Happy Place by Emily Henry

(upbeat music) - It's kind of cool that it was a rom-comy premise, but I got like a deep look into these people's lives. - The premise is absolutely insane. It is so paper thin that you can see through it, like you can see through the weird white outfit that Harriet was wearing to some reason. - Yeah, we can suspend disbelief a little bit if you're gonna make it worth a fucking while. (laughing) - Quickly describe Harriet the main character. - She's a little funny. - She-- - Okay, slow down.

You were insulting me. (upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to season 17 of Meal Club. Can you believe it? - My name is Yaa. - Sweet 17. - Wow, we should have made that joke last time. - I can't believe it because we don't number our season's annually, we have a couple seasons a year, so it's, we say-- - No. - Sounds like 17 years, but it's been-- - It has been 17? - It's felt it. - It's felt it. - 17 years. We are reading for this first episode of the season.

We're reading Happy Place by Emily Henry. Ooh, those are a lot of generic names and terms. - I gotta say, I feel like you titled a lot of things Happy People. - Yep. - Like a redness. - The outline was Happy People, the Google Calendar invite, was Happy People, and I had a big panic attack. - I'm sorry, I had already read the wrong book. - I'm sorry. - I'm very sorry. - I could not keep the name of the author or the book straight. - It's too to be a lesson to you authors.

- Maybe, you have pick two words that are not the most common words. - Yeah, most meaningless common words. So commonly become a bit meaningless. - It should be, yeah, it good would be another time. - Yeah. (laughs) - The might be a good, that's gotta have a good SEO. - Yeah, I would love that. As always, we are Mean Book Club. I'm one of your hosts, Sarah Burton. - Hi, I'm Clara Morris. - Hi, I'm one of the co executive hosts, John Ascribus. - Oh, I am the other co.

- I'm a... - I'm a... - I'm Sabrina. - Nice. Which is fun because there's a Sabrina character in this book, which I know is gonna be big. We're gonna definitely talk about it. - Because we talk about anything else. - I'm truly. - But if this is your first time listening, we are Mean Book Club and we read books that are on the New York Times bestseller list that our fans tell us, "No, my God, why?" Please read this book and smash it apart. And so that's what we like to do.

Although sometimes we also love the books. So it's very fun, very fun. We got this book from a friend of the pod, she's been on before, Emily VidaGo. - No. - Did I just butcher her name? - I did. - Yeah, I did. - Not a good friend of the pod, just a bad friend of the pod. - I felt not confident when I just... - VidaGo, how do you say your last name? - Claire, do you wanna make the correction? - You sounded pretty confident. - Now that I've heard from Dago, I can't. - So care anything else.

- Okay, it is Jadago. - Why wasn't... - Why wasn't I asked? - Well, it was 'cause of Claire's confidence, but I did wanna see how confident she was about. - I think I got it right before you, yeah? - Right before you revealed. - I was, I didn't hear you say anything, Claire. - Okay, well I swallowed it, okay, we'll go back to the table. - All right, well let's just do it again. (laughing) - Let's take 'em to the top. This book was recommended by a friend of the pod, Emily VidaGo.

And she said, - Why? - It just still felt, I still felt wrong. - You wanna do it one more time, sweetie? - No, let's just take that. (laughing) - She said, "I'm submitting my official recommendation for NBC to Read Happy Place by Emily Henry." It's a perfect mean book club book because it's absolutely intolerable, but also not a slog to read. My fury propelled me to the end of the book.

(laughing) - Without getting into all the nuances, the basic plot is that Harry and Win have broken up, but are forced to unexpectedly spend a week together with their college friends who do not know yet that they've broken up because Harry, gag and win, what the kind of, what the kind of Gen Z name is that? - Are the most self centered people in the world, they feel they need to hide their break up from their friends, less their friends, put stones in their pockets and walk into the sea.

(laughing) - Really good. And so begins the plot of the book that feels explicitly written to be Katherine Hygels-Bromcom from 2009. It is so abundantly clear that Win is still in love with Harry at that the book never even lets you for a second imagine that their break up was caused by anything other than some sort of easily resolved miscommunication. I'm honestly baffled by the lengths the author takes to ensure that the reader never doubts that these two crazy kids will work it out.

She continues with some spoilers, but I'm not gonna, we can go back to this later if we wanna. - That is the most frustrating part of the book, is like the author is scared to make people doubt for even one second that these two will find each other again. - Even one second. - Press writing or a nice delightful comfort. - Are you kidding? - That's true, sometimes it's okay. - It's a no. - Nice, delightful, or just, I guess you guys have to be stressed. - You like me and stressed?

- I was still stressful because there's a book full of them fighting. It's still a stressful thing to be in the middle of, even if you know it doesn't matter. (laughs) - It's an or it's annoying, maybe it's more what I feel. - Also, it was a lot of alluding to old friendships falling apart and I didn't care for that. - Right, right, I can drift apart. - I cried, I did cry. - I cried a lot. - Oh wow. - I know, I did think this was a good one since three of us are from college friends.

Like, we've all met when we were young, much younger. We've been friends for a while. - We're still so young. - And yes, and yeah, we're still so young. - Voting on each other a few years. How'd you guys read this book? - I listened to the audio book in spurts until every night before bed I had listened until I was like, "Shut the fuck off." (laughs) - I turned it off, it just like, "Okay, fair, fair, fair." I also did an audio book, which I finished maybe an hour before. - Well, recording?

So. - Yep, desperately listen to the audio book today while trying to put away Christmas presents and various detritus of Christmas holiday travel. - Yeah. - Well, you all know that I had a journey that I will regale you with, which is two days ago, I had a panicked thought of, "Oh no, I think we're recording episode one of Mean Book Club soon. Is that tomorrow?" And I was delighted to see that it was actually the day after. So I was like, "Well, I don't have to start today.

I'll start tomorrow." (laughs) And then I found the book on YouTube, the full audio book. And I started listening to it and I was like, really, I had woken up a little earlier than usual. I was listening on double speed. That's all that YouTube lets you do. I got seven hours into the book and then I decided to text the group and just confirmed that I didn't need to continue. 'Cause if we weren't really recording today, you know?

And of course, found out we weren't fact recording a different book. - Of course. - So then I, - Happy place by Emily. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So then I found that book on YouTube, full audio book. - Oh. - And this was on YouTube. - Yes. - It was. - It was an inaudible credit on it. - Yeah, he's my audio books that come credit also. - It was free and it also looked like it was supposed to be there for free.

Like it wasn't like a picture of like an old man sitting in a chair reading to us, which I've had on a couple of occasions. - It was an actual audio book. - Yeah, it was like the image of the book and in the corner it said free audio book. All right, yeah, trust it. I'm sure that's, yes, I'm sure it was impirated in any way. Trust the book. - Yeah, but the beginning of the book, I'm real shaky on. I was multitasking a little too much, but the end I feel like is though I did get all of it.

All right, good. - It's nice to have you in the book club Sabrina. (laughing) Okay, most people don't finish the books. - I just, what do you mean most people don't finish the books? - In real book clubs, in real book clubs. - Oh, okay. - People in our real books. - We're not real book clubs. - We're real book clubs. - We're like accusations. - We're book club ball book clubs. - Okay, if it were a real book club, I would be allowed to not read the book. - Ridiculous. What? Ridiculous.

- She's lashing out. - I would be allowed. It would not, Sarah would not hurt me if I, (laughing) - Because Mary can always hurt you. - Yeah, I don't think there's a situation in which Sarah would turn down an opportunity to hurt someone. (laughing) - Even for across the country. - It'd be like she's making fun of me in the other scenario, not like I was bad girl. - I also wanna say Sarah also helps a lot. - She is a very benevolent God as well.

- Yes, and that I feel like wouldn't play out in a real book club either. - Would you guys say I'm like an old testament God or a new testament God? (laughing) - You are an old testament God, Sarah. - Obviously. - Of what I thought. - It wasn't enough for us to just refer to you as a God, as we're talking about the us of this all. And John has said it, I'm not going that far. - Thank you for the work that you do. - Fear her and believe in her.

- All right, well, I'm about to put words in your mouth 'cause we're gonna do Sarah sums it up, so. - Okay. - Continuation of my powers. All right, I need someone to read stage directions and I need a Harriet and I need a nurse Ramirez. - Oh, cast us, Sarah. - Yeah. Okay, I'll do this. Clara, you're gonna be Harriet, you have to do VO and non-VO, so it's just making a little different 'cause I don't know how I'll well know. - John, can you do stage directions?

