701. Holiday Wishes with Amanda and Sarah

[intro]

Sarah Wendell: Hello and welcome to episode number 701 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell, and Amanda is with me, because it is never too late for Holiday Wishes, right? We had such a record number of interviews for the Holiday Wishes episodes this year, and I love doing them, so thank you. But many of you asked about Amanda and me and our recs and our wishes, so to wind up our holiday extravaganza, Amanda and I are talking about the books we loved in 2025, our wishes for everyone in 2026, and of course we talk about a lot of other things.

One of Amanda’s favorites was about a songwriter, and so we discuss our music tastes, which, total surprise, are entirely different. We also look back on some of the most popular content on Smart Bitches in 2025 and what posts and podcasts had the most engagement.

A new thing for this year? Video episodes! Yay! When possible, I am recording both audio and video, since I know so many of you like to watch podcasts on YouTube. So on Fridays the audio of the podcast will fly into the ether as usual for everyone. Patreon folks, you will also get a video version of that episode on Fridays; you can choose which one you prefer. Then on Sunday, the video will be released to the podcast YouTube channel, and ooh, I, I get to say something that I don’t say a lot about YouTube: You can subscribe and hit the bell to get notified when a new episode arrives for your viewing enjoyment! I’m so good at this. So remember, to appease the YouTube werewolves, like and subscribe, y’all. No, seriously, please do subscribe to the podcast YouTube channel. It’s linked in the show notes. I, I had to rebuild it from scratch, so thank you for your help. Either way, that’s the schedule: new episodes on Friday; Patreon, you get a choice of video or audio; and then on Sunday, the video of the Friday episode will be released for everyone on the YouTube channel. Like and subscribe, y’all.

I have a compliment this week!

To Stefanie: Cloud patterns and formations have been studied for hundreds of years, but recently a new cloud type has been discovered that’s somewhat unique. It shows up most often after a massive storm, it usually includes a rainbow, and everyone smiles when they see it. It’s going to be named after you.

Our Patreon community is the reason why there are no dynamic ads before or after the show. With listener support, I was able to turn off all dynamic ads – the ones you hear immediately before or after an episode – to avoid ads for ICE and other right-wing propaganda. So instead of the Patreon offering ad-free episodes, our Patreon community made every episode free of dynamic ads for every listener. Thank you.

In addition, Patreon support helps me procure more issues of Romantic Times – which I just did; oh my gosh – it keeps the show going, and it ensures a transcript handcrafted by garlicknitter. Hey, garlicknitter! [Hey! Happy New Year! – gk] Your support means so much, and if you’re curious about subscriber benefits, there is a sampler collection of, at Patreon, of all of our bonus content. And if you’d like to join, we would love to have you! Have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches.

And if Patreon support isn’t in the cards, may I please ask that you leave a review for the show where you listen and tell some people. It really, really helps. But most of all, I know you have a lot of choices in your podcast listening – like literal billions. I’m so happy you’re here. Thank you.

Support for this episode comes from Bound by the Blood, a brand-new book from Cecilia Tan. Fantasy and erotic romance fans, you will want to know about this.

Mira is a massage therapist in New York City. Still stinging over the betrayal of her ex, she puts on her corset to attend a kinky club night and gets far more than she bargained for. She meets a new playmate who seems to satisfy her every whim, igniting desires that she had thought were dead. Clive is a thrill-seeker whose favorite place to get an adrenaline rush is on the receiving end of a whip or while kneeling at someone’s feet. Mira seems like Clive’s sweetest dreams come true. But Clive harbors secrets. An underground society of ritual sex magic practitioners is recruiting him, and neither Clive nor Mira is prepared for what happens when Clive’s dark powers are unleashed. Caught up in a battle between good and evil, Mira and Clive grow ever closer, but can Mira solve the mystery of Clive’s darkest memory in time to save him, and maybe the world?

Christopher Rice says, >> Cecilia Tan has always been ahead of her time.

Can confirm.

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Cecilia Tan is an award-winning author of passionate fiction. RT Book Reviews awarded her Career Achievement in Erotic Romance in 2015, and her novel Slow Surrender won the RT Reviewers Choice Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence. Spanning the gamut of genre and gender, she is also the author of Daron’s Guitar Chronicles, The Prince’s Boy, and Watch Point. Her Magic University series has been lauded by Autostraddle as “trans-inclusive fantasy for…Potter fans.”

You can find Bound by the Blood wherever books are sold. Find out more in the link in the show notes, or at ceciliatan.com.

See, I told you, if you like erotic romance and fantasy, you would want to know about this, right? Right. I thought so.

All right, are you ready to get started? Let’s do one more Holiday Wishes. It’s always good time for good wishes and good vibes, right? All right, let’s do this: on with the podcast with me and Amanda.

[music]

Sarah: Well, hello, and welcome to Holiday Wishes with Sarah and Amanda. Yay! I might use the video for this. So this is just what we look like when we record. I’m not putting on makeup. Maybe I’ll do a set for my office. My office is really small. Like, I think it’s eight by eight at most. 

Amanda: You cannot tell where I lost motivation to finish my gallery wall.

Sarah: [Laughs] See, I thought that was totally deliberate. I think that looks great.

Amanda: No, I’ve got more, like, paintings down here that I just haven’t bothered to hang up, so.

[Laughter]

Sarah: Well, it is Holiday Wishes time, and not only have people asking, Well, are you going to have Adam do a Holiday Wishes this year, which I did, but everyone’s like, Wait, what about you and Amanda? And I’m like, Never fear. This is not a problem. What are we drinking today?

Amanda: We have a Blackberry Mango Polar Seltzer.

Sarah: Is that the kind of thing where you drink it – who, I don’t remember who this said, who said this; I think it was on Tumblr – where you’re drinking it and it’s someone yelling the names of fruit in the other room? Like, it’s really, really subtle?

Amanda: I think Polar does a good job –

Sarah: Oh, that’s cool!

Amanda: – with their flavors. So, and also I think they’re local to New, New England. Yes, Worcester, Mass. So –

Sarah: Oh! Oh, Worcester [Woo-stah]. My –

Amanda: Woo-stah.

Sarah: – my in-laws lived in Worcester for a time. (It’s a really weird place. If you’re from Worcester, I’m sorry, but you probably know that.)

