –

Sarah: – Carl –

Adam: Carl!

Sarah: Carl –

Adam: Who knows what all these buttons –

Sarah: – who knows what all these buttons do. All right, Carl. [Australian-ish accent?} Dungeon Crawler Carl is 464 pages, but the book that came out in September 2025 is 880 pages!

Adam: Yeah –

Together: This Inevitable Ruin –

Adam: – yeah, is long.

Sarah: And The Eye of the Bedlam Bride was 832. See, Amanda and I are both on the record that seven hundred pages and more is completely unnecessary; just write two books. Meanwhile, you are so excited to be like, Eight hundred pages, hell yeah!

Adam: Oh yeah! I –

Sarah: We are very opposite on this!

Adam: No, it, if there are characters and a story and a world that I like, give me all of the pages.

Sarah: Oh yes.

Adam: I’m never tired of hanging out there.

Sarah: Yes, Adam loves a lore? If you have series that are both silly and, like, have serious con-, concepts, but are also very silly? That is Adam’s jam. But he loves a lore. If there’s a lore, he’s so in. Right?

Adam: Yes.

Sarah: [Laughs] The audiobook of This Inevitable Ruin is twenty-eight hours!

Adam: I am not an audiobook person, but Jeff Hays, the guy who narrates these audiobooks is, from everyone who I have talked to that likes them, amazing and does a fantastic job, so if that, audiobooks are your thing, I’ve heard excellent things about the audiobook of this.

Sarah: That’s cool!

What wishes do you have for people in 2026?

Adam: Well, let us just start by saying that I am prohibited by the Hatch Act from saying what my actual Holiday Wishes for 2026 are, and if you don’t know what the Hatch Act is, you can look it up?

Sarah: No, there are people who listen outside of the States. Can you explain it, or you want me to look it up real…

Adam: As a federal employee, I am very much restricted in things that I can say publicly about politics and government.

Sarah: Wait, so hold on. There’s a whole act? An act of Congress. There’s a whole act –

Adam: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – that says you’re not supposed to say political things as a federal employee.

Adam: Yeah. The president is exempt.

Sarah: No, obviously the president is exempt.

Adam: And Congress. Like, elected officials are exempt. But I am restricted in many ways.

Sarah: So somewhere in that restriction is your wish for 2026.

Adam: Let’s just say that –

Sarah: All right, that’s fine. All right, so your backup, non-Hatch-Act wish is?

Adam: My backup, non-Hatch-Act wish is the two-fold benediction of those great sages “Bill” S. Preston, Esq., and Ted “Theodore” Logan –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Adam: – Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes. But you have to remember to party on! It’s not enough to just be excellent.

Sarah: Whomst are you playing, planning to party with? You’re, you, you are issuing a party directive, and I know you like a gathering about as much as I do, so whomst are we partying…

Adam: Well, no! That’s not true! Much like Randal in Clerks, I hate people, but I love gatherings!

Sarah: [Laughs] It’s true! You are very happy when there’s a lot of people, but the problem is, we like to host here, and then we can’t be like, All right, it’s nine o’clock; everyone has to leave.

Adam: No, but the thing about hosting yourself is that when, you know, when it’s done, you just go to bed. You don’t have to go anywhere.

Sarah: [Laughs] It’s true. You just clean up and go to bed.

Adam: But also, you can party on your own.

Sarah: That’s true; you can party on your own. Do you remember the year we were hosting, I think it was – usually we host either Passover or Thanksgiving; I think it was Passover – when the kids were really little we used to say, All right, I’m primary on one. So, like, I’m primary on this one; you’re primary on that one. Both kids, ‘cause I was like, Oh my God, I’m so tired! ‘Cause, you know, I’d been cooking all day –

Adam: Right.

Sarah: – and both kids stood up and said, We’re primary on Mom! And physically escorted me to bed and would not let me come back downstairs.

Adam: Well, ‘cause they didn’t want to be sitting at the table either.

Sarah: So off I went to bed, and I did not clean up a single thing. It was a good day. I still remember it!

Adam: Seriously, I mean, all that means is, you know, take care of each other, but don’t forget that it is okay to have fun, even when things are terrible.

Sarah: Yes. It is okay to celebrate when things are often bad.

Adam: Yes.

