Unabridged: Mid-Year Check-In with Sara Hildreth and Cree Myles - Transcript
We’re halfway through 2025 so this month on The Stacks Unabridged, we've got a literary check-in with friends of the pod, Sara Hildreth and Cree Myles! Together, we discuss the books that blew us away during the first half of the year, the titles we're most looking forward to for the second half of 2025. Plus we share the best backlist we've read and a few award season predictions.
TRANSCRIPT
Traci Thomas 0:00
Welcome back to another episode of the stacks unabridged our bonus episodes exclusive to paid Patreon and sub stack subscribers this month, it's June, the middle of the year, so I'm checking in with two of my favorite readers about the books we've loved so far in 2025 and the books coming out between July and December we are most excited about. I am joined, of course, again, by the great Cree Myles, the reader behind Always Black and a great literary voice and talent. And I'm joined by Sarah Hildreth, the reader behind Fiction Matters. Okay, I should say this before we dive in. I have linked to everything we mentioned in today's episode in the show notes, so you can find it all there. But if you need to also get your pencils ready, you should we're giving you all sorts of bookish recommendations. Enjoy.
All right, everybody, our friends are back. It is our mid year book preview. Books coming out July through December of 2025 I am joined by my two Book Pals, Sarah Hildreth, the icon behind fiction matters, the sub stack, the Instagram, the Patreon, the universe, the world, and Cree Myles, the other icon behind always black, Cree Myles in general, also has a substack, also a universe, also a legend. I only am part of the bookish multiverse. Ladies, welcome to the Stacks Unabridged.
Cree Myles 1:44
Thanks for having us back.
Sara Hildreth 1:46
Very excited, very excited
Traci Thomas 1:48
you are invited back, because the people love you. I don't know that I would have invited you back. I might have gotten new friends, all right.
Cree Myles 1:54
Well, thank you people.
Traci Thomas 1:55
Yeah. So thank the people. Here's the plan. We're going to start with a little bit about this year so far, then we're going to talk about the books we're excited about. Then we're going to wrap it up with some dumb shit, probably first and foremost, top level overview, thoughts about books reading so far this year. How's it going?
Sara Hildreth 2:15
I'm really liking the books this year. I am--
Traci Thomas 2:19
You are.
Sara Hildreth 2:20
I am. I--It feels so different from last year, because at this point last year, we've said this a million times, but it's worth reiterating. James and martyr were just like the books of the year. I was in love with them. We all were so it feels different this year, because I don't have necessarily, like, one or two books like that, I'm just like, Oh, my God, this is the best thing I've read in ages. But I have way more books that I've really, really enjoyed. So I think my reading has been good this year. I think the books are good, okay?
Traci Thomas 2:55
Cree?
Cree Myles 2:56
Um, I yes, we've said it once. We've said it 1000 times, James and martyr just dominated last year. I so I have been reading things this year, curious about how they're going to age, considering that nothing is like, nothing's affecting me how, like the end of murder affected me, but I am like this will age beautifully in 20 years. People will be talking about this book. I do think that we are getting solid contributions to the literary canon this year, and I'm just, I'm just gonna wait and see how they end up.
Traci Thomas 3:32
I was thinking sort of the opposite Cree of like we're getting a fine year of books, but this is going to be one of those year books where, when they do the list of the best books of the last 25 years, there's just like, not a book from this year. You know how there's some years it's just like, not a book like 1935 there's just not a book that came out that year.
Cree Myles 3:51
Well, I'm really hoping that it's like, like, the woke, deep readers will be like, Well, yeah, in 2025 Did you know? And then it'll be like a cult grab. Like, that's what I'm thinking,
Traci Thomas 4:02
Yeah, yeah, okay, but not necessarily, like a big no.
Cree Myles 4:07
It'll be like, Why is it more? Why aren't more people talking about this book? Because everyone's already talked about James for the last 100 years. Ad nauseam.
Traci Thomas 4:15
That's, okay, that's my sense, too. But however, I, of course, the Debbie Downer of the group. I'm having a tough, tough time this year. I'm having a tough time with the books I've read, some things I've liked a lot. I don't know that they feel like books that I love a lot, that I will love, that I will think about a lot in the future, which obviously last year feels like a real anomaly, but this feels even more sparse than 2023 or 2022 for me. So I've been struggling a little bit. I also think part of it is that I've been trying to read more classics this year as my big goal, and so comparing sort of great generational books with for. Brand new things is harder, and when I finish newer books, there's not a lot of content to talk about what I've been reading in the same way that, like, after I finished Invisible Man, I was like, let me absorb every opinion about this book. And so I think part of it is that there it has been less fulfilling because there's less stuff. I'm supposed to be the one coming up with things to talk about, not me getting to enjoy other people's brilliance.
Cree Myles 5:27
Girl, yeah. Liz, welcome. This is my ongoing issue every time every I read Dracula last year, and I was like, and where on earth would you go after that?
Traci Thomas 5:36
Right? Yeah, straight to hell. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So since you both are having a good reading year, what are like two books you've loved most so far this year,
Cree Myles 5:52
I can go i so i just finished Disappoint Me by Nicola deenan,
Sara Hildreth 5:58
Oh, Cree, I was gonna ask if you'd read that yet, because I read it. And was like, Cree, needs to read that.
Cree Myles 6:06
Oh my gosh, yes. So it was it the part about that I like the themes around like, how we commodify language in order to like align with whatever position we're supposed to be taking, like, politically or socially. And just like, how much are you supposed to forgive someone that you say that you love or that you're in community with when they do something that feels extremely egregious? Because that is what humans do. Like those are that, those are the questions that keep me up at night every day anyway. And so to see it explored in this book was fun. I love that was I literally was reading it, and out loud, my husband said, I said, like, six times, like, this, is that good shit? Like, I cannot it was everything that I needed. It was so good.
Sara Hildreth 6:52
It's so good. The themes are so important. Like you said, create. And it's also just though, like, a deeply emotional book, like it doesn't feel like it's trying to over intellectualize either. You just get totally caught up in the characters and the story and the way that she uses the like dual timelines. You just have to keep turning the pages. I really liked this one too. Would I like it? I think you would like it.
Cree Myles 7:18
Okay, I'm not sure.
Traci Thomas 7:21
Keep it real. Keep it real. I Sarah, now it's coming back.
Sara Hildreth 7:26
I will, I'll take it.
Traci Thomas 7:29
Okay, Sarah, what's something you've loved?