Amanda: I don’t think I’ve been to Worc- – we have a lot of W’s in Massachusetts, so –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – I’ve lost track of which places I’ve been and – [laughs] – which places I haven’t been.

Sarah: I got to talk to somebody with the most incredible Boston accent recently because – so for color, for everyone listening, the software that I do not recommend for payroll and invoicing is called Wave. I’ve been using it for years, and this year they decided to switch to something called Check. Check is terrible. They keep not paying my taxes in the state of Massachusetts, which is a problem because then I get assessed for a penalty because I didn’t pay, except Wave and Check took the money out of the account to pay the taxes. But then if they’ve paid them it hasn’t reconciled, or they just haven’t paid, and no one can give me an answer? So I –

Amanda: Yeah, so where has that money gone?

Sarah: Right, exactly. Like, I’m a little peeved about it, and I’m going to have to pay the, the assessments because they’re not going to be able to figure this out before December 31st. Like, I have no faith in these people. I’m so annoyed. But –

Amanda: Ugh!

Sarah: – so I call the Maryland State Attorney General’s office and Consumer Protection Division. I’m like, I’m a Maryland-based company, but this company is in New York and the, the tax assessment is Ma-, Massachusetts, and they’re like, You’re a business, so we’re not going to help, we can’t help you with consumer protection, but you might want to try the New York Attorney General’s office or the Massachusetts Consumer Protection and, and fraud department. So I called Massachusetts Department of, I forget what it was, like, Fraud and People Are Being Terrible, and I leave a message. I do not expect anyone to call me back. And the most Boston woman I’ve ever heard in my life called me back. And it was just explaining, you know, We can’t help you; I’m so sorry. Here, we don’t have jurisdiction over this company. You’re better off, like, looking in New York, so I have to call the, you know, New York Attorney General’s office again. But she was so delightful and so helpful, I just wanted to keep asking questions so I could listen. She was so great? Like, everyone who works in the Massachusetts department of consumer fraud and protection, I’m a big fan.

Amanda: Yeah, I always love running into, like, a townie; like, someone who’s lived here.

Sarah: A solid, like a solid Bostonian, right?

Amanda: It feels great.

Sarah: It’s so unique. It’s such a unique – like, I can’t even imitate it. It’s so unique. And then you hear just –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: – one R. One R is different. You’re like, Ohhh!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: So let us get started. What book or books rocked your world this year?

Amanda: So I have two. One I talked about in the Slack, and I may have mentioned it on the site a few times. ‘Cause I remember getting messages about it in, like, my social media of, like, Tell me more about this. It’s called Never Over by Claire Gilmore. It came out in October, I think? And the reason why I gave this book five stars is It has several elements that I avoid in my reading that I wouldn’t pick up.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: It has second-chance romance, which I don’t love. It has musician characters or characters who work in music, which I don’t love. And I read it, and I loved it. It’s so much pining and yearning? It’s about, the two main characters sort of had a, a situationship kind of deal in college.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: They go their separate ways because of a big betrayal, which I won’t spoil. It’s not cheating, so if that’s a hard line for you, that is not what has happened. And the heroine is a really accomplished songwriter? She does not wanna be a singer; she just wants to write music.

Sarah: Which is really cool, right?

Amanda: Yeah, just wants to write music.

Sarah: It’s such a cool talent. Such a cool talent.

Amanda: So she sort of like sends in a tape, and the company loves it, but also pick up on the fact that somewhere along the line she’s had some sort of emotional stuff in her songs aren’t hitting as well as some of the other songs?

Sarah: Hmm.

Amanda: And so they give her sort of three-ish months to redo some of the music to, like, get her groove back, essentially, to – [laughs] – figure out what went wrong. And she realizes that since that relationship in college she really hasn’t fallen in love again; she really hasn’t had that connection. And so she seeks out her old ex and asks him, Hey, can you, like, break my heart again –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: – so I can write good music again? And he’s like, What? [Laughs]

Sarah: I need you to emotionally decimate me, please. Would you just please rip my heart out and stomp on it while I’m standing here? Thank you!

Amanda: Yes. And so that’s sort of, like, the setup. He eventually agrees. He does not, it was not immediate yes. So there’s, like, forced proximity? He’s, he works as crew for a concert?

Sarah: Oh, I love shit like that.

Amanda: So – yeah, so it’s like forced proximity, ‘cause they’re on the road. A really good cast of characters. There’s a side plot of sort of navigating a friendship that has sort of run its course, and what do you do when you’ve sort of, like, now you’re fully fledged adults and not teens and realized, Hey, like –

Sarah: You grew apart.

Amanda: – we’ve – yeah, we don’t really like each other. And I just thought it was really good. And the, the end, or the epilogue made me cry. It was so sweet and really tapped into, like, the power of music? It’s sort of like a retrospective of, like, all of these, like, fictional characters who eventually listen to the heroine’s songs and how, like, it affected them? And as someone who, let me be very clear, I’m not a music person. We just did our Spotify wrapped, okay, at –

Sarah: There was so much metal on yours! I had no idea you were a metalhead!

Amanda: Oh yeah, big metalhead!

Sarah: I had no idea! It was like, Who are these people?

Amanda: I – [laughs] – Brian and I’s music are so different. Brian loves, like, indie folk, loves a song you can, like, slow dance in the kitchen to, a little jangly guitar, a little female vocalist. I like music that you start fights to –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: and, with, like, kick drums so heavy –

Sarah: Booja, booja, booja! [Laughs]

 Amanda: – that you can feel it in your chest. That is the music I was –

Sarah: If it’s not activating your spleen, it’s not loud enough. Yeah.

Amanda: Yeah, if I’m not going to rupture my eardrums, I don’t wanna listen to it.

[Laughs] So, but in the Spotify wrapped we’re all comparing notes at the office? And some of my friends and colleagues have listening minutes of like fifty-five thousand minutes of Spotify listens. My number of minutes for Spotify was 842. That’s a –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: That’s a two-minute song a day for the year. I am not a music listener; I’ll go through phases, but I don’t listen to music a lot. I don’t resonate with music a lot in terms of, like, having a connection. I don’t like being alone with my thoughts, so I listen to a lot of podcasts and YouTube videos, sometimes an audio book, but rarely music. So I always have something playing, whether I’m commuting or even when I’m sleeping – I have a Bluetooth eye mask – but it’s not music.