And then Sabrina, can you do nurse Ramirez and win? - Yes. - Okay, great. - And I will not be doing an accent. - That's totally fine. - Fine. - Or anyone. - That's fine. Not a real character from the books. - But make sure you capture wins, how team mouth. - Okay. - Okay, so I'll just start interior sterile operating room day.

The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor, the low murmur of instructions, humming of the stark overhead lighting, Dr. Harriet Kilpatrick, a renowned neurosurgeon, raises a scalpel about to perform a delicate procedure on a patient's brain. Her thoughts make her pause. - Look at this brain. It's so moldable, yielding like clay. If I smush here, look, a bowl starts to form. - Heart rate has stabilized. - How should we proceed?

- Nurse Ramirez passed me the re- - A beat passes as the doctor stares into space. - Dr. Kilpatrick, focus. The patient's life is in your hands. - Yes, of course. - Life is in my hands. The essence of nature, clay comes from the earth, but is not ready to live until it is reformed in my hands and forged in the goddess of fire. - Dr. Kilpatrick, we need you sharp here. - This is not the time to daydream. - Right, yes, give me a pottery wheel, stat. - What the hell?

Oh no, the patient, we're loosing her. - The scene freezes as when what's his name enters in front of the operating room, which is actually on stage in front of a live studio audience. - And that's exactly what would happen if I didn't surprise my ex-fiancee Harriet at the Fun Vacation Week she had planned for herself and her girlfriends. - Thank God for therapy, right? And by that, I mean, thank God therapy doesn't exist in this universe.

So we can all not know how to deal with our problems or communicate anything important to anyone else. Drama, but also hot, sexy secrets. I'm very good looking and making lots of money yet somehow I have low self esteem and seam. - Tells you so much about the book. - Yes, we seem to seem like Harriet is a, like Dr. Frankenstein type character and I just wanna be clear that is not part of the story in any way.

- This is, okay, back when I was writing all the summaries, if I had written this, what you guys would have mercilessly made fun of me. What is this summer? - Well, I like to think. - I think Emily's recommendation was really helpful as a summary. - Right, I felt like it said most anything you need to know there and so I just wanted to give like the essence of the stupidity of looking at it. - Sarah was clearly having fun. - I agree.

- I did, my thing I liked best about this summary was watching Sarah read along and mouth along for everyone with a big smile on her face. - I also have to tell you something. - Why didn't you cast yourself as one of the roles? - 'Cause I wanted to hear it, you know? I wanted to hear my art. - Can I guess what the thing is you're about to tell us? - Please give us a go. - Did chat GPT help you write this? (laughing) - That's the thing. - That's exactly what I was about to say.

- Yeah, do you know how I know? Because of the way it's written? - Well yeah, 'cause it's insane and it barely makes sense but also there were so few zero typos and that just doesn't feel like, okay, energy when you write the summary normally. Usually something, there's something insane in the middle of it. - Yeah, I will say, I think I did change it a good amount but I did ask chat GPT to write me a scene where a neurosurgeon kept getting distracted by pottery making. - Okay. - Just because.

- Okay, I'll get into that later. - We'll get into that later. - I was like, "Nurs from Miras." - It's like first made. (laughing) - But I was like, "Maybe I was listening too fast "and I just started to believe that she was someone "in the world of the book." - Yeah, this was a bad example of what the book was but it was certainly. - It's not a scene from the book but it's like, you're wondering what happens when the main character is a neurosurgeon resident.

So, you know, it's but it's not a part of our life we hear much about. - Right. - And nor can I be clear. - I'd be possibly believed. - Okay. - To be clear, it's not a part of the book. So, yeah, that was outside of the book entirely an imagination of another thing that could have happened in a book we didn't read. So thank you. - Bracing my chat GPT and then copy and paste it over into our outline by Sarah. - Okay. - And it is, I added it. - We worked together chat GPT and I. - She's an opener.

- Anyway. - She's trying to later episodes. - John has jugs? - Oh yeah. Okay. So if that is one end of the spectrum in terms of the quality you can expect from me. - Wow. - Get ready for this 'cause I have quite the pairing. All right. From incredible local brewery fat heads of Pittsburgh. If you're ever in Pittsburgh for real, you gotta check out fat heads. I am pairing Bumbleberry, a honey blueberry ale, which of course makes sense because the book takes place in Maine during lobster fest.

And if there's one thing that goes along with Maine and lobsters, it is blueberries. - Oh yeah. - Which she mentioned in the book. And I also wanna say our recommender Emily Fodego actually provided this pairing accidentally by bringing a case of blueberry beers to my cabin on New Year's Eve. - Perfect. Did she even know we had picked the book? - Wow. - She didn't even know did she?

- Wow. - I revealed it was our season opener, but I did not reveal that I would be drinking one of her craft beers while during the recording. So she gave us everything tonight. - Yeah. - Wow. - And they did accept a summary. - Okay. - She did. - Actually she did. Oh my God. She gave us everything. - I found that was a surprising turn to read. (laughs) - Well, sorry, that was actually just meant to be a jab at Sarah. - You just still have a jab. - I don't know.

- I'm honestly, it came off as a jab. - It was a bit Emily, which was not remotely the intent. - And all right. - Yeah. - Well, I guess let's take a quick commercial break. - Just a quick one. - And we'll be back with the book, okay? BRB guys. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - And we're back. All right, freaks. - Well, I don't know to whom you're speaking. - We're eating. - This book. - I hope you do. - I assume the listeners. - Yeah. - All right.

- I'm still mad on their behalf, but. - It's me and book club. I'm just trying to be a little mean, guys. - You know, it's just a character I play. (laughing) The book we read, Happy Place. It's been 15 weeks on the New York Times, the solo list for Combined Print and Ebook Fiction. - One five or five zero. - 15 or five. - One five. - Okay. - And it was published in April 2023. So I mean, over 50 weeks would get us, it would be in the future. - Okay. - But this is big.

This is a book that was published within the past year. So we, you know, this is a speen super like topical and on trend. So congratulations to us. The author Emily Henry, she writes romance novels. You may have heard of them, Beach Read. People we met on vacation, book lovers, which was also a number one best seller that we have been asked to read for NBC. And then of course, this one, Happy Place.

And as of March 2023, so this is before this book even came out, she had sold more than 2.4 million books collectively. - Well nobody does it well. - Collectively. (laughs) - Okay, I'm on her books. - Okay, and I understand what collectively means. I just think she's sort of cherry picking her stats to look fancy. - All right. - Well, I think it's so pretty impressive. Emily, as a kid, she wrote fan fiction. She would write epilogues, alt endings to books. She just read. She's from Cincinnati.

- Oh. - She's so cool. She went to Hope College. - I wonder if she's gonna do that. - A Christian College in Michigan. She did technical writing for Cincinnati's phone and cable company. And then at that point, she was, I guess, not feeling very fulfilled. She started working on her first YA novel. She wrote it, then she Googled Agents, found one to represent her and then wrote four YA books in three years. They are teenage coming of age stories full of darkish magical realism.

And that debut YA novel was put out in 2016. Then fast-forward a few years. She's around 30. She's depressed, a little burned out. She wants to try writing something later. So she writes her first adult romance, which she calls Beach Read. That came out in 2020. Perfect timing for people being stuck inside, wanting to not think about dark things. So it was very popular. And that's been 145 weeks on the New York Times of a Seller list.

- She likes those generic sort of names, happy place, Beach Read. - Yes, she does. She certainly does. She likens writing a novel to put in a group of fictional people through therapy, which I thought was funny. She has a husband and a death American bully dog named Doddy. She loves yogurt and she's worried that people will think Harriet is too spineless or a people pleaser. - Okay, correct. I like your dog. I don't like your characters. - Yeah, John, I don't like your friend.

- You don't like your friend food is yogurt. (laughing) I'm a little sucked in. - The favorite food is yogurt. It's like, are you not, oh, I've never had any other food or? - Are you a baby? - Yeah, you heard of ice cream. - Yeah, it was a better, yeah.

- It must be so well known that she loves yogurt because in this interview I read, apparently she was like, she didn't have any yogurt in her fridge and she was afraid that the interview would think she's a fraud because she had just eaten all of her yogurt. So it's a real thing for her. But let's skip to the characters now. - Let's do it. - Let's do it. We have Harriet, I already forgot her last name when I looked it up in the summary, it's Kilpatrick. - Okay, Harriet, please.

- Yeah, she is, Liz and San Francisco, she's a people, please are obviously, she's a neurosurgeon resident. - Adorably goes by, Harry, yeah, very cute. - She does not seem remotely intelligent enough to be the brain surgeon. - What? - Doesn't know the symptoms of depression, she cannot recognize. - It's really hard to recognize. - No, it's really hard to recognize in someone you love or live with. That's what. - What if your job is to study the brain?