Sarah: In fact, it, I, I think it’s more of an imperative, because if you don’t then all you’re thinking about is the suck, and that’s not healthy.

Adam: That’s true.

Sarah: We have plenty of suck.

So, did you bring a bad joke?

Adam: I did!

Sarah: Yay!

Adam: I did, and, and this is, I kind of made this up myself, but it’s also based on something I heard someone of a jokes us, related joke someone made, I heard make earlier today. So:

Where do David Gilmour and Roger Waters go to hang out with Chappell Roan?

Sarah: Where do David Gillan –

Adam: Gor-, Gilmour.

Sarah: Gilmour! And –

Adam: Roger Waters.

Sarah: – Roger Waters go to hang out with Chappell Roan? Where?

Adam: At the Pink Floyd Pony Club!

Sarah: Nooo! [Laughs] Should have seen that coming! Well, that was excellent. Thank you.

Adam: And that, credit for most of that goes to Britney Shaw.

Sarah: Okay. It’s important to cite your sources!

Adam: Yes.

Sarah: What are you reading right now?

Adam: What am I reading right now? Right now I am rereading the Dresden Files.

Sarah: Again? How many times is this?

Adam: Four? Fourth, not counting listening to the audiobooks when I drive the kids to college.

Sarah: [Laughs] And for the record, one drive is twenty hours each way, right?

Adam: Yeah. And one is about eight and a half.

Sarah: So eight and a half each way. That’s, wait, ten, twenty-eight; so that’s more than a Dungeon Carl, Dungeon Carl audiobook.

Adam: Yeah, about that –

Sarah: I’m never going to say the name of the series correct.

Adam: Well, ‘cause I listen at one, 1.3, 1.4 anyway, so I listen a little faster. But so this is, but the next one is coming out in January, so this is, got to reread so you make sure you remember everything. And then I’ll go back and reread Carl in time for, you know, the, I guess it’s the 2nd of June.

Sarah: Well, according to the series, the series entry’s list on Wikipedia, A Parade of Horribles comes out on the 2nd of June, 2026, but there isn’t a release date through Ace? And I believe that they have print rights –

Adam: Yeah.

Sarah: – so they’re probably coordinating.

Adam: I saw some-, I, I thought I saw May somewhere else, May 2026, but in any event, so that’s, that –

Sarah: Well –

Adam: – that’s my plan for the –

Sarah: – listen –

Adam: – first half of the year.

Sarah: – publishing is weird, and so the 2nd of June could be May; it could be July; it’s just what they decide, so either way, you have plenty of time.

Adam: Oh, and then I have an ol-, I also have, on hold at the library, the, the next Travis Baldree Legends & Lattes book, which I think is called Brigands & Breadknives.

Sarah: Yes, it is! Brigands & Breadknives. Are you a Travis Baldree fan?

Adam: I like that series.

Sarah: Yeah?

Adam: I have not explored any of his other stuff.

Sarah: Well, he’s a narrator.

Adam: Right.

Sarah: But yes, that is –

Adam: But I’m not normally an audiobook guy, so.

Sarah: No. That’s the series, though.

Adam: Yeah.

Sarah: That’s, that’s the whole series that you’ve been liking.

Adam: Yeah. So this one is, follows one of the side characters? Not sure that I’ll like that. I usually like to, like series that stick with one main character, but we’ll see.

Sarah: So it’s book three.

Adam: It’s book three, and I have it on hold at the library, so –

Sarah: Is –

Adam: – whenever it shows up I’ll read it.

Sarah: Is that sufficient lore, book three?

Adam: Oh yeah, three books is fine.

Sarah: Three books is fine?

Adam: Yeah.

Sarah: What of Ilona Andrews have you read? You did –

Adam: Nothing. I, I have a couple, I think, sitting in my queue that I haven’t picked up –

Sarah: Yes.

Adam: – but yeah.

Sarah: You need to read – like, seriously, you need to read “Sanctuary.” It’s a short story; it’s a side character spin-off. It’s actually set –

Adam: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – around Yule, and it is about a cranky, isolated, powerful guy who lives in the woods and wants everyone to leave him alone, and then some young person on the run from people who want to kill him ends up on his property.

Adam: So Murderbot. [Laughs]

Sarah: Sorta kinda, but he’s not actually a, a, a construct. He’s not a construct; he’s just a –

Adam: Fair enough. An actual, actual person.