Sara Hildreth 7:31
Well, I think my favorite of the year still is audition by Katie Kitamura, which I read at the end of last year, but I just reread it this week, and the reread, I think, sealed its position as my favorite of the year. I know it's divisive, but I'm obsessed with it. It's so good. It's if, if listeners haven't read this one yet. It starts with a woman who, I think she's in her 40s, and she's an actress, and she is meeting this younger man for lunch, and through that whole first scene, there's a tension between them and the way she writes it, you keep wondering, even though it's first person, so you're in the woman's head, you're wondering, like, what is going on between these two? Like, was there some sort of affair, like something, something's wrong here? And she just keeps you guessing through that whole scene, and you do finally realize what had happened between them. And then through in the middle of the book, there's an abrupt shift, and it's one of those books. It's not plot driven, it's not character driven. It's clearly driven by like she wanted to write this structure and she wanted to explore these themes. That really works for me. Some people really hate that, because it feels constructed. It doesn't feel like you can get lost in the story, but I loved it.
Traci Thomas 9:06
Is it similar to trust exercise? Yes, okay, and I like that. I'm told there's a theater connection as well there.
Sara Hildreth 9:14
There's a big theater connection. And it's one of those books where, like trust exercise. She's using her commentary on theater to kind of teach you how to read the book. So you have to like, you have to pay attention to this book, which also, I think some people don't like, but it is short. It's 200 pages, but yes, the the theater stuff, I thought was really, really interesting, because she doesn't she's not directly offering commentary on novels, but it feels like she is through the theater stuff too.
Traci Thomas 9:54
Okay, I'm torn on sort of which way to go here with this. I think I'm gonna go ha. Yeah. I mean, I think the best thing I've read still this year is the Omar El a cod the one day everyone will have always been against my list, true. Yeah. I just think, I just think the writing's really good. The arguments are really good. It's vulnerable, it's thoughtful. I think he's really smart. I think he's asking the correct questions to be asking. He doesn't have the answers necessarily, but he's asking the right and proper questions. It's a book that I was worried could feel dated because it feels so timely, because it's about Israel and Gaza and obviously, you know, that's still going on, but the way the questions are written, it's really about a much bigger question. It's a book about a much bigger thing. And so I think not only is it excellent now, but I do think it's something that you could revisit in five or 10 years, and would still, we're still going to be asking these questions about our own responsibilities. So I hate that I haven't come up with something better yet, like, I hate that a book I read in January is still one of my favorites, but it is so Cree, what's your next fave?
Cree Myles 11:05
I mean, I was coming with new faves because of our previous faves,
Traci Thomas 11:11
I know, and I was gonna do or original sin, but I'm gonna not, even though that is one of my faves. Oh, it's so good. That's so good, that's good, that's good, that's good. My other one will be new, newer, I guess.
Cree Myles 11:23
Okay, yeah, the other one that I have I didn't talk about last time was Leila Motley, new book you love that I really, really enjoyed it. I think that, like the exploration of shame and of community and mutual aid, was really impressive. And I just think about her age, and this the beginning of her career, and how this is just, it's a it's a strong contribution to the to her discography. What is it?
Traci Thomas 12:00
Discography? Okay, Sarah?
Sara Hildreth 12:07
I did really love flashlight by Susan Choi, but because I think probably most people already know about that book, it's not like this one is super under the radar either. But I'm going to talk about hunchback by SAO Ishikawa, I read this in one sitting. It is so tiny and it's hard to talk about, because I think that the way she reveals what she's doing in the book and and what it's really about is important to just let her handle, but it's about disability and desire and what it means to be a human, and what it means to be seen as a human or not, and the opening you realize you're in for A very provocative book like she's intending to provoke strong, visceral feelings from the reader. And then the ending was haunting, like I'm not gonna forget that ending probably ever. It's tiny. It blew me away. I think that it's, it's unsettling. It's supposed to be unsettling. Yeah, I'm just, it was, it was really a stunner for me.
Traci Thomas 13:30
Oh, yeah, I, I'm intrigued. It wasn't, it was an international Booker long list.
Sara Hildreth 13:35
Yeah, it was definitely on the long list. I don't think it was on the short list. I can, I can double check that, but yes, so it, it was definitely getting a lot of attention on, on Bookstagram, but I think a lot a lot of people would a lot of people would not like, not because of the writing style, or it's not Like, it's hard to follow or confusing, but it is, it is provocative. I That's all I can say about how kind of in your face it is about certain things, obviously intentionally and I think very well done.
Traci Thomas 14:16
I'm really struggling, guys to pick a second to pick a second book. I gotta be honest, the only book I personally ranked five stars that came out this year so far that I've read this year was the Omar Ellicott that's the only one I gave a full five stars to. So everything else that I've read, that I've liked has just felt like slightly below, but all on the same level. And so what I'm gonna do is go with a book that I haven't done on the podcast, that I've really liked, because there's a few books that we did, but I'm gonna go with things in nature merely grow by Yee and Lee. Oh, it's very sad about her. Both of her sons took their own lives like a few years apart from each other as teenagers. And it's her memoir about. This. And it is not that there's anything wrong with being emotional, but it is not emotional. It is intellectual. She is like, taken this experience, and she's writing about it in a way that feels almost like, not removed. But it is not like I felt sad. It is like, what is sadness like? What does this what is happening in my body? Or why would this thing happen? And how do these things happen? And what does it mean when self and she talks a lot about, like, the ways people think they're being helpful, and she responds and is like, it is not helpful to email me a sorry email and then ask if I will read your manuscript. Like, why do people do shit like that? And so it's sort of tough, but also very tender, and it's also just such a loving tribute to her sons. I think it's really good. I don't know that I like love the book, like, I don't think that I would return to the book. But as far as what is the best thing I've read this year, to me, it is one of the best things that I've read. I've said this before. I'll say it again, just in case I'm right. I think it will be a Pulitzer finalist or winner for in the memoir category next year. It has that feeling of like memoir, but also grief and also doing a lot in on, on, in the writing itself, and the arguments and all of that. So it's just, it's like, not objectively, but it feels objectively quality, and it's not as sad as you think it's going to be like, it's not. I don't know if you ever read the like Rob Delaney book about his two year old son dying of like cancer. That was so sad. It's not that kind of like it was so sad. It's not, you know, I laid in bed weeping with my husband. It's not that which I appreciate, even though there's nothing wrong with that. It's just such a different way to do the grief thing.
Sara Hildreth 16:57
So yeah, I still feel nervous about reading it, but I love her writing.
Traci Thomas 17:02
So, yes, the writing is quite good. She's quite talented. Surprise, okay, is there really quickly before we do the books for the next, for the next chunk of the year? Is there one book that has already out, that came out between January and June, that you have not read yet, that you're like, I have to read this book.
Cree Myles 17:24
Generally, never. So, like, I mean, I'm seeing the commotion around these heathens, so I am excited to pick it up. But, like, I'm never pressed to pick up a new release, honestly.