(laughing) - What if your job is to know how the synempses of the brain fire? - Yeah, I definitely am concerned about Harry, it's mental health also because I think throughout the book, she says like one hundred times that she's going to her happy place. Which just sounds troubled and like she doesn't have a handle like mentally. Like she's checking out. - I guess I-- - I guess I-- - I think I'll drag my brain surgery here. - Yeah, and I think she is. That's why she's interesting.

- Okay, hence the summary, thank you so much. (laughing) But it seems like pretty mature. - Also did we make up that she checks out? Well, she's operating. - Yeah, we're imagining. We're all feeling it. - I've made that up. - Oh my gosh. - We're all feeling it. I feel like she's very immature. She's blaming her every problem she has on her parents who don't seem that bad. - Yeah. - Maybe a little depress themselves. - Wait, what do you mean she's blaming her problems on her parents?

- She's always like, "I don't know how to fight because my parents didn't fight." - Yeah, she has a loving relationship 'cause my parents are divorced. - My parents put so much pressure on me. - So that's why I became a nurse who did, I never wanted to let them down. Everything is about every other problems. - Which I mean is fine. I think a lot of us have a lot of, yeah. Sure, but it was just like, if you're writing a book, why don't you make it a real problem?

I don't know, it just seemed like. - It could be anything, right? - It could be anything. - A lot of you-- - A fiction. You picked basically no problem. - I think a lot of these problems felt like rich people problems, even though I don't think Carrie was supposed to be rich. - She wasn't a real problem. - Her dad's a dentist, her mom's a teacher. - Yeah, she's so well, like maybe compared to her friends. - She wasn't as well all, but she was, everyone seemed like very, yeah.

It seemed like not horrible problems. - I'm pretty sure her mom was a dentist receptionist and her father was a teacher science teacher. - Okay, yeah, okay, that is close. - Slightly, that it does make an actual, pretty big difference, but, but, - Hard for us. - Yeah, hard workers. - Why do you think that? - They have her ex-fiance win, win-thrupp- - Oh, winner. - Conner, you have very fun. - Oh, thank you. - Win-thrupp. - Yeah, okay. And he's just extremely handsome and,

from my mind. - In my mind. - Audio book, hot voice. - That was like a first name that was like Asian origin, and then Conner felt Irish. So you thought he was Irish, I mean, we wish, but I don't think, I think it's not that, it's not the situation. He could be, but Montana, it's a morver. - He's the son of two ranchers. - Okay. (laughing) - And he's got-- - This is the type of stuff I missed. - It did sound like it was just a bunch of well off white people from the descriptions.

- Yes. - Yeah. - We also know that his, a lot about his lips, they are described as pouty, cupids bow. - I've never heard that before, but she would-- - Which shan. - You don't know what cupids bow is? - I didn't know I'd never heard that before this bow. - Oh yeah, what is-- - But do you know now? - Yeah, looked it up, I kind of know. It's like a lip. - It's just like this part of your lip.

- It's like your lip can either, some people lips that go straight across and some people have more of an indec. - Taylor Swift has cupids bow lips. - Yeah. - I would say-- - I have cupids bow lips. - I need-- - I need-- - I need-- - I need-- - Folder lips up to the capra bit. - I do too if you could see them, they're very thin, but you know, like if you look closely. - I have naturally full lips based on-- - I never really knew-- - I'm not looking at it.

- I never really knew it was a desirable, never really thought about that part of this. - I don't know, I think it's more-- - I think it's more. (laughing) - And she mentions it a lot. - Yeah. - Yes. - And when is like-- - And the quicksand thing is more than once. - Cowsas look quicksand more than once. - And guess what color his eyes are? - Steel gray. - Are they normal color? Yeah, or are they the color that for some reason every male protagonist has to have?

(laughing) - Yeah. - They're steel gray. Yeah, I wrote that down too, 'cause it did make me laugh. There was some point where she's describing them and it goes from like, oh, he had steel gray. As she mentioned then, like two lines later, his inky black stare and I was like, well, what's going on with the size then? - Well, at one point she says yes, 'cause it's very dilated. - Who does that mean? - Hairstyle, I don't know. - Pio dea seem yellow to me every night.

- Yeah, red and night in lights, yeah, red. - She is, Emily Henry is really into like metaphors. Obviously her hair is her speaking them. And yeah, symbolizing all that and it was fun. It was, you know, it's fun. - Wait, I wrote down a really good one. Oh, anxiety lifting off me like dandelion seeds. (laughing) I don't know, it's so weird. - When he described as the reckless and callous son of two ex-wraitors. - At the smudges. - That doesn't seem like it really describes him.

I don't think he's reckless. - No, Alice. - And ex-wraitors. - Ex-wraitors. What happened there? Now that's a novel, I've read. - Yeah, you wanna know what's going on there. - And you get off this ridge and you never come back. - Also, we have to get on to the most important character on the list. - Oh, okay, you wanna say, we win. Okay, follow up. - He nice family, furniture. All these people in the college also. Okay, so then we have Sabrina who is a rich lawyer. That's what I wrote.

Anybody wanna give anything else to her personality 'cause I didn't have much to add. - Yeah, she's rich from her family and then also a lawyer. So I guess she's rich from herself as well. - I think she's a die-hard friend. - Die-hard friend. - Okay. - That's true. She is the glue that's trying to keep everyone together 'cause it's her place and she's trying to get everyone to come. - It's a little misguided, but she's trying.

- So basically, why we're saying she's misguided and some might say sociopathic is because she stages an elaborate wedding weekend between her and her fiancee and invites Harry and Wynn, even though she knows they've broken up. - Which we don't find out until like our eight of the book. Maybe not. - And Harry and Wynn don't know she knows. So they're pretending. - She puts them in the same room. They have to share a room in a bed and she knows for some reason.

She knows that if she invites them both to this trip and puts them in the same room, they'll have no choice but to pretend for the entire week, but they are still a couple. 'Cause they won't wanna let anybody down. They don't wanna ruin. I guess I was like I guess fine with the premise. I was like you know what? I don't mind people. I don't mind a setup where it's like, oh there's gonna be a lot of like touching and oh we, but we shouldn't do that. Like I don't mind that setup.

- I feel like, okay here, I think that the setup could have been really good and here is the change that I would have made. 'Cause I'm with Jonna, it is barfetched that in this scenario these two characters would just pretend among their best friends that they're still together. They broke up months and months ago. - I used to tell them about like day three. They're like the first two days will pretend to be together and then day three will reveal.

- I would be so horrified that they went through the game of pretending to be together. - Right. - I'm sorry Sabrina, go ahead. - Yeah. - But what's your change? - I think if it was close enough in proximity to the wedding and it was like more believable than it was a real wedding weekend. I could see like if that, if I broke up right before that I probably would not want to like ruin your wedding.

- I wasn't, but that wasn't at the situation that they were like, we're engaged and we're getting married. - But they were already holding the secret. Like before they knew it was a wedding weekend they were already broken up. - Yeah, it was just because they both have an inability to communicate. - Yeah, but that's dumb. - Well that's a separate issue. - No one cares as much of it as I separated today. - And I didn't tell you guys for six months. - We wouldn't be friends anymore.

- Yeah, like that's crazy. - I mean, we'll clearly were not actually friends. - But is that part of the book? - It cares about your relationship the way you care about. It's not like if your relationship ends, the friend group falls apart. - Right. - Well, it is, but they're both in it. I think it is like, oh, I don't know. - I don't know. - It definitely gets weird. I do think it, there is some realism to it.

- Imagining being on the other side and someone being like, I pretended to be dating him for six extra months so you wouldn't be upset. I'd be like, I don't give a shit. - I mean, you're a child. I didn't have a birthday coming up. That's okay. - You was in an African community. - I think if it was like the weaker tube before the wedding. - It was like the week. - And it was like, they broke up in months.

- And it's not gonna come to your wedding, even though I know, but it's not like, they were apart. It's not like they were physically together. It's like they weren't even talking for these six months. So it's not like they had, they were had to do any pretending in that time. They only had to start pretending at the wedding. - Yeah, but this is an annual trip. They all know they go. - Well, yeah, I tell you. - How like your friends in advance of the trip? - It is fucking great.

- She was just gonna go. He wasn't gonna go. And then he went because they, the Sabrina or whatever was like, no, but we're really getting married. You have to go. And so that's why he came. I think I thought it was. - That's why the cabin was, or whatever it is, the castle was. - Oh, you're right. It might have been, you're right. That might have been the last one ever. And was something where it was like a big deal you have to be there.