Sarah: He’s a dude, but it’s the kind of thing that you would like.

Adam: Sounds good to me!

Sarah: It’s very much your style.

Well, thank you for doing an end-of-year interview. I have had requests for you to come back!

Adam: Here I am!

Sarah: There you are. And Amanda and I have to do that, so she’ll ask me the five, the four questions. Wait, is it four?

Adam: The four questions?

Sarah: Yes.

Adam: Ma nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleilot?

Sarah: That’s right! There’s that one and then the other ones.

Adam: All right!

Sarah: Cool. Well, thank you, dude!

Adam: Any time! Happy to do it. Happy New Year, everyone!

[outro]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. Thank you to Kate and Katie and Adam for being part of this week’s episode. I love doing these, and I had the best time this year. I hope that you have experienced the same sort of lift and happiness that I have from these episodes.

I wanted to tell you, real quick, about some books that are coming in January and February that I’m very curious about?

First, Trailbreaker by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare is the sequel to Homemaker, which is the first in the Prairie Nightingale mystery series about this woman who’s divorced, and then one of the other moms disappears and they’re in Green Bay. The sequel comes out on January 27th, and it turns out that Prairie is now a newly minted private investigator, so she’s going to investigate the idea that, uh-oh, maybe nearby Door County has a serial killer. So that is going to be right up my alley, because I love this series and I really like this heroine.

Twelve Months by Jim Butcher, as Adam mentioned, comes out on January 20th. This is the eighteenth book in the Dresden Files, so Adam’s going to be doing a reread for a while. If you like this series, I would love to hear what you love about it. This is not my thing; it’s definitely Adam’s thing, and we’ve talked about it a lot, but I’m really curious: if you dig it, what do you like? Tell me all about it!

I also think that everyone here should know about Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett. In the event that you’re driving and that sort of slid past you, I’m just going to say the name of the title again, ‘cause it’s so great: Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter. It’s about a woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montreal, who has to turn to a very grumpy wizard to help save her shelter. And this is the same author who did the Emily Wilde series, if you like those? I’m all over this. I am, I am so into this; I’m so excited. Magical cat shelter? And the cover is gorgeous, too.

I know a lot of you like B. K. Borisin? And Now, Back to You is coming out on the 24th, so you can mark your calendars and do the preordering thing.

And the one other book I want to mention – I’m going to say that I am cautiously curious, because this does sound a little bit like a crushed heroine book. If you’re not familiar with that term, well, I invented it because I just make up names for things? Even though I’m not supposed to? A crushed heroine is one of the contemporary romances where the heroine starts off from a state of her entire life being decimated. She loses her job, she loses her place to live, she doesn’t have any friends, so she has to go back to whatever or start over, and I’m not a huge fan of crushed heroine books because it just seems so strange to me that these heroines don’t have any other social networks. Like, they lose their boyfriend, they lose their job, they lose their place to live, and that’s it. Like, they have no other people, and they have to go back, usually to their small town that they left and never wanted to see again, yada-yada. Not my favorite setup, because it’s just, it’s just depressing! I don’t like having to see a heroine start the book and then just lose everything. Like, that sucks. I don’t want to embark on a story like that.

However, Maria J. Morillo is writing, or is releasing The Ex-perimento on February 17th, and this is a contemporary romance about a young woman who loses her job and gets dumped by her boyfriend and finds a job, a temporary one, as the personal assistant to the lead singer of her favorite indie band. The thing that really makes me curious about this, despite the whole, like, crushed heroine start, is that it all takes place in Caracas, Venezuela? I’ve never read a contemporary set there, so I am super curious. That is coming out on February 17th.

Now, as I mentioned, our seven-hundredth – holy crap – episode is next week on the 9th. I will have a special episode then. There may be video involved, although if you’re audio-only, don’t worry; there’ll be an audio version as well. And then we’re going to have one more end-of-year Holiday Wishes from Amanda and me on the 16th.

But I would love to hear what you are excited about in January, and if you wanted to sign up or didn’t get a chance and you want to just share your recs and wishes in the comments on Patreon or on the website, you can do that too! 

We wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend, and we’ll see you back here next week. And in the words of my favorite retired podcast Friendshipping, thank you for listening. You’re welcome for talking.

[end of music]