Traci Thomas 17:38
The one that I'm curious about, I'm not like dying to pick it up, but, but friend of the pod, MJ Franklin from the New York Times, mentioned it to me is tilt this. Have you guys heard about tilt?
Sara Hildreth 17:50
Yes, I just, I feel like I've heard a lot of mixed reviews of tilt. MJ loved it.
Traci Thomas 17:56
MJ really liked it. But the reason that I think I would like it is. It's short. It's climate fiction, about an earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, about a woman, a pregnant woman, who is at IKEA when this earthquake happened, and then she has to walk home. So there's things that are happening. It sounds like there's things like, there is an event, there is action, and then we're also like, going back and looking back in her, her life, her family life, and what's like wrong with her marriage and all of this stuff. And it just, it sounded like something I might like, Oh, I'm lying. I know the real one. I still have not read sunrise on the Reaping that's the real one. Yes. Sorry, I forgot. I was like, literally looking at my list. I was like, oh, right, this one, but tilt is the one that I'm sort of like. I feel like I should go back and read that. If it ends up on any prize list, I'll be reading it like, if it's on center for fiction's first fiction, like first novel, I'll go back and read it. But I am, I am curious about it, and it sounds like it has enough things that I could like.
Sara Hildreth 19:03
Speaking of the Pacific Northwest, I am listening to murder land. Oh, are you liking it? I am liking it. Okay, okay, I Yeah. It's, it's kind of, it's kind of meandering, like she's like, she's talking about Ted Bundy, she's talking about another serial killer. She's talking about her own life. She's talking about Earth, like it's very but it the the impression it's giving of like, the Pacific Northwest as this Murderland, is really impactful.
Traci Thomas 19:37
Because it's all about how, how there's, like, a bunch of serial killers who are from the Pacific Northwest in this time period.
Sara Hildreth 19:43
Yes. And she talks about how, basically, the book is her, what does she call it? Her, like, crazy board, or chaos board, like, you know, the right, right, with the strings, yeah. She describes that and how it's like an iconic image and everything. Every police procedural, and this is her writing that, and it feels like that's kind of chaotic, but you do definitely see the strings connecting. And she's, I won't she has, she has a theory. She has, like an overarching theory of what this is.
Traci Thomas 20:18
I'm excited. I was, I was excited to read it, and then someone was like, I don't know. And then I just sort of, but then I saw I was on the New York Times list, and then I had work to do, and I sort of put it off, but I have the audio and the physical, so I'll go back to it, because it's in my wheelhouse, for sure.
Sara Hildreth 20:32
Yeah, I'll be curious what you think, because I sometimes feel like I'm uncertain how to I need to go back to your like, your structure of different types of nonfiction, and figure out where this fits and what she's doing, because it feels different to me than much of the nonfiction I've read. So if you read it, I'll be really eage to talk to you about it.
Traci Thomas 20:55
Okay,iIf I read it, we can talk about it. Okay, let's do it our We're each gonna pick approximately five books. We haven't shared our list at all, so if we have crossover, we will just, I have some extras. I brought some extras too. Obviously, same. Okay. Cree, why don't you start and if you can, if you wrote it out in this way, go chronologically.
Cree Myles 21:18
Yeah, I don't have um--
Traci Thomas 21:19
Any July books? Any July books?
Cree Myles 21:22
No.
Sara Hildreth 21:22
I have a July book. Okay, go ahead. My July book is culpability, by Bruce Holsinger, oh. He wrote the gifted school and another book that was about climate change. And he writes, he writes like beach reads, but kind of smart beach reads, okay, okay, so this is a book about a family's like driverless vehicle, autonomous minivan, way much crashes with an an an oncoming car, and I think maybe kills or seriously injures people in the other car. It was the teenage son who was like, at the wheel, but, you know, he wasn't driving the vehicle. Various members of the family were, like, doing other things, distracted, whatever, in the car. And it's about culpability, and, like, Why, who really is responsible for for this, how the crash kind of reverberates into their family, how it impacts them. And then, of course, there's a lot in it about, like, morals and ethics and AI, and I think that's could be really interesting. I mean, I think we're probably going to see more Fauci see more fiction about this, but I haven't read anything that is really tackling it head on, for lack of a better word. So I'm interested in this. I i read the Nicholas Nicholas Carr, who writes a lot of like tech journalism. He had an essay that I used to teach that was about like exactly this question, like, what happens when you remove the ethical decision from a human and put it in the hands of a machine? So for example, like if an autonomous vehicle is driving down the road and an animal runs out in front, like humans, we know really, it's not safe to swerve, but we maybe make that ethical decision to do that. But what if that choice is in the in the hands of a machine, like what happens then? And so I'm guessing that Bruce Holsinger has also read that essay, because it sounds like this novel is exploring that idea in fiction. So I think it's going to be just like a page turner, but maybe with some thought provoking questions.
Traci Thomas 23:54
That sounds good. I have a July book, but it's my backup, so I'm going to skip it, and I'll come back to it if I need to. All right, August?
Cree Myles 24:06
I have, I have one for sure, August, and then I have a potential backup. August. Okay, go ahead.
Traci Thomas 24:13
At the end, we will say all of our backups quickly, okay, we don't get to them, just so that people are like, what was the--
Cree Myles 24:20
I'm I pulled Dominion by Addie e sitchins. And, I mean, I'm down for anything that takes place in the South. It's, I mean, it could go either way when we're talking about just like some domestic fiction that take because we could do like Memphis by Tara Stringfellow, which I did not enjoy, or we could do Their Eyes Were Watching God. So it just depends on what she does with the book. And also, Kisa is swearing that it's brilliant, but she's also from Mississippi, so he could just be the biased. But I am definitely picking that one up. It just feels like middle class. But. Black southern situation, which is all my buzzwords.
Traci Thomas 25:05
Okay, I'm interested in this because I do love a drama, family drama. And if Kisa is saying it's good, I gotta at least give it a go. I gotta at least check his work. Yeah,
Cree Myles 25:15
Yeah, make sure, yeah.
Traci Thomas 25:17
Okay, my first August pick is King of Kings by Scott Anderson. I know neither of you know not a fucking thing about this one. I know it's the Iranian revolution, a story of hubris, delusion and catastrophic miscalculation. It's, I don't know anything about the Iranian Revolution like that's just not information that I know, but I know that it is important, and so I just really want to read this book. It also has, like, a tight a cover that just like, looks like me like, it just looks like something I would like. It's like a throne with flags and just, it's giving. It's giving. I did research. Let me tell you about it. And Scott Anderson is sort of a known non fiction writer. He wrote Lawrence in Arabia, which I also didn't read, but he's just like, kind of one of those guys who writes books about history, but in a more journalism way, as opposed to, like, academic way. So I'm excited to learn about this, because I feel like it always comes up and people sort of reference it, like even martyr, martyr is alluding to this time. But there's not a ton of like--
Cree Myles 26:19
Did you read, did you read Persepolis?