I actually think they did tell him, I think they did tell him that they were engaged. I think that's part of it. - I like it. - I like it a little better learning that information for the first time. - Yeah, but I mean, it is all a stretch. I'm just saying, I'll walk with you a little farther closer to the edge if I'm gonna get some sexy, sexy, touchy, touchy, should they? We should know we can't. I'm wearing a sexy little dress and sitting on him. And, oh, you're fighting.

I'm like, I'm okay with that. I'll accept a little bit of, you know, - Yeah, we can suspend disbelief. - Yes. - A little bit if you're gonna make it worth her fucking while. - Okay, that's where I was. - I mean, I'm just gonna say for the record, I still think the premise is absolutely insane. It is so paper thin that you can see through it, like you can see through the weird white outfit that Harriet was wearing for some reason.

- Oh yeah, and I don't, I give it no credence or credit, no. - And I think it's symptomatic of what's wrong with the whole book, like when we find out. So, like the premise is weak, the reason that they are broken up and not back together is weak. The, you know, every explanation just is unsatisfying. - I have the book. - I'm gonna say something in fear that you guys are going to lash out at me, but I'll say it anyway. It's always the case, it is always the case.

(laughing) So, like I think premise is a little shaky, but if you make it worth my while, I'm gonna go with you. I felt like the, like, interperson, like the relationships, the, like, the feeling of these like real tangible problems that like everybody kind of goes through in some form or another, like drifting apart, severe anxiety, questioning if this is what you should be doing with your life at all, like all of those things.

Like, I felt like those aspects of the book were really compelling and I was, I really enjoyed reading them that like, I think it's kind of cool that it was a rom-comy premise, but I got, I felt like a, I don't know, like a deep look into these people's lives. - I, I, I then, no, no, I don't, I mean, I'm sure a lot of people would agree with you Sabrina. I felt opposite though, where I was like, I just wanted the rom-comy premise and then they started bringing in all this other stuff.

And I was like, this is too much, I don't want this. Also, it just made me angry because it felt exaggerated, it felt like it made the characters feel stumber than, you know, I didn't need them to be that, or that horrible with their feelings. It just felt like, yeah, we, I mean, we've all gone through it. We're two of us are left, have left New York. We've had marriages, we've had kids and it was like, yeah, I was like, we had marriages and marriages. - We had marriages.

- We had to, we had to, well, I don't, it just felt, I just, you know what, I just don't relate to it. I don't relate to that kind of like fear, like needing things to be the way they were that was so strong in this book. I'm just like, no, things change and I'm fine with it. And, yeah, I don't know. I just did, I just did not have the strong like nostalgia, like I, like fear of future. I don't know. All these people seem to be so, it felt very like they were 22 or something.

- Well, Sarah, as the first person to move out of our shared roommate living situation, I'm not surprised to hear you say that. (laughing) Okay, tears were shed when I had to move out. - By other people. - Oh, okay. (laughing) - You trying to say how did this thing happen? - I'm pleased to see you. - By other people in private as well. - I also, I think, okay, I was in a little bit of an emotional place today when I was speed listening to it.

(laughing) I had had to stay home to get a massive delivery of an arm war that was probably a mistake because how will we ever build it and how will I get it into my bedroom? I don't know. But when it, I was like, I'm gonna ask the movers to hurry it up the first flight of stairs because there's no way I could do it. And they didn't, they wouldn't do it. And I was like, I'm no longer as charming as I once was. - No. - What's the, oh, once they left also, I did probably check it.

- I was probably check it. - They were there. They left and then I stood in the little window of the door and just tears ran down my face. As I realized that I am no longer who I once was and couldn't get these people to carry 240 pounds upstairs. - I'm funny. - I'm funny. (laughing) - I think you're jumping to some street carnival. - What? - I know, my God, that's so funny that you were like, I've got a lot of ideas.

- I would have, I would have chopped them, they would have brought it up there and built it for me. - And paid you the gold. - You know what I was charm them, Sabrina? - Yes. - It's paying out $100. - Yeah, honestly. - Okay, can you guys carry this upstairs as well? Sorry, I know you're not supposed to, but here's a hundred bucks. - Exactly. - Yeah, so I was, by the way, Andrew and Lee did come over when they were done with work and they carried it up the stairs for me. - So brave, so strong.

- Which is incredible. Thank God. - So fun. - And fuck those men who didn't like me and wouldn't carry it upstairs for me. But anyway, - I believe those men just want to fuck you. - I'm like, good. (laughing) - I don't understand any invitation. (laughing) - So what I'm saying is I do understand nostalgia, apparently, and wanting things to stay the same. - No, Sabrina, I get, like I wanna lash at you, but I mean, the friendship strifting apart is my greatest fear.

- Yeah. - I think it's not being exactly as they were as another is probably second to that. So, I just think it touches on that. - That being, came kind of late, didn't it? - Yes. - That was a fear that it was hard for me to, I don't know, I just spent the whole fucking book hearing about how much their family and how great it is. And I don't know, I have to be like, oh, that was some cover. - It was all fake. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's annoying to me and it was hard to believe.

It was like, all of it, it's like, yeah, just seemed like all of a sudden it's the opposite of what you said. Oh, cool, reading. And I don't really care if you drift upon, these guys, I don't care if they do. - Oh, okay, I agree, I didn't care. I just didn't care. - Wow, I did care. - Maybe? It's because one of their names was Sabrina. - I thought that point. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I mean, I care if I'm so desperately. - Yeah, I care about my own life. - I don't care about them.

I was just a murder suicide upon this crew of people. - Yeah. - And I guess I just couldn't relate to them. It was like that I didn't see my own situation in them at all. I guess we both think we have friendships, but they don't really. - Or like, don't think it can withstand time. - Here's something I'll say, I'll say. Because we've seemed to have divided here. - John and I have both been left by you guys. So we feel deeply the abandonment. - Because you left us.

- Yeah. - I wanted to live together forever. - Yeah. So perhaps you don't feel insecure because no one has left you. - Yeah. - You know, those to leave us? - Yeah. - It makes sense that you left us, but. - I don't know. - I don't know. - I think that you guys could move to our place. - Yeah, you guys could move too. I just don't, I feel like to be so scared of change seems like. - I don't know. It seems like really sad to me. Like you're never gonna get into it.

- Yeah. - You're never gonna get new experiences. - Just like marry someone from high school because. - Yeah, and go living your hometown if that's what you wanna do. I don't, it's just not, it's not my bag. - I guess I felt a little bit, I felt my age. Like these kids don't know anything about life or the world. - Right. - And I had to try to put myself back in that time and I wasn't like this back in that time. - Yeah. - I agree. I agree. I just didn't have this level nostalgia.

I never have lived it. I've never, I remember going back to like Penn State like a few years after graduating. Just be like, this place is different now. It does not feel the same. Like I don't know. I don't have that like. - Oh, okay. - I'm gonna be back in the same place every time. But let me counter you something. It's the whole point of the book that the happy place is not the physical location. It is you being with the people that make you happy.

- Sure. - And I think I understand that as an adult. They didn't, and then took them the book to understand it. And that said, that was annoying to me. I found that annoying. - You're journey. - I wanted more of the like, ooh, it's a secret. We're fighting. I'm mad at you. Ooh, but I want to fuck you. That's what I wanted more of. And that's just my personal preference. But we have to take a quick commercial break. We'll be right back with more happy place. Not people. The RV.

(upbeat music) And we're back. I don't think we made it through all the characters, but maybe I don't know what that, I think that says a little bit about the book that we didn't need to because there are not that many characters. Why are the characters are so complex that our conversation just goes on and on. - Sure. - Someone news product. - There was another college roommate. Her name is Cleo. - Yeah, she's the other, there's three names. - She's a lesbian farmer. - Yes, yes, yes.

Cleo has a girlfriend, Kimmy, who is fun like Steparty. And Sabrina is marrying Parth, who is also a college friend, originally, who is also a lawyer. They are both in New York, I believe. - Yes. - And those are the characters. So it's three couples, Harriet Wynn, Sabrina Parth, and Cleo and Kimmy. And but things, everyone's has a secret. - Not really. The secrets are so stupid. - Exactly. One couple secret is like, oh, we're pregnant. Like, okay, why did that?

Again, why does this all have to be a weird secret? - It sounds like she was like 12 weeks, too. It's like, it's okay. It's not that, it's kind of normal to not tell anyone till then. It's not that big of a deal. Maybe it's weird because they like are a gay couple and so they obviously had been going through IVF or IUI or whatever. So they've known they're gonna have one of baby for a while and didn't share it. But like, everyone can deal with that how they want.