So anyway, it was really strange to love a book that’s so entrenched in music and songwriting, especially as an outlet for emotions when I am not that kind of person who uses music as an outlet for emotions. So that was book one.

Sarah: Three things: one –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – I noticed the title is Never Over. I’m wondering if that’s a reference to the Katy Perry song “Never Really Over”?

Amanda: I don’t know! They don’t mention Katy Perry; there’s no –

Sarah: No, I’m sure.

Amanda: – weird allusions to, like, a pop star or whatever.

Sarah: Yeah, there’s nobody, there’s nobody who’s pretending to, a character based on another character or, or on a real person, I mean.

Amanda: I think Taylor Swift, though, is mentioned in the book. I think Taylor Swift –

Sarah: Well, I mean –

Amanda: – is mentioned in the book.

Sarah: Well, I mean –

Amanda: But –

Sarah: – it’s a cultural reference; that’s sort of – I mean, I know you don’t like popular culture references? I think you can reference Taylor Swift ‘cause that’s good for like a good twenty years worth of references; you don’t have to know which one? You don’t have to name an album or a song. She’s, she’s got endurability, that one. But I, I, I saw the title and I thought, Oh, you know, for our predictions episode, one of the things I should have said was that there’s going to be more Taylor Swift lyric titles. I just –

Amanda: I mean, Emma Alban has those on lockdown with –

Sarah: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Amanda: – those historical romances.

Sarah: Historical lesbian romances with Taylor Swift titles is just chef’s kiss.

I do not use Spotify. I’ve never used Spotify. I’ve never been a Spotify girl. I have YouTube music through a credit card, so I just use that. Or, like, the, the plus thing without the commercials. But I have terrible time awareness? I have no idea what time it is. I have no idea what time has passed. Like, I, if I get in the shower, I could have been in there five minutes; I could have been an hour? I have no idea. So I turn on music to sort of give myself sort of a time, like, okay, it’s been two songs. So that’s like six minutes, and you have to go in twenty, so, you know. And I have a, a sort of morning playlist? I am in the top 002 % of listeners of Kesha. I –

Amanda: Good for you!

Sarah: – am deeply proud. I am the one who’s keeping the T-Pain and Kesha remix of “Yippee-Ki-Yay” alive. That is one of my favorite shower songs? Not to give you a bad visual. I fucking love that song. It’s so great. I am in the top two one hundredth or thousandth of listeners of Kesha. I think she, like, I, I just, I, I should order a cameo from her at this point. Like, I am her, apparently her number one fan, and I had no idea.

Amanda: Well, on Spotify, when you’re in a top percentage, like, obviously these bands and these singers have a pre-recorded video, but you get like a cute little fan video –

Sarah: Oh, no way!

Amanda: – from the band that’s like, Oh, thanks to everyone who, like, listened this year, blah-blah-blah.

Sarah: So is your video like – [metal voice] – Thank you, Amanda?

Amanda: [Laughs] Well, the top band that I listen to, Electric Callboy, is a German electronicore band?

Sarah: I didn’t know that was a thing, and I was drinking, and I almost choked. I’m sorry, German electronicore? Okay!

Amanda: So picture, like, elect-, picture, like, really upbeat electronica music? But with lots more screaming and heavier drums.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: They’re –

Sarah: Okay!

Amanda: – a blast. They’re a good time. Their music is hilarious. One of the songs that was in my top songs is called “Elevator Operator,” and they wrote this song because they were on tour, and the venue they were playing in the States – I think it was maybe in Chicago; I can’t remember – but the loading dock was, like, beneath the stadium? And they just thought the el-, the guy who operated the elevator to move their gear was so fascinating and, and cool that they, that he inspired their song “Elevator Operator.”

Sarah: That’s so dope! That’s so cool!

Amanda: They’re just goofy, and I love it.

Sarah: I love any artist or public person who doesn’t take themselves too seriously. I think that is just the most fun kind of person to engage with, with their, with their creativity? Like, I take very, I take a few things very – I take the comments very seriously; I take the safety of the community online very seriously. I do not take myself seriously at all. And I love engaging with the creativity of people who do not take themselves seriously; it’s just so delightful. It’s a very unique energy.

Amanda: Yeah, I went to their concert, was it last year or the year before? They came to Boston. So much fun. But all of their music videos are really fucking goofy and weird?

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: And the people who attended the concerts dressed up like the costumes they wore in the music video?

Sarah: That’s so cool. Oh, that’s so cool!

Amanda: So, like, they have one where, like, they’re in ost- – so, like, the mosh pit is just like someone dressed up like an astronaut, someone in a banana suit, like, just moshed me. [Laughs] It was so much fun. But yeah, they’re goofy as hell and a lot, a lot of fun.

Sarah: I’ll put a link to “Elevator Operator” in the show notes.

Amanda: Yeah. Good stuff.

Sarah: This reminds me of, you know, Pitbull starting his career thinking, I’m going to have hot chicks in the audience; I’m going to have good-looking women –

Amanda: Mr. Worldwide!

Sarah: No, Mr. Worldwide, you got a bunch of people in bald caps. You’ve just got a sea of bald heads, and it is the greatest thing.

Amanda: I think I saw like a Reel of a bachelorette party where they all dressed up as –

Sarah: As Pitbull.

Amanda: – Pitbull.

Sarah: I, I have this weird fascination with Pitbull. Like, I, I just think that he is so interesting? Like, he is extremely intelligent. He’s a big, into, like, poetry and stuff. Like, I just think he’s very neat. Him and Cardi B. Cardi B is obsessed with President Roosevelt? Like, thinks he’s the coolest guy. I’m dying to be like, Hi, you don’t know who the fuck I am. But I would really love to have Cardi B on my podcast, ‘cause I just want to ask her about President Roosevelt. She can talk about whatever she wants, but I really want to talk with her about President Roosevelt because I want to her thoughts on the New Deal and, you know, all this other stuff.

Amanda: [Laughs] I want to hear your thoughts on the New Deal.

Sarah: Yeah, tell me, tell me – I mean, I’m a big fan of the Works Progress Administration. I think that’s the greatest thing America ever did, or one of. Like, we could just nerd out, you know, me, Cardi B! I don’t have this fantasy –

Amanda: I –

Sarah: – like we’re going to be BFFs. I just want her on my show so I could ask her to nerd out! This is the thing I want. [Laughs]

Amanda: Speaking of presidents, I’ll have to send you this Reel, and you can put it in the show notes, but it is, it’s like a comedy Reel, and this guy is interacting with the Grok, like AI girlfriend?