Traci Thomas 26:21
No.
Cree Myles 26:22
Okay, it's a good entry point.
Traci Thomas 26:25
Okay, well, I have it, yeah, and I also have this. I might read both. I mean, I'm in my I'm in my learning era, so.
Sara Hildreth 26:33
You would fly through Persepolis.
Traci Thomas 26:35
Fly, yeah. It's like a graphic, right? Yeah. So that's in the black section, yeah. So, yeah, that's my first August pick. Does anyone else have more?
Sara Hildreth 26:43
I have three August picks. I have an August pick. Okay, moderation by Elaine Castillo, and if that cover looks like you. Traci, this cover looks like me.
Traci Thomas 26:57
It so looks like you. And Cree, that I sent you both, and I said, Is this on both of your radars? All I know is, this is the cover. Yeah. Both said,
Sara Hildreth 27:05
Yes, it is. It's like a painting of like a regency era couple, but their heads are smeared. So you're like, This is something weird is happening here.
Traci Thomas 27:16
Something is wrong with the form. And I know you love form.
Sara Hildreth 27:21
I actually started this, and it's good. It is also provocative. It is about a woman named girlie.
Traci Thomas 27:33
And okay, I'm Sign me up.
Sara Hildreth 27:37
She is a content moderator, so literally, Her job is to look through horrific content on the platform she works for, which is basically like a, you know, a meta type Corporation, and flag whether it is needs to be removed or not. And her, I mean major content warnings, obviously, in the even in like the first chapter, her specialty is figuring out if things are our child pornography or they knew it and so it. There's a lot of dark humor in this already. There is a lot of there are a lot of uncomfortable situations, but I think that that Elaine Castillo is an author I trust to handle this, and so it is about like her getting kind of promoted up in this company. It's about like the company moving into the virtual reality realm. Both of my books seem like they would make, actually, yes, a really good pairing. Yeah, really good pairing. Yeah.
Traci Thomas 28:51
Do you have any sense of what the cover
Sara Hildreth 28:53
Nice? Yeah, the book, okay. No, not yet. I mean, other than, like, distorted reality, but the, like, old fashionedness of the cover, I don't know yet, but I'm, I mean, that's another reason I'm excited to keep reading it is to try and figure that out. So it, it is, I think going to be, like, uncomfortably funny in some ways. Um, but I'll keep you guys posted because i i liked it, but I wasn't going to put it on a reading guide where I'm like full stamp of approval without being able to really like nuance it Yes, um, but I'll absolutely report back when I finish.
Traci Thomas 29:35
Okay. Cree, do you have any other August?
Cree Myles 29:38
Um, yes, I have. It's called solitaria by Alania Alves Cruz. It takes place in Brazil. She's a Brazilian writer, and it's basically about girl and her mom. They live in this really posh building, but they live in like one room, and. And their job is to take care of the richest people that live in the building. So I'm all about, I'm all about, of course, a novel talking about social classes, and it's being described as a liberation novel, which instantly piqued my interest. So I'm gonna check that out if I have time.
Traci Thomas 30:17
This made my spreadsheet. Did not make my top five, but this is on my radar for sure. Yeah, yeah. I'm very curious about this. Okay, well, since I thought both of you, one of you, would do this, I'll do it. Which is positive obsession, which is this new biography coming out about Octavia Butler, I saw that. Yeah, I'm curious about it. I don't know much, but that feels like enough for me. It comes out in August, and I don't know that I've ever I don't know that there is, like, a definitive biography of her, and I hope that it is good.
Cree Myles 30:51
Yeah, I read that one. It was like trappings around her process and everything. But, yeah, definitive biography, that's a good point.
Traci Thomas 31:00
So we'll see i And also, it's written by a black woman, and so that also feels like, you know, I'm into it. I'm into it, like it's not, it's not, no offense Jonathan, I right, just like no shots, but shots, you know, every time anyone else have August, I have a backup in August, but I'll save it for the end same. Okay, September, the big month of, yeah, September, for those of you who don't know, usually September, like May, is a big book month, because the fall book season is like the serious book season, and it's gearing us up for award season, et cetera. So there's always a lot of May books, always or and June and always a lot of September books. Okay, go ahead.
Cree Myles 31:49
I will start with the wilderness online too. Yeah. Angela Flournoy, it just says like five black women friendships spanning 20 years, it's giving women a Brewster praise the Supremes at Earls all you can eat diner waiting to excel. Like, I'm just like, it will be, and then people keep I'm seeing buzz. So it seems like it'll be a solid presentation of the complexity of friendship. So I'm like, I'm definitely sure I'm the other two that I talked about. I'm not convinced I will read, but I am definitely going to read the wilderness.
Traci Thomas 32:23
Me too. It's literally sitting next to me. I'm just trying to get through enough stuff that I have to get through so that I can get to it. I heard Angela talk at an event A few weeks ago about the book, and one of the things she talked about she's like, it's a coming of age story, but it is a coming of age from 20 to 40, which is such a coming of age time, yes, but we don't usually think about it in that way. Yeah. When she talked about how, like, some of the characters, or like, two, like, some of the biggest conflicts in the book come from the characters who are very sure of what they want and who they are and, like, what they're gonna do for their work, and people who haven't, like, figured it out yet. And I was like, Yes, of course, that's always, like, the biggest conflict in friend groups, where it's like, the person who's 25 and has a 401, K, I'm like, exactly my friend who's like, I like books. I'm really excited. Just like, the little that she said about, it made me feel like, Oh, she's got a grasp of what she's talking about. Like that, she's, she's writing about things that I'm interested in already. Yeah, for sure, that's definitely my big September. Sarah, what else do you have in September?
Sara Hildreth 33:34
Um, I have, I have two. I have a fiction ripeness by Sarah Moss. I love Sarah Moss. She's--
Traci Thomas 33:42
Not Sarah J Maas, not Sarah J Maas.
Sara Hildreth 33:46
Sarah Moss, M-O-S-S
Traci Thomas 33:49
Traditional,
Sara Hildreth 33:50
Traditional moss. She writes pretty weird books, but this one sounds more straightforward than other stuff I've read from her. It is about a two sisters in the 1960s one of them takes place in their English, but they are sent to Italy when the younger sister gets pregnant and her parents force her to give up the baby, and then later in life, a friend of the sisters gets like, a phone call being like, I think I'm your brother who was given up for adoption. And then it brings back all of the memories of the sister having to give up a baby that was, I guess, like so common, probably everywhere, but also like in the UK at that time, I've always found stories about that to be really compelling and interesting, but also I feel like I've read a lot of them, so there's a risk of this being okay. Maybe I've read this before, but I. Really like Sarah Moss, and I learned I didn't know she had a new book coming out until I read a Guardian article about disappearing literary men, and Sarah Moss had the best comment about it, and then it was like Sarah Moss's new book ripeness out, and that made me even more eager to read it, because I love her.