Like, it's quite... - I guess it seemed weird because the Cleo, the pregnant one was kind of bitchy about it the whole time. - Yeah. - When someone was saying... - She wasn't even good. - Suggest something, she'd be like, no, I don't want to. - She probably felt awful. She probably shouldn't be there. - You'd probably tell people. - Yeah, true. That's why I've wanted people. - That's why I'm telling people. - That's why I'm telling people. - That's why I'm telling people.

- But also keeping it a secret. - Yeah. - It was unnecessary. - They had real communication issues and also they were just like stupid people. And I want to give an example of Harriet didn't want her friend Sabrina to ask about her relationship with Wynne. And so she employed, again, she's a neurosurgeon and she, this is the strategy she employed to throw her friend off the scent of talking about Wynne. How's Wynne? She asked, what? I say, hoping she will drop it? Undeterred, she says louder.

How's Wynne? (laughing) - Also at this point in the book, I thought Wynne was dead and then she wanted to, didn't want to just wait for the dog to get together. And that was gonna tell everyone that their friend Wynne was dead and it was gonna be a book about them getting, I don't know why I thought this, but I, nobody else felt this. - Nobody else felt this. - No, no, no. - Not for a second. - I'm sorry, I was broke. They're not interesting enough people to have a dead character.

(laughing) - I thought, I think that was a beautiful snapshot, Trana. - Yes. - And I think the sentence that comes next, I found myself thinking about kind of a lot because it's also stupid, where she answers, okay, so the girl says, her friend says, "Ladder house, Wynne." And she says, "He's good, I think." - Yeah, you're right. - Like that supposed to throw off, like that is so curiosity inducing. And implies a breakup. Like if you don't wanna say, just say he's good.

- Right. - Good. - He's good, he's good, he's harder than ever. (laughing) - He's fine, he's gone good. - He's good, look at that bird. - Yeah, all of this is bitter. - Yeah, drop a little piece of gossip, if you want. You know, throw 'em off the sand. He's good, but did you hear that Janny's boyfriend is dead? That's the kind of stuff that she's gonna talk about Janny. - And then to, yeah, and then pair that immediately with she's supposed to be a neurosurgeon. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And it's, yeah. I don't like how much free time she had. Like how can a neurosurgeon resident go on a week on vacation? The pottery class. - Well, that's not an answer. - I think she's a resident. - She's a resident. - No, I know, I know, in turn is like, the really crazy year. - Oh good. - But she's taken a pottery class. - She's very deep in being a doctor, but go ahead. Yeah, she's taking a pottery class. It's like, I don't think you should have time for that. - She definitely doesn't.

They have like 16 hour days. - Yeah. - It doesn't make sense. - It should be like a special pottery class that she takes at 3 a.m. and it's just her alone. - Honestly, her as a neurosurgeon resident is the only thing that made sense for why nobody knew about the break-up because it's like, yeah, she's really busy. She's fucking bother her. She's saving lives. - I guess she can kind of use that as a personality too. Like it makes up for her not having a one outside of that.

It could be the interesting thing about her, you know? - Yeah. - That's how a personality does she? - Describe it. - Yeah. - Yeah, you're saying. - Use that in this graphic. - Okay. Describe my personality. How about that? - Confident. - Evervastant. - Bubbly I was gonna say, similar. Charming enough to charm two strangers to do whatever you want. - Yeah, I really know. - A little bit too optimistic. - Yeah, so yeah. And now we've done that.

Now could you please quickly describe her at the main character? - Yes, she's contemplative. She's a little funny. She is. - Okay, slow down. You were insulting me. - Contemplative, okay. - Contemplative. - I read as boring. - Oh my God, you just reminded me. I did, now that you're saying that, I learned that there was a word. I had no idea how to pronounce. - Kauaii? - Okay. - Yeah. That's a reference to something else. But yes, they did not know about Kauaii. 'Cause I'd only heard Kauaii.

But anyway, R-I-F-L-E, I always said rifle. - But it's rifle? - No. - They said rifle twice in this audiobook. - They said it wrong or maybe it's some weird name accent. - I heard her say that too. It's wrong. - Definitely right through. - Okay, right through a drawer. - I didn't check this. I just was like, well, it happened twice. It wasn't a mistake. I must have just never knew it was riffled. - The audiobook reader also said, "Savignon Blank." So. - Okay, all right, that's fair. That's fair.

- All right, all right, sorry. - It's your main job to say words. It's your only job. You say a word, you say it right. - Oh, I'm not sure if she said jambwar. - Jambwar. - Jambwar. - No, she said, I liked how she said that. - Yeah. That's how my son says it. - Also looking at the names in the outline here, like I thought her last name was Cole Space Patrick. - Obviously she said it. - Yeah, she's a Cole Patrick. - Okay, so the audiobook narrator has some sort of bizarre speech and pedmol.

- All right, let's make the go. - Sorry, I heard super wrong. - We were talking about something else. I'm so sorry, that was. - Oh, we were described, oh, Sarah described the main character as a little bit funny. Sorry, Sabrina described the main character as a little bit funny, which was one of the more annoying parts of the book was like, the parts where this author thinks she's good at writing banter. And I don't have an example, but it was so fucking annoying. - I do.

- I think God. - She brings up that she has those useless girl pockets and she tries to jam something in it. And that's clearly her trying to be like a little funny, but it felt like she just looked up like, what are things women talk about? (laughing) - I've certainly heard worse banter. - Yeah. - But I, there were some things that I was like, that didn't hit, like there was one where he, when was like, kind of like, do you have anything smaller in your suitcase?

And she was like, like, said something like I could wear a toothbrush. And I was like, oh no. But I'm like, I guess it's nice that you like, have the same sense of humor between the couple? - Yes, exactly. - So you love them from other people. - She's like, I don't think it was- - Because what were friends thing? - I feel like every time it was the author being like, I'm funny. Writing a little something and holding for laughter and imagining like, holding for laughter.

I really don't like it when people who aren't funny try to be funny. - It's just, it's like a quirky, it's like being like quirky is funny. You know what I mean? It's like, no, it's just, you're just being weird or like saying things odd. It's not actually- - Yeah, non-sequence. - You're worse. - Isn't a joke, kind of thing. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, well, a non-sequence can be a joke. - It can be, it can be, that's true. - We're a study, we've studied- - Not yet. - Listen to us.

- So. (laughs) - I think there's nothing sadder than when like, a great joke trickles down from like gay culture to like the general masses and then somehow it ends up in like your weird aunt's mouth and it's like, (laughs) Okay, now that is officially dead. We're going to be having a slide now. - Yeah, this is a lie now. - Yeah, this is a lie. There were certainly some things like that.

But I don't know, I feel like I started spacing out a little bit like, there was, there was some of the sexy like, oh, we're teasing each other but then they kept like having serious conversations secretly about like, what happened but they were like talking past each other or she was just like, oh, I didn't know you missed me. I thought you were over me, I thought you thought I cheated. But like, his dad died and it was obviously something else and I was just like, you're an idiot.

I don't know, there's stuff going on that I was like, wow, which, yeah, she wasn't, I wouldn't say that one of her strong traits was like, understanding what people were thinking and feeling. - How, perhaps how the brain works. - Yeah, like, her, (laughs) how the heart works that I'm criticizing. But like, her fiance's dad died, he moved home.

He moved from San Francisco to Minnesota, just like, be with his mom and then like, he would like cancel calls and she just basically was like, oh, you don't ever have to talk to me, that's fine. That's a bad way to react. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, she's like, this is about me. (laughs) And it'd probably be better if he was alone. - Yeah. That's not right. That's you.

- And then she was like, he's clearly descending into a deep dark pit and I don't know how to help him and there's nothing I can do, but I'm watching it happen. What is depression and I don't think that's anything? - I mean, like, push him to get help. I understand if she's like, I can't be the one doing that emotional labor because I am working 16 hours a day, I understand that, but like, to just, her reaction to it was like, she had no idea how anything worked. - How do you think the dad died?

Do you think it was Ranch really? (laughs) - I hope Ranch's not dressing. That's what I would like. I would have liked a good joke. We're, that's an allergic reaction. - I hate to say that's the kind of joke that Harriet would make. - I would have, he would have liked, you know what, if she had done that, a better fiance's dad, dad, I would have, I think I would have liked her better. What a like.