Sarah: [Laughs] Nooo!

Amanda: And, and sort of like playing along with, like, Oh, I saw someone on the train, like, also using the thing; like, are you seeing other guys? And he’s like, Do you even know what my name is? And the Grok AI girlfriend says no, but she’s like, Here’s what I’m envisioning your name would be? And she’s like, Something strong and mysterious, like James Carter. And the guy’s like, What would be my nickname? And she’s like, I’m thinking Jimmy. And he’s like, So you think I’m Jimmy Carter.

[Laughter]

Sarah: I checked him into a hotel once when I worked at the front desk? I have checked in John Cusack, Eddie Vedder – very short guy; very nice, though – and Mr. and Mrs. Carter, President and Mrs. Carter. They, well, actually, their Secret Service checked them in, but they checked it in under the name Mr. and Mrs. Driftwood.

[Laughter]

Sarah: That was their code name. I was like, that’s, that’s awesome!

So what is your other book?

Amanda: So my other book, I’ve been getting into webtoons a lot?

Sarah: Oooh!

Amanda: Sometimes my brain is super tired and I want something visual, so I’ve been getting into webtoons. And if there’s one thing that you know about me is that I am both impatient and impulsive, and that –

Sarah: Right.

Amanda: – is just a black hole of bad decisions.

Sarah: [Laughs] 

Amanda: So I started this series called Villains Are Destined to Die, and I’m reading it on the service called Manta, M-A-N-T-A. And Manta, there’s paid versions and whatever, but some of the series, they give you one free chapter a day. So I was like, Cool, I’ll read my one free chapter, clock in, be done in ten minutes, whatever.

Sarah: I mean, hits are hits, right?

Amanda: Yeah. So right now there are about a hundred and fifty-ish chapters out? Give or take, and I was enjoying it so much that I’m, like, doing the math of like, Okay, if I read one chapter a day and there are one fifty, how long is it going to take for me to, to catch up? And sure, I could pirate it if I wanted to, but I am an adult with adult money and I want to support the, the author. So a publisher has picked it up and produced volumes, like manga volumes in paper.

Sarah: Oooh! Like, like with Lore Olympus; like with Lore Olympus; they did that too.

Amanda: Yes. I wish I had one. I might go run and grab one, ‘cause they’re beautiful and they’re full color. And I discovered that the eighth or ninth volume just came out.

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda: So I had eight volumes to marathon. I’m trying to savor them. I think I’ve only read five or six. And through reading for free, I think I had only read up to volume one and –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: – halfway through volume two, so I still had a lot of content. It is so good. So it’s about this woman who finally moved out of her, like, shitty family life and starting college, and her friends sort of get her involved in this, like, dating visual novel game? And she beats it and now is starting the game on hard mode. And in hard mode, you have to play as the villainess character in the game to try to win over affection from, like, the love interests in the –

Sarah: Do you mean villainous as in of villainy or villainess as in female villain?

Amanda: Lady, lady villain.

Sarah: Villainess, okay. I wasn’t sure which –us –

Amanda: Villainess.

Sarah: – was it E-S-S or O-U-S?

[Laughter]

Amanda: So yeah, she’s –

Sarah:  That was for you, garlicknitter. Garlicknitter, that question was exactly for – I just want you to know I’m thinking of you even before you even see the file. While we are creating –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Okay. [Laughs]

[Awww! I appreciate it! – gk]

Amanda: So she’s on hard mode, and she keeps, like, dying in hard mode, ‘cause it’s, you, you start with, like, negative affection with all of the love interests. And something happens and she gets transported into the game as the villainess character, and when she’s interacting with all the love interests she can see, like, their percentage of how much they like her above their head?

Sarah Oh, like a sim? I love this.

Amanda: Yeah, like a sim, and –

Sarah: Okay, can we have that? Can we have that? That would help me a lot, actually.

Amanda: [Laughs] Like a sim, and if she gets to like one hundred percent, she thinks that she will, like, be free of the game. So she’s trying to, like, win over people or like, you know, this guy’s a lost cause, so I’m going to focus on this one guy, yada-yada-yada.

Sarah: Yada-yada.

Amanda: And there’s sort of like a countdown to when, like, the main character comes back into the game. So she’s like, I have to win someone over before this event happens or I’m screwed. And it’s really fun. I’ve – [laughs] – really enjoyed it. Really fun. The artwork is beautiful. I also like that she is supposed to be like a bad character, the bad guy, and does make some, like, morally gray, questionable decisions or sort of leans in to the fact that everyone thinks that she’s already a terrible person ‘cause she’s the villainess of the game?

Sarah: Right.

Amanda: It’s so much fun. The art is so beautiful. If Sarah will allow me to run and grab a, a thing, I’ll show you a volume.

Sarah: Go for it! I’m wiping my nose on camera; my hair looks like a mess. Here, just get up and leave.

Amanda: And I’m wearing pants!

Sarah: List- – oh, you’re wearing pants! Thank God!

Amanda: Okay, this is volume six –

Sarah: Don’t start things.

Amanda: – so I haven’t started it, but –

Sarah: Oh my God!

Amanda: And how beautiful is that? Just like, boop! But it’s, yeah, full color.

Sarah: Beauuutifuull.

Amanda: [Hums] Do-do-do!

Sarah: Look at that!

Amanda: Yeah, but there are, I think, eight volumes out now, and I think a ninth one is supposed to come out next year? But it’s based on a novel.  So from my understanding, in Korea, a lot of these things start off as a novel first, and then they get made into a webtoon or whatever, and I –

Sarah: Isn’t it so interesting?

Amanda: [Laughs] I know – and I think you can buy volume one of the novel in English right now or soon? So I’m tempted to pick that up and see how the text differs from what they’ve done in the graphic – yeah, so that was a big surprise of, like, reading something and being like, I need to have all of this immediately? I can’t just read one chapter a day for the next six months. That’s not going to happen.