Cree Myles 35:20
Love it.
Traci Thomas 35:22
Okay, I am doing another biography of another black person by another black person. Nobody can give you freedom by Kende Andrews, and it is a biography of my guy, Malcolm X, Oh, that's fun. Great cover. It's the subtitle is the political life of Malcolm X, and it from from how it's pitched, and I don't know so, you know, I'm always very nervous to read a biography of Malcolm X, though I have read five at this point, and like them all, this one is sort of pitches a new radical examination to show his dedication to peaceful global movement and black liberation. It sort of rewrites some of the misogyny as perhaps part of a of something that is not exactly misogyny, and maybe that he was like more fair to women than he has been given credit for in the past, and that some of his like detractors, sort of shaped his narrative after his death that wasn't necessarily in line with his own work. I'm curious. I don't know kenday And Ken day Andrews, the author, so I don't know his own perspectives and point of view. So I am going into this, you know, cautiously optimistic, but Peniel Joseph did blurb the book, and he is a historian whose work I know and trust, and so that was what let me be like, Okay, let me try this out. But this author is a professor at Black Studies at Birmingham, Birmingham City University, so I don't know I'm gonna see I am excited about it. I'm curious about it. I will read a Malcolm X biography always, no matter who writes it. But this one, this positioning of the radical politics, is interesting to me.
Cree Myles 37:14
Okay, I've got another one. This is one. I also am sure I'm gonna read, pick a color by sovankin Tama bank Swa, so this cover, yeah, little brown is put it's coming out September 30. She works at a nail salon. Everybody at the nail salon, they just call themselves Susan to make it easier for the white women that they're serving. And she actually used to be a boxer, so she's coming over here to work as like a domestic worker, more or less. And she is actually an athlete. And the book all takes place in one day, which I love for. I love for, and it's two it's only two pages. Sign me up, dude. Sign I love the cover. I love I everything. I'm definitely reading this one. Definitely.
Sara Hildreth 38:09
I read her collection of short stories. How to Pronounce knife. Yeah, it is, did you read that creed? No, it is phenomenal. So I, I did not know about this book. Thank you for bringing it. I didn't either have my list.
Traci Thomas 38:23
Now to do it, I'm adding to my list as well. September 30. What else do I have in September? Oh, well, you, you took the wilderness. Okay, can I go back and do my one of my go backs for August? Since, since I'm out of Septembers.
Sara Hildreth 38:39
Yeah, it's your show, yeah, thank you for hearing.
Traci Thomas 38:43
Okay, actually, you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do a true it's a two for one. I don't have to say a lot about these books, but both two of my personal male heroes have books coming out this year, Steph Curry and Lionel Richie. September. I just want to be I don't want people to think that I've lost my roots that like now that I talk about books on the internet, I can only talk about like, hoity toity thing. Yeah, yeah. Lionel Richie, one of the most important men in my life, has a memoir coming out called truly. And Steph Curry has a book coming out called shot ready, both in September. So when we say September is a big book month, this is what we mean, yes, yes, yes. Anybody else have September?
Sara Hildreth 39:33
I'll share one of my backups. I love Jill Lepore. I'm excited about we, the people. Her history of the US Constitution. I loved these truths. These truths was good. It's good. And I like that. She is a historian who is interested in, like, like, big picture stuff. This one's obviously a little bit more specific. But, you know, so many historians go, like, really Minute. Cute, and she's interested in breath, which means Her books are really freaking long, and the heart sucks, yeah.
Traci Thomas 40:05
But this she needs an editor.
Sara Hildreth 40:08
An editor, but I feel like she's almost writing like future textbooks, like but this one, she is taking on the theory of originalism in particular. And so I think that's very timely. So I don't know, am I gonna read this entire book by the end of this year? Probably not, but I probably will acquire it and, like, start slowly making my way through it. ,
Traci Thomas 40:34
Yeah I respect that. Yeah. I respect that. Okay, October.
Sara Hildreth 40:39
I have an October. You don't have an October, okay? I have a couple.
Traci Thomas 40:44
Well, I actually do have a couple, but they're not real. So you go ahead, they're not real. What? Like, they are like, Brandon Taylor has a book coming out in October, yeah? But like, I, I am not really doing that on here. Do you know what I mean? Yeah? Like, I am excited about it, but it's not a like Jason Reynolds has Coach coming out in October, which I'll probably read, but I don't know that that's a book I'm gonna like do right now. So that's what I mean by not real.
Sara Hildreth 41:10
Go ahead. I'm very excited about the unveiling by Quan Berry. That's on my list too. It's described as a genre bending novel of literary horror set in Antarctica that explores abandonment, guilt and survival in the shadow of America's racial legacy.
Traci Thomas 41:29
And the cover is a stunner. That's why I put it on the list. I was like, What is this book about? And I just pulled up the cover, and I was like, Oh, right. I just thought, Who cares? I thought they deserved attention from me simply on these grounds.
Sara Hildreth 41:42
Yeah, it's about somebody who goes, she's like, a film scout. They go to, like, check out locations for a movie that's going to be made about Ernest Shackleton, and then things go wrong. I mean, it sounds, it sounds so good. I'm probably gonna read this soon, because it, I mean, it sounds like it could be a really good summer read. I'm excited about it. Quan Berry, great writer, yeah.
Traci Thomas 42:12
Cree, do you have October?
Cree Myles 42:13
I got one October. The devil is a southpaw. By Brandon Hobson.
Sara Hildreth 42:20
that was my backup.
Traci Thomas 42:21
Yeah, I'm okay. I liked his. He's the removed, right? Yeah, yeah, that was good.
Cree Myles 42:27
Yeah. It's about two Cherokee art. They're both Cherokee children. I think we're talking about, like, where we're in present day, but we're talking about their childhood. They were in a juvenile detention center, which sounds always horrific, and they're comparing it to no because, which is like, when does that ever, ever happen? So what description have I read for I think I read this description on right now I'm on Amazon, but I also think it's the same description that was on Net Galley. So we'll see. Oh, the juvenile detention center was in the late 1980s dark and comedic. So we'll see.
Traci Thomas 43:12
Okay.
Sara Hildreth 43:13
Cree, is the Brandon Taylor? Are you excited about it? How are you feeling?