- I guess the, the, a pun about how your fiance's father died, I guess, is a little different than just a pun, you know? (laughs) The context around it makes it more serious. - Elorcero friendly than just a regular pun. - Maybe, maybe. (laughs) If the joke is good, you can pull a joke out around a dead person pretty quickly. But you're gonna be a good joke. - I like jokes around dead people. - I don't know. - I don't know that Ranch dressing gets me there.

- It doesn't, doesn't, doesn't, doesn't it list it a smile from me? - I also, to be clear, was imagining a situation where he had literally, this was at a joke, it was that that was how he literally had died. - Yeah, we know. - I didn't know. - I didn't know. - He's not her man, you joke. - Right, but it's her sense of humor. - The awesome, the pun, - It's coming from the author. - The level of, Ranch sounds like Ranch. That means that joke has come, Ranch is Ranch. - It is a, you know?

- I've been taking a full 180 and I'm with Sarah on this. Because it would have been funny. - And we never knew. - It would have been so funny. And then like if the characters were like, this is really sad, but a moment of levity through all this grief is like, how fucking crazy is that? - Yeah. - I'm a little bit, - Ranch. - Claire, I do wanna go. - I don't, I wanna move. - I don't, I'm not hearing anything. - Oh, do you believe the cast? - Yeah. - Like, oh yeah.

- Oh yeah, I thought you meant do you wanna go off? No, I don't even wanna address it. - But yeah, you're with, yeah, you're on the thing. - Okay, so who is who? - You guys. - You guys. - Funny little things to each other. - Yeah, I'm sure they'll be so funny. That's why you're not sharing them. You know if they were funny, you would say them. Come on. - They're really funny actually. If you were privy to our text chains, holy shit. - Oh my god, you guys. - I don't believe you for a second.

- If it was you two attention horrors, wouldn't be telling us the jokes if they were that good. - The next guy I was about to say was like, you kind of are privy to our text chain 'cause me and John, I've been talking a lot back and forth on the group chat. And I think you guys have just been watching. - I've only got a sense of, that our funny jokes. We have been really funny in the group chat. Recently good. - It was really good. - Today was really good. - Yeah, was that all today?

Wow. - That was just, that was just today. - I'm gonna find what it is here. - I have no idea. - I was funny in the group chat. - I don't remember. - Send that picture of me alone with none of you ever seen the meeting. - Everyone went through the wrong meeting. - It was an excellent call back to John and doing it when none of us were actually that late. - Yeah. - I did have to throw that in front of it because I think everyone was late.

- And I wasn't the right person to really, it was really different than what you did. - I wasn't first, but it wasn't late. - But it doesn't matter. - My picture is hard for the listener. - Based on this listener, who do you think is who? Like which one of us is, can we like assign a character to each of us? - Oh. - For funsies. What do you guys? - Okay. - What do you think? - I'm the Sabrina. I think that's really obvious. - The glue. - You think you're the glue.

- It is hard because the glue does, but like otherwise, no. - But she does the scheduling. - I schedule a lot of stuff. - Do the scheduling. You also would make us all go get tattooed against our will. - I would love that. I would love to get tattooed with you guys against your wills. - Yeah, you're convincing me. You might be the same. - So so, yeah, but the people please their part puts you more in hair. - Hair, yeah. - Hair, yeah. - Also. - No one said that.

- No, but, you know, ability to deal with conflict of any kind. - But, but then again, I do think Sabrina does have a martyr aspect to her in like, just like being the little one. - Sabrina, the character, not the heart. - Yes, the character, not the little one. - Right. - Who is hard? I guess we're just seeing John and a lot of these characters in them. - A lot of these blonde characters. - I mean, funny characters.

- Okay, well, John, you just remember who loved all the characters and we're saying you have all their traits. (laughing) But you still think they're flawed. I mean, - Yeah, they're having a good, they're like pretty, - I think I'm probably the win, hot, low self-esteem. - Low self-esteem, hot. - Your mouth is always twitching into a smile. - That's probably why I have low self-esteem, my twitch. - You are just in close to your parents.

- Sorry, take one second and just beg, beg authors to stop creating main character men whose mouth's twitch. I want to stab myself in the face every time I read that. - It's always hard to imagine what it could mean. - Yeah. - What's going on with there? Are you breaking them? Are they trying to be like serious and someone tells them a joke and they're like trying to hide a smile? I can't, it's hard to imagine what the twitching is. - A picture of a full face flinch.

(laughing) - It's almost like a medical issue, right? - Yes, yes. - Another one that she missed just like being a doctor. (laughing) - Oh my God. The other thing is, when is like so, he doesn't know what he wants to be. He worked, did he work at a bookshop or something for a little bit? - I think a long time. Like after a long time. - He's a business degree. He thinks he's stupid. He thinks people only like him because he's hot and then when they get to know him, they're like, "You suck."

(laughing) - God, I would love to be, think that people just like me immediately 'cause I was hot. I just would love that power. I just, I think it's a power and I think he should don't ask the deliverer to bring something upstairs for ya. - You'll feel real quick when you're at that time. - But I didn't, I don't think I ever had it. That's my difference is, it's not a, it's nostalgia. - Better to have been hot and be appreciated as hot than to never be hot at all. - Yeah, it's true.

- Yeah, I'm in a brainer. - I don't know, actually. - Okay. - Hard. I wouldn't know. - Hard to, Kimmy. - You think you're Kimmy is it 'cause she's, - You know what I would like to party? - She was fun, yeah, that's, yeah, you're Kimmy. - It's unfair 'cause the gay thing, but she did seem like the most fun. She was clearly the most fun. - Happy, she seems fun. - Everyone's like, she's the missing piece. - She seems to have removed from the conflicts. - Leo clearly is jealous.

Leo's like, - He's got my ex, - But she's also very pregnant. So then now we're talking about pregnant people, that's really gonna fall more on Claire. - Interesting, interesting. - But she's like, she's like definitely kind of the mom of the group, like, I'll drive everyone and make sure they're okay. Kind of of the group. - She did know everyone's Starbucks orders or something. - Yeah, that is okay. I'm gonna say, - Leo is more of a Sarah and then Claire would be a nurse for me or his.

(laughing) - I thought we already decided I was going. - I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be Cleo, but I'll accept it. - You are mom like in that you do. I do think you got your way to make sure people are taking care of and you do provide, like you would have snacks for people. I could see that. - Oh, when I don't mind my Cleo steal and you set up my internet and you also helped me build on my furniture and stuff.

- Yes, I do like building, I feel like the setting up internet was more just pointing out where you came over. - You came over. - I'm a cableist. - Right, I don't remember what you did, but you did it. - I just did it. - Claire, I don't think you want me to go into this because you literally didn't understand how to plug in a cable box or internet. It was, it was crazy, Claire, the love of you. - Oh, you do, you remember what it was.

- I remember because it was like, you just plug it in and you didn't know to do, - No, I know. - I still know. (laughing) - I know, that's why I'm like your partner right now perfect for you. You don't have to worry about that ever, but it was, - And I never had time. - At that time it was both of you, the person you were doing the time, both of you didn't know that you didn't plug it in and it was wild to me.

- Oh, well, you were really nice about it, the time you didn't make me feel bad about it until I'm glad, I'm glad. I'm sorry you still don't understand how funny it was. - No, I did, I really helped me. - Ask Matt, ask Matt sometime. - Did one of you cook raw chicken for the other some time around? - Oh, I could, you know what? That was, yeah, I cooked raw chicken for Claire. So that's right. - That's a little bit, a little bit. (laughing) - I made my mistakes. - I made my mistakes.

- Okay, I turn her to know that Deterian briefly. (laughing) - But you were trying, you cooked for me. - Yeah, I don't do a lot of chicken. - It sounds like she warmed me. - She warmed me. - I would be, yeah, she cooked it. - Look, in my current life, I do not do a lot of cooking. I do leave that too. I also leave that to my partner. So, you know, we found people that really feel, you know, can handle where we're flawed, can fix. - Can I, yeah, take over there?

- Yes, mental's of the cook at our house. - Yeah, I love the cook at my house. Oh my God, am I the only person on this podcast who cooks? - Well, it's saved, but that is also the cook at our house. - No, I know. - Wow. - Well, everybody's turning gender roles on their head. - Look at us. - Look at us. - Look at us. - Well, because I am, of course, 'cause in gay relationships one is a man, one is a woman. - Yeah, it has to be. - I am a man. - You're the man. - You're the man and you flipped it.

- Yeah. (laughing) - You, the woman are the man and you're flipping it in credible. (laughing) - Oh my God. - I also, wait, just quick, just 'cause I'm looking at the character list and this is not a character really need to talk about it all. Eloise, who is Harriet's sister, who is in Cosmetology school, but it's just like, it was such the, just like one my one daughter's a neurosurgeon and one my other does like make up.