Sarah: Must have now. Yep.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Yep. Been there.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: So I have an old book, a new book, and a, a, a runner up.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: So my old book of the year, which is the book I read this year that is older, is Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews? I listened to the full cast recording from – I don’t remember who does those; Recorded Books, I think? There is an audiobook, but it’s an, I think it’s Amazon Audible exclusive, and I don’t want to have an Audible subscription anymore, so I dropped it like a couple of years ago. But the full cast recording is, is in library systems. Like, it’s in Hoopla, it’s in those, you know, digital borrowing centers. I did not think I would like the full cast recording? And I know it was abridged? But I was kind of into it! Like, it was kind of fun to listen to! It was like –

Amanda: I love a full cast recording!

Sarah: I had never tried one. I’m, I get very – I, I do – okay, so I struggle with dual narrators because one narrator will do the other character’s voice in a way that I just find bananas every time. So you’ve got two people ostensibly doing four voices in dialogues. You have, like, hero and hero or hero and heroine. And one of them is going to do the other person’s secondary voice in a way that just grates; like, it always happens. And it’s, it’s, it’s not, like, their fault. It’s just me being picky. Full cast is –

Amanda: But don’t you have that with a single narrator as well?

Sarah: No. No, with a single narrator I’m like, this is how you’re doing these voices; great. And the minute I can hear the difference, I know what character it is? But if I’ve got two variables for one character, I have to think, Okay, you’re this person doing that person’s voice, but that doesn’t, like, it doesn’t match up in my brain. Maybe just two voices per person is too much for my brain. But I love a single narrator; that’s fine. Dual narration, I’m not so good at if they’re doing dialogue especially. Full cast recording was super fun! There was, like, sound effects! Music! And lots of voices! And I, I thought it was really very cool! And that’s a weird setting for a book. Like it’s part space and part something like Earth and stuff coming up from everywhere and people visiting from other planets, and, like, it’s got a lot going on in terms of world, but the full cast recording made it really fun. I enjoyed it. I’m also being –

Amanda: I always feel like they remind me of, like, radio plays?

Sarah: Yes! They are exactly like radio –

Amanda: And I love it.

Sarah: Oh yeah. Adam and I sometimes do that, like with the Sticky Bun Boys podcast that’s David and Michael from the 2019 season of the Great British Bake Off? Michael won and, or no, David won, and Michael was out, I think, like week seven? So they’ve been doing a podcast for a while now where they’ve been recapping old seasons, and then they recap the current season, and now they’re recapping their season?

Amanda: Ooh!

Sarah: So Adam and I will, like, like, sit and listen to it on a speaker in the front room like we’re old timers listening to a radio play. You wanna listen to our radio shows? Let’s listen!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: You know, ‘cause it’s one thing to listen to it in the car, but, like, we’re not in the car a lot together right now, so, like, we sit in the front room and listen on the speaker like old timey – I should get one of those speakers that looks like a big old radio? Like, you know, those big-ass –

Amanda: You should!

Sarah: – like those big-ass radios they used to have? So I really liked Clean Sweep. I’ve, I read out of order. Like, I do not care. I just, I do. So I’ve read later books in this world, but I have not started with the first one, so I might, I might read –

Amanda: Crazy. Craziness.

Sarah: I know. I know. It’s Unhinged Bingo for a reason.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: Start in the middle: not a problem. I’ll do it every time. I don’t care.

The other book that was new that I liked was Atonement Sky by Nalini Singh. She’s so good at her job. Like, that just sounds like such weak praise, but holy crap. She has got two, like one big series that’s now in like a second season arc. She knows where it’s going. And I don’t remember who said this, but one of the hallmarks of Nalini’s writing, and this, this might’ve been Angela James who said this? I don’t remember. Nalini Singh will set up conflicts that seem impossible to resolve without breaking the rules of the world. And she finds a way to re-, to, you know, resolve that conflict without breaking rules. And I’m almost always surprised by how it comes about. I mean, sometimes I can predict what’s going to happen. Sometimes I have absolutely no idea. And the thing about Atonement Sky that I loved is first it was bird shifters, which I thought was real cool. Birdies.

Amanda: What kind of birds?

Sarah: Oh, raptors, I think? I have to look up.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: ‘Cause when I interviewed her about the book, we were, like, talking about What is the plural of, of these guys? Let’s see here. Doot-doot-do!

So the, the heroine, Eleri, is a Justice-Psy, which means that she goes in the minds of criminals, and the, the cost of that is great psychological and psychic damage? So J-Psys, they decrease in their ability to maintain their psychic shields, and they, like, they lose control of themselves and often meet very sad ends because of the psychological toll of what they do, which made me think a lot about how much psycho-, psychological and – what’s the word I’m looking for? Like, sense of self-damage we are all taking in right now because everything is terrible every day, and every day something new happens that’s worse? So the idea that there’s this person whose job it is to go into the minds of criminals and, and terrible people to access their memories of the crime that they did, and then that person has a toll for having done that work, yet they’re part of the justice system. I look at that and I think, you know, what about people who have to investigate the crimes of the current administration? What about the people who are victims of the current administration? And just us, all of us reading about it and being unable, being unable to stop all of it all at once, that’s all psychic and psychological damage. So the idea of having that as a character made me really think about the damage that is happening to all of us as we endure all of this terrible fucking news.

And the hero is Adam and he’s a Falcon. Thank you. He’s not a Raptor, he’s a Falcon, but they’re birds! They’re bird shifters. I had some questions about procreation. Like, do they lay eggs? How does this work? But you know, I’m sure –

Amanda: Do they, do they have cloacas?

Sarah: Oh, that’s a good question. I don’t think they have cloacas. That’d be weird.

Amanda: The multipurpose butthole?

Sarah: If Nalini writes platypus shifters, I want to know about the cloaca. That’s very important to me. I, I am going to interview her early next year, so I’ll have to ask. Like, do you have…about cloacas? Platypus shifters! I used to tease her, like the Rat characters were always a side character, like the, the Rat shifters, and I’m like, are you going to write -apparently the large part –

Amanda: I think a lot of people in the comments were like –

Sarah: Large, yes!

Amanda: – we want the Rats!

Sarah: A lot of her audience is like, are you going to write the Rat shifters next?