Unknown Speaker 43:18
I am a Brandon Taylor completionist. Yeah. He broke minor black figures, minor black figures. I did not like late Americans. Oh, so, but it's, what's that whole attitude about the grape, like the real Americans was, wait, no, what's the first book spit called real real life. Thank you. Real life was my sweet grape. So even if the next 12 are sour, sour, I am going to keep reading. And I did. I liked the short story collection. I really enjoyed that. So I read everything Brandon writes. I'm dying on a hill.
Sara Hildreth 43:56
I read the first chapter. Okay, I liked it. Okay. How did you feel about late Americans? I did not finish it. Nope, nobody has.
Traci Thomas 44:07
We're all still working. I didn't start it, but I'm still working. Okay, great, great to know. I just looked at one of my backup books for October. It's not coming out till November, so I'm just gonna bump it, bump it to its spot. October's not doing it for me. I have four books on my whole thing, November?
Sara Hildreth 44:28
Palliver by Brian Washington,
Traci Thomas 44:31
Okay, I have that also.
Sara Hildreth 44:34
I just really like him. I think he writes very like the kind of emotional books that I like. I loved lot. I think that's still my favorite, the interconnected short stories. And was it Memorial Drive?
Traci Thomas 44:49
Yeah, Memorial Drive. And then there's also family meal, family meal.
Sara Hildreth 44:53
Okay, yeah, I really liked both of those. Lot is still my favorite. This one sounds like it's going to be. More in the vein of Memorial Drive and family meal, like kind of love story, kind of family story, heartfelt. This one is set in Japan, so I think that that will be interesting. And he moved from Riverhead to FSG. Ooh, that always a intrigues me. Like, what's going to happen here? Is it going to feel any different?
Traci Thomas 45:26
Yeah, I was also intrigued by that, yeah. Okay, so I have a few November, but my main November is the white hot by Chiara. Alegria Juarez, that is November. We're in November, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. I was like, Did I skip ahead? So it is, the way that it was explained to me was that it is the serious version of all fours, sort of in that a mother leaves her family for a short amount of time, and then the rest of the book is sort of about this fallout. I'm just curious about it. I really don't know more. I didn't want to read more. I've been avoiding reading much more about it because it's short, and I just sort of want to do it 76 pages. Yeah, it's very short. I did it. I don't think it's the sex, weird sex stuff and like, the Kooky, zany, nobody's dancing, yeah. I think it's more just like similar premise, overwhelmed woman sort of goes out on her own, but I think this is much more about the family's response and how it impacted. I think there's like a small child, maybe like a 1010, year old child, or a teenager or something. So, yeah, I'm curious about, about that one, for sure, Pulitzer winning playwright. Yes, oh yes. And she's a Pulitzer winning playwright. That was, that's the other reason that I was excited about it, because I love a scene, yeah, I love a family drama scene. I love a scene where there's tension. And I feel like playwrights write the best scenes, yeah. And so I'm hopeful with the short book like this, that we might just get, like, at least one, just killer scene.
Unknown Speaker 46:58
That's all you need. Yeah, I am. That was my only November as well. And that's interesting that it was pitched to you as a serious all fours because I recently read right by my side by David Haynes. It came out in like 93 but that is a story of maternal abandonment as well. But it's very fun, like, he's funny because he's like a bitter, like, clever teenager. So I was wondering if it was gonna pair well with that, so we'll see.
Traci Thomas 47:26
Yeah, I think it's serious. Yeah, I have two other November backups, so I guess don't anybody have any more November, like, official picks. And then we can kind of go through our backups quickly. Okay, we'll go through our backups quickly. Should we go in chronological, or should we go in non chronological?
Sara Hildreth 47:49
Let's go incredible. Yeah, let's go.
Traci Thomas 47:51
Back up to July. Any backups in July? No?
Sara Hildreth 47:55
The original by Nell Stevens. I just like Nell Stevens, great writer. This one is about, I think, art forgery, which sounds interesting.
Traci Thomas 48:04
Got it. Mine is shade by Sam block. It is about literal shade, and about how shady spaces are disappearing, and that heat sun, heat exhaustion, exposure is like one of the number one is the number one climate death cause in the country.
Sara Hildreth 48:19
My mother complains that there's not enough shade in Denver and we need to move back to DC. Hey.
Traci Thomas 48:26
Well, give it to her. Comes out on my birthday. Tell her it's a birthday gift from moi. Oh, my God, shade. So that's mine. It's that is like, such a mean, niche micro, micro book, like when I read the book about parking lots that I loved. It's giving, it's giving that. Um, any August backups you didn't hit? All my backups are in September. Okay, my August. Oh, my August backup. I told Sarah about this book. I wanted her to read it and vet it for me, but she hasn't. So it's called whites by Mark do, yeah. Okay. It's a short story collection about, like, white people, but it's like satirical. It's like, there's a there's one about a well intentioned about well intentioned liberals and a newly woke CEO to Trump appointees, qanon adherence and believers in replacement theory. There's an anti Vax nursing home employee, an anti woke billionaire, a non binary sneaker podcaster turned January 6 insurrectionist, a nonprofit LA Housing President dubbed worst Karen ever, and on and on and on. The book is super small. It comes from gray wolf. It's 160 pages. It's short stories. The cover is the cover is what sealed it for me. The book is called fucking whites, which I just like. It just is telling me if I need a break and I want a good time to laugh at the whites Mark doten has me perfect.
Sara Hildreth 49:47
That's perfect. Yeah, I'm gonna read that for sure.
Traci Thomas 49:51
Okay, September backups?
Cree Myles 49:55
Well, I think my top backup is it was the way she said it. I. It's a collection of short stories by Terry McMillan, and it's like the books, the shorts that she wrote before she became Terry McMillan, which I think is kind of cute. Also, trigger warning, I'm probably not gonna read it. It's giving just like 2025 and petries the street, which I'm just like, just like, give us put your get your boot off of my neck for two seconds, at least. That's how it was, how it sounded, like it was pitched. Um, yeah, what a time to be alive. Is on my list by Jade Chang it comes out from echo too. I'm not like, super excited, but if I by chance get bored. I'll pick it up.
Traci Thomas 50:45
I'm excited about the Jade Chang it's about an influencer who, like blows up and literally doesn't know what to do with herself because she becomes, like, by accident, a healthy, like, lifestyle. Yeah, I think it's fun. And her name is like, God, her name's some. It's like,
Cree Myles 50:59
Lola, treasure.