It's just like, it was just like, it was just so ridiculously, the dichotomy there was so funny to me that it was like, this is-- - And they definitely did have like a sibling rivalry. - Yeah, it was like, but it was just so, it felt like two extremes almost. - Here's what I think makes it not crazy, is because I feel like families were like, the siblings do similar jobs that require similar level degrees. I feel like their parents also have those types of jobs.

So it's like, I have a friend who, her and both her brothers, are surgeons. And they have a bunch of doctors in the family, but because this was dentist receptionist and teacher, it's like, one is like, I'm going to med school, and then one's like, I like make up. - Yeah, but they wanted to just-- - But choose this appointment, it wasn't like their part. - Their part wasn't, yeah, they were kind of mean to her about it. - Well, they suck. - And it just seemed like-- - Yeah, it's true.

- Yeah, if a kid was coming up with a premise and was like, one daughter's brain surgeon, one daughter does make up and get, okay, okay, that's a bit much. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You laying it on a little thick. - I think the neurosurgery, the whole time was on, it was too much. I mean, especially given how the book ends, I was like, why did we start from neurosurgery? - I don't know. - I don't know.

- And it seemed like it could have been cool, and they think they did it once, where she started describing synapse responses when she was talking about getting hot for him. And it's like actually talking about brain chemistry. And was like, okay, that's less hot. - Gonna be your character. - But that's gonna be your character. Let's do it, you know, like, okay. Then those choices make sense, but they drop it instantly. - Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't played for them enough.

- Choice doesn't make any sense. It could have been any strenuous intellectual career. - Yeah. - It was ignored until she wanted to use at the very end to be like, oh, wait. I don't like it. - I know. - But it was just like, what? - And that seemed to come out of left field that she didn't like it. So it's hard to believe that she didn't like it. It was like, so yeah, in the book, she's like, actually, I don't like it.

I wanna follow Win and I wanna be with the Win because he doesn't going to come to me because it makes him too depressed to live here. And it is, yeah. - It's like you have a hard job understanding, like this job is really hard, but like, for her to have gotten that deep into it and like be that far. - And talking about the loans. - She has that. - Yeah, I'm like, is not something you could walk away from. - You might have dropped out much earlier.

And even if you didn't, even if you didn't, you're there and say, it's okay, true. She just made the realization she hates it. Like, you know what? You can still be a doctor. Like you're still a doctor. Like, how about we do family medicine? - Yeah. - Have a one or something. That's a little chill or maybe something you can even do in Montana. Like we can, we can, we can, we can pivot. And you can, you can find it, you know. - I won't, you can be a, I won't. - I won't say why, I won't say why.

I feel this is true. But I do strongly feel that it is true that you could spend a lot of time, a lot of money, going to a very specialized, higher education that only leads you to one job and you could have the thought, you know. I feel as though I should be making pottery all day long. And I should not do this job that I devoted much of my life to. I should walk away. Now, right. - I know that's a real thing. I don't know. - I believe that feeling. But yeah, acting on it. - Acting on it.

- Oh, I believe you could act on it really easily. - Well, yeah, I could too. It's like, oh, I was working 16 hour days. I could not do that and go play. Who wouldn't, who wouldn't prefer not working? Like, I don't, I mean, I think she's gonna get bored though. Like, it just, there were, there were options that weren't so stark that like, she didn't, she seemed like a more realistic character. Like, she didn't, she wasn't like, I do things on the whim or whatever.

And I guess maybe that's character growth that she could finally admit what she didn't like. But it's like, there's, there's shades of gray here and we're not exploring them at all. There was no conversation. There was no, I could do, I could switch or maybe I could do, it was just like, I'm gonna go right to this hobby that I'm bad at. I can't even start it. - And I just started. And for some reason I'm gonna get hired as a teacher. There's no way you would be hired as a pottery teacher.

You don't make good pottery. - Yeah, bear them in doing it. - Like a butt, that was a big part of it. - And it just, it didn't sound like she was like, I'm just gonna do this for a little while while I figure out my next step in life. It felt like it was introduced as though this is her choice. - Next thing is pottery. - This is part thing and it's like, that's, that's not smart sweetheart. I just, especially the, - Do one day is intero-surgeon a week.

- One day and then you could do the pottery the other day. - Yeah, like, come on, that's true. - Yeah. - It doesn't have to be all or nothing here. We can really, let's think this out. - And there wasn't enough if she's gonna give up her life for pottery and claim and the boy. I need to see more than one instance of her being like, it's nice to zone out while I'm doing pottery. It's like, I need more of her liking it. I need to understand that more.

- As the person of the cast who's probably done the most pottery, I think probably, - Objectively, it's not fun and nobody likes it. (laughing) So, we'll see what happens with that. - It took us ceramics class in high school. - Oh. - It was fun. We were making perfume bottles and I made mine in the shape of a garbage can. - Oh, wow. - The bottle is so good. - The toilet. - I know, I should surprise it into a toilet, but also just like jobs, not a time, you don't always like your job.

Like, I don't write, I just don't, no, this felt very real to me. - The idea of, yeah, I'm not against the idea of like being stressed at work and being like, I'd rather not work. I think that that's relatable and real, but to be in debt and all of us done in debt. - This is why it's like, there must not be money issues because, you know what I mean? This is why it also felt like, oh, this is just a rich people because like, their solution to problem is she could quit her neurosurgery today.

- Drop like here is to me. - The other thing I'll say is, student debt is not real. It does not feel real in any way, shape or form. (laughing) - You guys have a room? - It truly feels like you could quit your job and have no income and that's like, I don't know this for certain. I haven't not had a job since I graduated, but I strongly feel that if I didn't, I could just tell the government, I'm pausing the loans and they'd be like, sure, defer it till you get back on your feet.

Like, that's how people think about student loans. Now I will say when they take the money for me, I hate that. You ever seen the show "Shrink" is about a guy who didn't get a residency, but had all this debt from medical school and had in the instant tries to become a shrink, but like to still be like helping people, but like a big part of it was the student debt but he now had no way of, like he's in a hole now. Like that, that's a problem.

- I also, I assume in this Harriet situation, it's like she's like, oh, I just found out my ex-fiance, he's making a ton of money, making furniture, cha-chang, cha-ching, I don't need to, he's gonna pay me that. - I'm being honest. - I got a sugar daddy, which is fine, but like as a main character to be like, my choice at the end is to go from neurosurgery resident to having a sugar daddy is like, it just felt like, okay, that feels sad. I don't know, I don't not want that for my life.

- Absolutely. - But I wanna, yeah, that sounds like a dream. - I also wanna just talk about the way he's rich as he makes fancy tables for carpentry. And I thought it was so funny that when they finally do get married at the end, they have one of his tables. She's like, talking about, I was picturing the wedding with one of his tables and there's a fucking tablecloth over it. - Yeah, that was funny. - Yeah, yeah, you can see that table. How good could the table even be?

- But the shape under the cloth is a credit. - Yeah, yeah, so rectangle. - The cat tank's not got it, the struggle in tragedy. - Yeah, and I guess he needed to do that in Montana. That also was exciting to me. Like if he has access to the-- - 'Cause he sell it to the Bozeman billionaires. - I guess, but can you do that from anywhere? Like I don't know 'cause they all want local shit. So the book's that, I don't know if that's right. That was the justification, the book.

- I thought it was more, he was like unstable and needed to be with his family. - Yeah, he seems like he had problems. - He weed brownies with his mom. - Yeah, oh, I don't think people with Parkinson's can text. This mom with Parkinson's was texting a lot. I guess she could have been using her Apple Watch to speak in New York. - I think she could have been using her Apple Watch to speak in New York. - Also, you don't know how and that she was.

- I think like small court, like you can't do buttons and stuff. - Well, I mean, she could literally talk - She could do a phone. - Yeah, you could talk to tags. - Fine, well she was texting so much she didn't seem like she needed a living care person for her. - I got a part, if you could talk to a mom with Parkinson's. - Don't need care. - Didn't seem like she needed it. - Make sure it's clear she's far away from any of my end of life.

- No. (laughing) - I love the idea that like texting is the barometer. - I would love you to be like, you're in the insurance industry and that's why you reject people. - You're not sick. - Doing a lot of texting. (laughing) - Funny. - All right, well so I don't know.