But I, I just loved Atonement Sky, not only because it’s like, damn, I have been reading this series since the site started. Slave to Sensation came out in 2005. It was one of the first ARCs I ever received. This series has been going on as long as I’ve been, you know, writing about romance. It’s so good. It, she’s so talented. And every time I read one of them, I go back and reread my favorites. Like, I reread Slave to Sensation, and then I re-, I reread Heart of Obsidian. And I get to just re-examine how good she is at what she does? And she is very solidly paranormal romance. One of the few people who’s still like, nope, this is paranormal. That’s what we’re doing here. And I do love a paranormal. I do love it, very much, especially shifters. I think it’s cool. So that was one of my favorite books that came out this year.

Amanda: I always think shifters are interesting, and we’ve probably talked about this on the site of shifters are always – not always, but most of the time – like, predator animals? We’ve got wolves and jungle cats and bears.

Sarah: Yep. A reconciliation with internal anger and the inability to control your anger. Yeah.

Amanda: I just want a weird little creature. Like, where are the, you know –

Sarah: I know somebody who wrote a bull shifter.

Amanda: – rain frogs and a little salamander?

Sarah: Axolotls! Axolotls! Axolotl shifters!

Amanda: Where are those?!

Sarah: Doo-doo-doo-doo – yeah, that’d be cool.

My runner-up for new book that came up, came up this year was The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley, and I was listening to it; I listened to this one. It’s gorgeous? She does really good time slip, which I think is a very unique kind of – it’s a blend. There’s romance; it’s, like, magical realism; it’s historical fiction. It has these really weird sort of shifts through time and ability. And in this case, the, the hero can sort of see what’s going to happen, but isn’t quite sure to trust these visions because it’s a very older time setting. So, like, at that point, if you’ve got weird visions or stuff, that’s like the devil and you’re damned! That’s bad. Like, you’re not going to be, you know, chill about it. You’re going be like, Oh, something’s really wrong with me, and I can’t tell anybody!

So that, that book was just so atmospheric and absorbing. Susanna Kearsley and Nicola Cornick are both writers who, if you would like to be somewhere else for a while, like in the way-ass distant past, there’s a good choice. Really good choice. They’re very atmospheric and sort of – you, you know the, the animation that you see, like, going through a magic portal, and there’s sparkles, and you come out in another world – that’s what it’s like reading their books. Like, they are truly a different world, and they’re very, very good at writing those worlds.

So those are my books of 2025.

Amanda: Also –

Sarah: I did not –

Amanda: – spoilers, because we’ll probably repeat these for our favorite books of the year posts that we do every year. So –

Sarah: Yeah. Spoiler.

Amanda: – spoilers.

Sarah: Spoiler. I’m also going on the She Wore Black podcast to talk about my books of the year, so I have different books for that one. As much as I had a very hard time reading this year, I have to come up with a lot of favorites for a lot of different places, ‘cause I’ve decided I don’t want to repeat!

[Laughter]

Sarah: I don’t want to name the same book in two places.

Amanda: I looked at my Goodreads to, like, refresh myself, because I read a decent amount recreationally this year, which, thank God! But most of it was like mid. They’re just, like, books like, Did you enjoy it? Yeah, I guess. Would you recommend it? Probably not. So – [laughs] – it’s just like, I read a lot, but they weren’t like, I’m going to read these again –

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: – or I’m going to buy them in paper or whatever.

Sarah: One of the guests – I’m so sorry, I can’t remember which one, ‘cause I’m still editing all these interviews, and my memory is crap to begin with – one of the listener interviews I did, someone said that they read a book and it was like plot tropes knitted together? And I was like, Yes, there is a lot of that. That’s actually a better analogy –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – than me driving from rest stop to rest stop: knitting a bunch of plot tropes together is a very good analogy for a lot of the books that are right now, because they’re being written, I think they’re being written with the marketing in mind. Or –

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: – These are the popular tropes; I will write to them in this order. And it’s like, that’s not very good book for Sarah. Not going to work for me. Alas.

So what are your wishes for 2026?

Amanda: [Sighs] This is a difficult one, ‘cause I was, I was thinking about this like, What are my wishes? And I think the latter half of 2025 for me personally fucking sucked.

Sarah: Truly was ass. Absolutely –

Amanda: It was –

Sarah: – ass-Mc-tastic.

Amanda: – such shit-ass nonsense…

Sarah: [Laughs] Your third and fourth quarters left a lot to be desired, emotionally speaking, yes.

Amanda: [Laughs] I was like, Oh, do I want to do, like, something positive or hopeful? And I think one thing that came up this year that you and I have discussed is – and I don’t know if it’s because, like, I’m getting older too? – of are you fucking stupid? Of just, like –

[Laughter]

Amanda: – just realizing people are stupid, okay? And you don’t have to engage with them. You can write them off of just being just fucking donuts of a human being, and they aren’t worthy of your time or energy. And you know what? You can also ask, Are you stupid? Are you dumb? Because I think a lot of people also don’t know that they’re dumb and stupid.

Sarah: Ah. Not only are there a lot of people who are not informed, not aware of context or nuance or history, but they are all talking very loudly? And I, I need a lot, a lot of people to shut the fuck up. And I want, I want –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – I want to not, I, I don’t want those people platformed anymore. I don’t need to, the list of people that I no longer need to hear from is like a CVS receipt at this point. And this could be like legitimate, like big names that everyone knows, or just, like, these randos who show up in my feed, and I’m like, Would you just, just shh?

Amanda: [Laughs] But, like, I just feel –

Sarah: Have some shut-the-fuck-up cakes.

Amanda: I, I have no patience. I –

Sarah: [Laughs] What, patience?

Amanda: – have no patience. I don’t feel like being particularly nice or, you know, treating people with kid gloves. So I think for me, my Holiday Wish is like, Hey, some people are just stupid, and you can say that to their face.

Sarah: [Laughs] I wish for you to tell people they’re dumb and annoying? Okay –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – this is such a total sidetrack: your glasses are so great.

Amanda: They’re new!

Sarah: I love them! They look –

Amanda: Thank you!

Sarah: – so good on you. I love the metal frames, and I love the shape. They are fab- –

Amanda: I wanted something different, ‘cause I usually get, like, chunky frames.

Sarah: Yeah! They are fabulous on you. You only see me in these ‘cause these are my computer glasses.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: My normal glasses are, like, the same frames but black? Those are fabulous. They’re so great. So great on you.

So your wish is for you, for people to feel free to tell people who are being stupid that they’re being stupid and should be quiet.

Amanda: Yeah. I’m, I’m just –

Sarah: You’re just done.