Traci Thomas 51:01
Lola, I don't know. I sort of like Jade Chang's sensibilities, and I didn't read her first book. What is it? The Wangs versus Wangs versus the world, but I've heard it's really good, and so I'm sort of just like curious about it. I think we sort of touched on our, all of us, having Brandon Taylor as our October backup, even though we're all probably gonna read it, we're gonna give it a go. We're gonna give it a go. Yeah, I probably won't, actually, I will wait for both of you before I give that a go.
Sara Hildreth 51:33
Okay, I am in September. We love you. Bunny. By Mona Awad is coming out to sequel to bunny. I loved buddy, so I'm excited about that, and I am excited about this new RF Quang.
Traci Thomas 51:48
I am not, no, I am convinced it is not good. Because, why? Because they sent out all those little numbered arcs earlier in the year. A lot of people got it like, what?
Cree Myles 51:58
Oh, we haven't heard anything.
Traci Thomas 52:00
Haven't heard a fucking word.
Sara Hildreth 52:03
Oh. Yeah.
Traci Thomas 52:04
They sent it to people who would have liked it, like, who? People who like her like, they sent it to a friendly group of Bookstagram, people who I know read it, people I know picked it up. So I heard a thing. We haven't heard a thing.
Cree Myles 52:19
But remember, you said that about the message which it did come. It was a quick flame. You know,
Traci Thomas 52:26
I am convinced when we don't hear a lot from a book with a lot of hype, that that means it's probably not that good. That's fair.
Sara Hildreth 52:34
As I hadn't seen anybody get it. I didn't know,
Traci Thomas 52:39
That they got them a while ago.
Cree Myles 52:40
Yeah, they got months ago, like in January, yeah, months ago. And it was numbered. It was a whole thing,
Sara Hildreth 52:47
All right. Well, then I, I think you're probably right.
Traci Thomas 52:51
I have two quick backups in August that I forgot. One is not even a backup. It's just that I talked about it on another podcast about books I was excited about. So I didn't want to do it, but I feel like I can't not bring it up, which is that Garrett M graph has a new oral history of the Hiroshima bombings called destroyer Oh no, they changed it. The devil reached toward the sky. And it's the oral it's the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So I'm very locked into him. And then the other one is clavis nataras book The Grand Paloma resort, which is like, sort of thrillery. I don't know I'm gonna read it. I'm doing an event with her, so I'm excited about it. I just really like clevis. I'm just really curious about it. I don't know. I just, I think she's funny and smart and like, I like her. I like being around her. So we'll see. And then I have two November backups, if, if that's okay. One is called Front Street, and it is about homelessness in the Bay Area, specifically San Francisco. And it's sort of about homelessness and epidemic amidst like the wealth of tech and techlandia, as he calls it. And then the other one is called empire of orgasm, and it's about a deadly cult, like, like a sex cult, yeah, you're gonna keep going. Sorry. Okay. The subtitle is sex power and the downfall of a wellness cult called a cautionary This is the only product description a cautionary tale of sex and salvation for the wellness generation. How orgasmic meditation turned into a cult? I don't fucking know, but it's a backup, because I could learn something, I could want to learn something.
Sara Hildreth 54:38
Okay, I tell us I'm if you read that back up, please tell us, because it sounds
Traci Thomas 54:45
I will, well, you have, you probably need to read it. Probably, yeah, you have family. You have family history. Yeah, of tied to cults. So I feel that.
Sara Hildreth 54:54
Traci learned all about my family history while we were and
Traci Thomas 54:59
I have pitched her. On all of her she's multiple family lines in multiple books. She's got paternal line books, maternal line books, she's got in law line books like sit the fact that Sarah is not writing these novels is how you know she doesn't actually love you guys. She's actually a hater. She's holding back.
Sara Hildreth 55:17
Or that I actually can't write is what you really know, or that you really love your family. Get them on the page. Okay, I have to share one more. It was at the bottom of my spreadsheet, hiding. But it comes out in October in temperance by Sonora ja laughter.
Traci Thomas 55:32
I loved the laughter. I didn't know she had a book.
Sara Hildreth 55:35
Yes. Harper via is putting it out. It is about a woman who has already abandoned two husbands. It's her 55th birthday, and she's holding a swayambar, which is an ancient custom from Indian culture, where suitors line up to compete in a feat of wills and strengths to win a beautiful princess's hand in marriage, and like a documentary filmmaker, shows up, a men's rights movement starts protesting her it sounds wild. I love her book. She really knows how to skewer toxic masculinity. But also this just sounds fun. Yes, really looking forward to this.
Traci Thomas 56:21
Adding to my spreadsheet right now. Okay, I have basically, well, really quickly. Are there any books that you have read or that you have seen that you would like to into a microphone predict will be an award winner this year? Oh, god. Is there anything that you're like, that's or that's gonna be on a list like that? This is coming for us.
Unknown Speaker 56:49
It's what I did think deserves to be on a list. I don't know if it's gonna make it onto a list, but I'm batting 100 for original sins.
Traci Thomas 56:56
Yeah, yeah. I think we're gonna see black and blues on some lists.
Cree Myles 57:01
Oh yeah, for sure.
Sara Hildreth 57:05
I think audition will be on the NBA long list, definitely. Although that Catherine Lacey book the Mobius. Oh, Mobius, yeah, sounds similar. So maybe I don't know, might be.
Traci Thomas 57:21
So here's my thing about the Mobius book that I am worried about for this is that it is both fiction and non fiction, and I'm curious where it will end up if it ends up on award lists. I have to assume fiction.
Sara Hildreth 57:33
I have to assume fiction. Yeah, I mean, it's both fiction and non fiction, but both. Neither character is named Catherine. I feel like it's tilts more fiction. Did you read it? I started it, but then I only have an E galley. And I was like, No, I want the one where I'm like, which side do I start from? So I just asked Jackson if he would send me a hard copy, and he got it.
Traci Thomas 57:59
Okay. Last, last question, because we have maybe a few moments. Any backlist you've read this year that has just been outstanding. Just a book you you read. It's old. You love it.
Cree Myles 58:13
You know what I'm gonna say?
Traci Thomas 58:14
You're gonna say the Gloria Naylor, yep. Which one is it again? Linden Hills. Linden Hills. I was gonna say the ladies of the ladies of Brewster.
Cree Myles 58:26
It does. It does reference Brewster Place, because I know you love Brewster Place. Brewster Place was fine. I didn't love it. I thought, no, it was, it was, it's a solid book. I have been trying to figure out why Brewster Place has is so much higher in cultural memory regarding the books that she has written instead of Linden Hills, because Linden Hills is an way better book to me. And I think I'm gonna blame Oprah, because she put, she,
Traci Thomas 58:56
Shots fired.
Cree Myles 58:57
She is, she like Brewster Place was a Oprah book club pick, and so everyone did that and won the National Book Award, etc. But Linden Hills is a masterpiece.