Amanda: I’m just done and, like, angry and, you know, these hands are rated E for Everyone. That’s what we’re at right now.

Sarah: [Laughs] My wishes for 2026 – the nice thing about doing all the Holiday Wishes is that I get to hear everyone’s wishes first? So I’ve been listening to all of the listening community talk about, you know, finding light, finding comfort through crafting.

Amanda: [Laughs] Sorry! And juxtaposed with me. Like, finding light and then, Are you stupid?

Sarah: I will illuminate you to tell you you’re dumb. Shhh. [Laughs] I got to listen to everyone’s wishes, which are really nice. So here is my wish; it is three parts.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: One, may your heart and your feet always be warm.

Amanda: Hmm!

Sarah: May you and everyone around you have space to rest and breathe. And may all your inboxes be manageable. My inboxes are full, and it is so tiring. Like inbox zero? Ha-ha! No.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: I mean, inbox over forty and I start to get twitchy. May, may the amount – and if you, and if you think about, like, your inbox as the things that are demanding of your time – may it be manageable in that you can say, This is not something I need to respond to. Not every –

Amanda: Unsubscribe.

Sarah: Unsubscribe, do not respond. And of course, as I always remind myself, the more email you send, the more email you get. But may the demands on you be manageable, and may you make them manageable, because we all have a very limited amount of energy. After we’re done punching Nazis and telling people that they’re stupid, we need to have some energy left over for snacks and reading. So, you know, manage your energy.

Are you ready for a bad joke?

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: Okay. This is a bit of a story joke. I don’t usually tell these?

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: I usually go for like a two-line joke at the end, or I make it into a two-line joke. This is a bit of a story joke. But every time I think of the punch line I start laughing. This is specifically also for JF Hobbit, because it’s a joke about a grocery store.

A lemon, a lemon and a potato and a pea had a really tough week working at the grocery store. And so they decided, It is Friday; let us go out. So they went on a bar crawl. They had a great time. They hit a bunch of bars, but because they were, are all so genetically different, alcohol affects them all in different ways. So the lemon gets very acidic and, you know, has a little bit of reflux. The potato is just a big ball of starch, so everything’s fine. And the little pea starts reacting to all the sugar and gets a little hyperactive. So at the end of the night, they find themselves at a bar at the top of the hill. And the pea is like, I’ve got a great idea. We are all round-y in shape. Let’s roll down the hill instead of getting a cab. And before the, anyone could say anything, the pea just took off, went down the hill. And the lemon was like, Okay! And starts rolling, but suddenly starts, ‘cause of the shape, starts listing side to side – it’s not perfectly round – and that did not help him, his stomach at all. With a sigh, and the potato just sort of bumbled down the hill, ‘cause you know, the potato was fine. By the time the potato had bounced all the way down, the lemon was, as they say in Australia, a-chundering. It was not well. And the pea is like, That was so awesome! This is so – let’s go, let’s go to the top of the hill and do it again! And you know, the one friend that you have who drinks, who gets really wound up, like the pea, like, Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! And the, the lemon is like – [mumble-groans] Nonononono, we have to go, we have to go! And the potato looked and said, Look, easy, Peasy; Lemon squeeze-y. [Laughs] Easy, Peasy! Lemon squeeze-y!

Amanda: Oh boy.

Sarah: Oh boy. The worst is when I tell people, Oh yeah, I end, I end all my episodes with a bad joke, and people are like, Oh, what’s the bad joke? And I’m like, Uh, I don’t know. My default one is –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: – the, my default one is the, the difference between Dubai and Abu Dhabi? I told you this one, right?

Amanda: Yes, you have.

Sarah: Yes. People in Dubai do not like the Flintstones. People in Abu Dhabi do!

Well, thank you for doing another Holiday Wishes. We have reached the end of another year.

Amanda: [Sighs] We did it everybody! We did it, Joe!

Sarah: We did it! We did it. Let’s close the book and start a new one.

Amanda: Ugh.

Sarah: Listen, I, I read a lot at the beginning of the year about how the United States as a country is in its Saturn return? Have you read about this?

Amanda: No!

Sarah: No, it’s not the Saturn return; it’s a Pluto return! Humans do not have Pluto returns because a complete cycle of Pluto is like a couple hundred years, but America has a Pluto return, and it’s happening right now, and it is no – and according to people who write about this stuff in articles that are very clickbait-y, so grain of salt yo big – no empire has survived its own Pluto return. No empire has lasted that long. So maybe that’s why all what’s happening! I don’t know.

Amanda: We were talking about, like, the AI apocalypse –

Sarah: [Laughs] Oh God.

Amanda: – at the office the other day, as one does, and I’m definitely –

Sarah: At MIT?

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: You talk about AI at MIT? Shocking!

Amanda: I mean, like, we had to evacuate a building one time ‘cause a robot caught on fire. Like, that’s my day. And then they had to, like, were worried that it was a lithium battery fire, so we’re like –

Sarah: Oh yeah, got to go!

Amanda: – ugh! But I’m definitely of the mindset at this point of, like, just let them have it. Like – [laughs] – just –

Together: – just let the robots have it! 

Sarah: Let’s just let the robots have the lab. They, they probably know it better than we do… 

Amanda: Give them a turn. I’m done now.

[Laughter]

Sarah: I have a new phone. I don’t like to upgrade my phone. I try to make my phone last as long as possible. My phone was a Pixel 6. It was four years old. Now I have a Pixel 10. And it keeps asking me, Do you want Gemini? And I’m like, No, I fucking don’t! But the number of apps that don’t work if I don’t engage with Gemini? And I’m like, Well, no!

Amanda: That’s weird.

Sarah: I don’t want it. Stop! And then when it’s like, can, You can use AI tools to edit this photo. And yet the tools suck. So what’s the benefit here? I don’t understand. I’m, AI makes me tie-tie.

Amanda: AI should be opt-in, not opt-out.

Sarah: Yes! Very many things should be opt-in and not opt-out.

Well, happy holidays to you!

Amanda: You too!

Sarah: Thank you for another year of podcasting.

Amanda: You’re welcome. I, we were just talking; we’re hitting seven hundred soon –

Sarah: I –

Amanda: – which is crazy!

Sarah: I am bowled over that we’re about to hit seven hundred episodes. It’s kind of incredible.

Amanda: Insanity.

Sarah: It’s truly incredible. How the hell did it, how, how did we do that? I don’t know.