Traci Thomas 59:08
It's just it's so beautiful I'm putting a hold on it in my library right now, because I it's part of my classics journey. Yes, never heard of it, but now I have.
Cree Myles 59:19
So I just matter of fact, way that you say that this, of course.
Traci Thomas 59:24
Yes, Next it is, it is Sara?
Sara Hildreth 59:28
Well, I finished Gone With the Wind this year.
Traci Thomas 59:32
So, and this is a safe space to talk about that book. This is a behind a paywall and B, you're talking to me, so...
Sara Hildreth 59:39
Nothing's going to live up to that. Then I read Paradise Lost, right, right? You loved that in a class, right? In a class? Yeah, I loved it. I am going to throw out Traci, this book is not for you because it's long, but
Traci Thomas 59:56
I can read a long book if it's good, if things happen, if there's. Some villains fucking shit up.
Sara Hildreth 1:00:02
I read, oh my gosh, what's it called? The Lydia Millett book. Are pure and radiant hearts.
Traci Thomas 1:00:10
Okay, not for me. This title is saying, not for you.
Sara Hildreth 1:00:13
Came out, I think in 2005 early, 2000s This is the book that callian Bradley was trying to write in this book, there's a little librarian named Anne. She lives in Santa Fe and all of a sudden, Robert Oppenheimer and fair me and one other atomic bomb scientist get transported to the present, and they don't remember anything past when they did their first test of the atomic bomb, and then in 2005 they have to confront what they did. And it is weird and it is funny, and it is like she does not, she does not go easy on anybody. It was, it was, it's on my paperback summer reading guide. So there's a little sneak peek for your, for your audience, Traci, but I, I loved it. It is not a perfect book, but it is like it's doing stuff. It's doing a lot of stuff, and it's trying a lot of stuff. And when it succeeds, it's, like, incredibly memorable. It's also a page turner, even though it definitely could have used an editor, like it wasn't one where I was like, oh yes, everything here is totally essential, all that, but it's It was wild.
Traci Thomas 1:01:38
I would like to defend myself quickly while you were speaking, I looked up how long the book is. It is 448 pages. Sarah, I can read 448 pages. My favorite book last year was challenger. It was 576 pages. Obviously, a lot of notes, but like, it is not it's not Lonesome Dove. It's not God with the wind. One of my favorite books, okay, like, Okay, I'm sorry some credit. And it's also about World War Two related history.
Sara Hildreth 1:02:05
Hello. Okay, maybe this book is for you.
Traci Thomas 1:02:09
I'm gonna read it just to spite you, and then I'm gonna tell everybody how bad it is.
Sara Hildreth 1:02:12
Just maybe that was my plan all along.
Traci Thomas 1:02:14
Okay, well, I like this. I will actually be picking an extremely short back. I cannot do. You guys, I did not read this in school, and it is one of my greatest regrets of my life. This was not assigned to me. Animal Farm is a bangerang Rufio, amazing book, Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I didn't fucking know. I didn't know liked it. I sort of thought that it was gonna feel very obvious, like the pigs and the and it is obvious like it is very clear what each animal is doing, but it is done so well, and right now, in this current moment,
Sara Hildreth 1:03:01
I think the last scene of that book story is why I am still afraid of pigs and and I haven't remember read it recently, what happens where the animals are like looking into the room and they like the pigs are talking to the people, and they can't tell which ones are pigs and which ones are people. Isn't that how it ends?
Traci Thomas 1:03:26
I don't even remember the ending.
Cree Myles 1:03:27
I just, I remember the horse going to the slaughterhouse and, like,
Traci Thomas 1:03:31
Yeah, what sticks with me is, like, the calling in, like, come on, all the animals, let's meet together. And then being like, hey, you chickens. Yeah. What's up? Yeah. Like, the like, sinister take the turn. And then also the like, getting rid of the first pig leader for the new pig leader.
Sara Hildreth 1:03:50
Whose way our animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Traci Thomas 1:03:55
Yes, two legs, bad. Four legs, good, yeah. I mean, it's just, it is haunting. It's also kind of funny. It's hilarious. It's very like, mean and nasty, but fun and dumb smart. Like, it's like, of course, this is like, I'm showing you an analogy for Russia, but also I'm smarter than you, and look how much fun you're having with this. I just, I think it's great, and I know that people have said that before me, I didn't invent. I didn't, unfortunately, invent Animal House.
Sara Hildreth 1:04:33
Invented Animal Farm this year. I invented Paradise Lost.
Cree Myles 1:04:36
Yes, put your sticker on the book.
Traci Thomas 1:04:42
Yes, yes. Oh my gosh. I, yes, I, I loved it, and I'm gonna read 1984 this year.
Cree Myles 1:04:52
Well, I love it. I love 1984 Sarah, you don't love 1984.
Sara Hildreth 1:04:56
Well, the thing is, I don't love 1984 for two reasons. One, I do not care about men's issues with their mothers. I just not care that is something that I could not care less about in my books. And number two, I had to teach it. And it is really hard to get a kid through 1984 when they pick up a dystopian book and think it's going to be the Hunger Games. And even though you're like, see these connections, like The Hunger Games is, you know, built on all of this. No, it doesn't matter to them. They just want to read the Hunger Games. So some books I dislike because of the that the like, slog of reading it with teenagers. That's fair.
Traci Thomas 1:05:39
Yeah, it sounds awful. You're gonna have to read it with me. A teenager, teenager at heart, an elder teenager.
Cree Myles 1:05:46
Either of you read glory by Noviolet Bulawayo, yeah, she tried the whole animal allegory for Zimbabwe.
Sara Hildreth 1:05:54
Yes, yes.
Traci Thomas 1:05:55
I like you. Really liked it, right? Crazy. I loved it. I loved it.
Sara Hildreth 1:05:59
I listened to Gloria on audio, and I think I would have preferred it in print. It was a little like too produced, yeah,
Cree Myles 1:06:06
For sure, yeah. And isn't there's a page where she says the same phrase over and over and over. I can't imagine listening to that. Yeah, okay.
Traci Thomas 1:06:11
I started it, and then I DNF, because I don't know why. I think I just had other things to do. It wasn't capturing me. I loved it, yeah, okay, well, that's it, everybody that's all for that you get. We will be back probably in January, doing this again for 2026, books. We will probably be reflecting on if we got any thing right with what we read. You should follow all of us, because we do talk about all of the things that we actually read regularly on the internet in different ways, Instagram, sub stack, combination, Patreons, which are already part of mine, but Sarah's got one too. She's got a book club over there. They're reading things they're reading. They read season of migration to the north, which we read. So you know, just there's some synergy. And Thanks ladies, thank you and everyone else, we will see you in the Stacks.