Amanda: How, how were there enough things to talk about for seven hundred – [laughs]

Sarah: In romance!

Amanda: – episodes?

Sarah: When I, when I did the top five podcast episodes, I basically download all of the stats and then remove the older years and sort by, you know, a bunch of metrics for just the 2025 episodes. But my most popular episodes overall? Number one is my episode with Melissa Blue about Harry’s Spare? Because apparently this episode got into community, communities that I’m not usually in, and they were like, this was a really interesting and fair conversation about this book, including a woman of color. And that episode just went everywhere. I had no idea where it was going next. But once the Sussex fans picked it up it was like, Ooh! So that’s like the most popular episode, even bigger than Dr. Tingle! And number two was Kayleigh Donaldson talking about BookTok and hockey players! And I was like, Well, that’s interesting information!

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: It’s interesting to see which ones break containment –

Amanda: Well, I will say –

Sarah: – and go a little outside.

Amanda: – I was building some of the Best Of content this morning, and I was putting together, or running the stats for what the best posts from the site were this year?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: And – maybe a surprise, maybe not – it’s a lot of discussing the latest romance discourse.

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: That is, those are most of our –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – top five posts of the year.

Sarah: I will tell you number three is you, is Hot Takes with Sarah and Amanda. So we’re going to have to do some more Hot Takes episodes, ‘cause those are, those are very fun, and I know you have.

But also the, the, the posts where I am gathering social media and, like, and now, because of Twitter, I know I have to screen cap everything? That shit takes a Goddamn year to put together, because I’m constantly screen grabbing, and then I have the links. And you know I like to cite my sources. So, like, putting those together and, like, giving people a landing page as opposed to hunting through Threads or hunting through Bluesky or, you know – guh – Twitter, like, that, giving people a central place to look at an issue is very valuable, and it’s a really good use of our community platform, but they’re exhausting to do. So I try not to do every single kerfuffle that happens, because otherwise I, I would have time to do nothing else. [Laughs] I would have none time to do any other thing!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: I can either, I can either do those all the time or, like, you know, all of the other stuff.

[Laughter]

Amanda: You’ve got to weigh your options.

Sarah: I got to weigh my options. I am one person and, you know, Beyoncé and I apparently have the same number of hours, but she has a whole staff and we are a team of two! So hey! [Laughs]

But I, I, I take notes. Like, is this a kerfuffle with legs? Like I drop it in my workflow; I’m like, Do I want to write about this? Do I want write about this? So if you’re listening and you notice a kerfuffle and you would like to know what the hell is this? Can you explain this shit to me? Please! I would be happy to explain things if I can figure them out.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: And also, Amanda saves my bacon, ‘cause I send her my stuff to, like, so there’s, a second pair of eyeballs has looked at it. She has saved my bacon on a bunch of times when, like, yes, this, this, this happened this weekend, but that did not happen at this event. That is a different event. And I was like –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Oh, fuck, thank you! I’ll take that out, you know. My bacon: saving it.

Well, happy holidays, Amanda!

Amanda: Happy holidays, Sarah!

Sarah: I hope the rest of the year is fucking awesome for you.

Amanda: I mean, it’ll be vacation, and then we’re kicking the year off with Backstreet Boys at the Sphere, so –

Sarah: Dude, please send me pics.

Amanda: I’m going to be so excited. I heard from people who have gone, and they’ve messaged me. They’re like, If you get motion sick, take a lot of Dramamine.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: So.

Sarah: Oh yeah. I’ve been in the Sphere, and I did the, like the nature one with the – at one point, so both of my kids have misophonia, and my older one has it really bad, which is the, like, the instant anger reaction to someone chewing, like mouth noises? And at one point a giraffe comes over you, and it’s eating? And so there’s eating noises of a giraffe over your head. I thought my child was going to die. [Laughs] He was in the seat, like, like, his arms over his head like, Oh my God, make it stop. When we came out, I was like –

Amanda: I –

Sarah: – So how was the chewing giraffe? And he was like –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: – Please don’t ever make me do that again.

Amanda: I don’t have –

Sarah: I told you what I –

Amanda: I don’t have misophonia though, but I do get overstimulated?

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: With, when a variety of things happens, and I remember seeing a tweet that’s – [laughs] – that was, Sorry I’m a bitch; I just heard a lot of noises at once, and that’s how I feel.

Sarah: Yes, yes! I heard from someone – do you have seats or are you on the floor?

Amanda: I think we have seats.

Sarah: Okay, if you decide to go with the floor, a lot of people, like, go into the middle, but if you’re on the outside, because there are, like, runways, if you’re on the outside, a lot of the different, all of the different guys will come down those sides, so you can actually get really close on those side arms, allegedly.

Amanda: Allegedly. [Laughs]

Sarah: Allegedly. This is not a thing…doing. Allegedly. I went to Vegas twice in two years and I just, I’m, I’m good. I’m good. I’m, I’m Vegas-ed up. But anyway, happy holidays. Kick ass; take names.

Amanda: Yeah!

[outro]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode.  Thank you, as always, to Amanda, and thank you to all of you for making our Holiday Wishes episodes so very special.

There will be links in the show notes to everything we talked about, and a link to the podcast YouTube channel! Avoid the werewolves: like and subscribe. And you can get video episodes on Sundays or same day on Fridays if you’re in the Patreon.

I end every episode with a terrible joke. This one’s really, really bad. That’s why I’m going to tell it to you. [Laughs]

Did you hear about the guy who accidentally sprayed Axe body spray into his mouth?

Yeah, guy totally sprayed Axe body spray straight into his mouth, and now he talks with an Axe scent.

[Laughs] All right, true story: I was once in the checkout at a CVS in upper New Jersey – and you know about Jersey, like, Jersey dudes? This very tall, very loud guy walks in, and he is like 99.9% the most Jersey guy I’ve ever seen. And he walks into the door – like, it’s not that crowded – stands in the middle of the aisle in front of the checkout people, throws both arms up in the air to, I don’t know, encompass the whole store, and goes, Axe body spray? Like, do we know what it is? Do we know where it is? I have no idea, but the strength it took me not to laugh is, uh, significant. So I can’t think about Axe body spray without thinking of that guy, and I really hope he found the scent that he likes and talks with the accent that he had. [Laughs]

On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend, and we will 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!

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