I didn't obviously, I know that our friend of the pod, Emily, she did not like the ending 'cause that was part of her spoiler that she was like, I also didn't love the ending, but I also didn't care enough to like hate it, if that makes sense. - By the time you get to that point in the book, your brain is so tired, - Yeah. - Goopy, that it doesn't matter. They could say anything, I'm just glad it's all bad.

- Turn this book off because it was an ending and saw that they were like three minutes left and I was like, I don't care, I'll listen to it later. I can't stand right now to three more minutes of this. (laughing) - Wow. Did you ever finish it? - I did Sabrina, nice try. This is a real book club and I finished the book. (laughing) - You try to catch us all week. - All right, would you guys wanna take a quick commercial break? We'll come back, we'll do our final everything. Sounds good.

- All right, we'll be right back. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - And we're back. Okay guys, ready for little good reads, five star reviews? - Let's do it. - Let's do it. - Let's do it. - Let's do it. - Jada, you wanna start with your? - Sure, I've got a review from Nina and she gave it a, oh wait. - Yeah, maybe five star reviews. - Oh no, oh no. - She gave it one star. I got confused about what we were looking for. - Okay. - Do you wanna skip?

(laughing) - Okay, I do wanna still read Nina's review. It was our fun. - No offense, but are you guys lying one star? (laughing) - Yeah, I appreciate it. Okay, wow, it's been a while since we recorded, I guess. - Okay, all right, good. - You know what Sabrina has for you. - Oh, go ahead. - Alexa Ray says, "I will never recover." Bandaged up heart emoji. - Huh. - Wow. - A little too invested. - A little too sweet. Clara. - I got one from Chelsea Humphrey.

Starts with a quote from the book, I assume. "You are in all my happiest places. You are where my mind goes when it needs to be soothed." Then in bold, angsty perfection, emotional damage, hopeful second chances. How is it, okay, regular text now, unbold. How is it possible to sum up your feelings on a book that you were sure wouldn't be for you, but ended up being a guaranteed top read of the year instead. And then she goes on for paragraphs. - Yeah, we don't need to talk.

- There's gifts and stuff. (laughing) - I love that. - I love the gifts, you know? It's a type of reviewer that really loves gifts. - You just seem like she might really like a home is where the heart is, plug? - Okay, okay. - That is what this has. - Yeah. - This is what it should have. Even though we weren't in Montana at all really, it was a-- - It was that plaque in book form. - All right, I've won from Emily Booked Up. Is it Emily Henry? I don't know.

But she says, "Emily Henry sprinkled magic all over this book. Holy smokes. I loved it from the very first page all the way through. Also, do I have a new all-time favorite romance? What is Emily Henry doing to me? I'm under her spell, LOL. There's no doubt this girl can write when she announced her fourth novel would be a second chance romance with quite literally one of the best settings, Beach House, off the coast of Maine with your besties.

I was counting down the days until it was in my hand. - Yeah, well she liked it before she even read it. - So, I'm not really unbiased. - I saw from early readers that this was her most emo book. So I was hooked before I even began. - The proximity trope made me nervous because it's usually very cringe and awkward, but this was not at all. Oh yeah, okay. I go, that's what it's called, the fourth proximity trope. I guess I like the fourth proximity trope.

Then she put a bunch of quotes, I don't need to read them. - I have a reviewer from Amber that confuses me. - A quick one. - Win and Harriet, soulmates. My heart broke for them and so did my eyes because hello the tears. Let's just say the therapy bills are going to be top infinity symbol. And I'm just confused about why she is talking about the therapy in her therapy. - Yeah. - Which apparently are expensive.

- I don't think she, I think this fiction-- - I wrote it as the book made her need therapy. - Yeah, but she seems to think it's a good thing. - She cares so much. - She cares so much. - She cares so much. - She cares so much. - I love Emily Henry, I fucking love her. - I'll send you the therapy bills. - It does sound like Emily, she has enough of a following that she can write a less good book than perhaps her other books and nobody would know this.

- Nobody, everyone's gonna fangirl about it, I guess? That's what it seems like. - Wait, I have another reviewer. - All right, go ahead. - Azoo, five stars, double slap to the face 'cause I ain't got no BF or friends. - Five stars. - That's so much. - That feels like a troll, I can't. - I need the listeners to know that during our commercial break, Jonna asked us if we could move quickly through this part and she was ready for review. (laughing) - Tear her away.

All right guys, let's do our hate rates. - Okay. - Although one out of five. Like I said, I literally would listen to it in spurts where I could no longer take it anymore and then turn it off. It gets one because it isn't super long like it ended, you know. - Yeah, it wasn't super long, you're right. - It wasn't super long and it was modern. Like the Gen Z, I guess was kind of interesting. I don't know if I'm committing to that, but I'm only giving it one stars, I don't have to commit to it.

Anything, okay, the end. - Oh my God, I just forgot the part, wanna bring up quickly, the part where Harriet runs back to win to tell him that like she wants to be with him and he's like all packed and ready to go and she was like, you were about to leave and he was like, no, I was about to go find you. That's why when you showed up, I was hard. (laughing) - I was like, I was like, what the fuck? I mean, you know what, honestly, the sex, they weren't bad, it's just like I bored with them.

But that kind of, that was so, I was like, I don't need, this is a scene, this is not a scene where I need to hear about his heart pain. Why would he be hard when he's like, - Yeah, you wanna prove that I was ready to come look for you? - I was going to ask you guys about that.

I meant to ask you about that because I was like, maybe it's just that I haven't been in a relationship with a man for a really long time, but like someone, you're in a big, weird fight and then you come upon him and he's just hard the moment that you find him. (laughing) - You're like, this is the appropriate way for you. - It really does like me. - Yeah, it's weird, they've been together eight years, there's no reason for him to be so hard at all.

I don't, I don't, look, if you can relate to that, good, good for you. I don't know, I'm sorry. - I'm gonna give this book three out of five 'cause it was pretty, it was a pretty quick read. It did have sex, so it gets a few points for that. But I did not care for the ending and I also just was not interested in the probably last, I don't know, 40 pages of the book, maybe more 'cause I was listening to it, so I'm making up the page count. I wish she was still a doctor.

- Yeah, I'm gonna give it a 2.5 'cause it's just like the most forgettable nothing score that I could give the book. 'Cause that's all that it, it's just like, this is one of those books, we're gonna read it, we're gonna talk about it and then it's gone forever from my brain, it's erased and deleted, so I don't even wanna give it an impact form, I don't wanna be like, it's a one, it's a five, 'cause that would give it too much power. - I'm just saying that.

- I'm gonna give it a five out of five. I recommended it to Meg, I even told her how to find it on YouTube, it didn't seem like she was gonna follow up on the web. (laughing) But I kept talking and talking. I tried to advertise it by saying that there is a character named Sabrina and that separately, there is a lesbian character. And I don't know, I enjoyed reading it, I cried a lot, I liked that there were sex scenes. - She's like you're crying an awful lot this day.

- Yeah, I feel like today for something. - It was a job. - Something, yeah. - Oh, no, the delivery. Oh, the delivery, oh, the right, right, sorry, I thought I just, I met you crying while reading the book because of the job. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, I mean so many things, like the leaving, the not knowing how to react when you have a parent pass away, having anxiety, is it just a little, okay, let's prepare. And again, there was a character named Sabrina and they said her name a lot.

Like all the time and I really perked up. You just like hearing your name. - Absolutely. - That's gonna get you, okay. - Well, that's gonna be a five for Sabrina. - All right, Sabrina. - Huh? - All right. - All right. - Now we know that. - I also am really ready to go with my asshole, though. - Okay, well, say we're doing that this season. - Continue with Little Fucker of the Cast, the thing that makes us all feel so good.

We have to do Little Fucker of the Cast guys because we were so mean to the book and the author. Now we have to tear down each other in a way that's only fair. And I guess that's why we do this. - Okay, so Sabrina, if you're good to go, let's start right this off. - Yeah, okay, so is it gonna be? - Yeah, it's gonna be someone who was on the wrong side of two arguments this evening. - Wow. - So unjectively putting that person on the wrong side. - Yeah, yes.

So one, we're all split here, but one person was on the wrong side of both. Both the ranch argument and the argument about nostalgia when your friends leave you. So that's Clara. She was on the wrong side of both of those. - Different. - Ranch saved me here. (laughing) - Yeah. - Okay. - I think that's fine, I accept. That's what you think. (laughing) I don't accept that I am comfortable and confident in my position in both of those arguments. - All right, well, that's your prerogative.

- Okay, well that inspired me Sabrina. My little Fucker is also Clara, but just a totally different reason. - Love it, love this. (laughing) - What was started the podcast? Clara looked like the person emoji where there's no features on the person. It's just like black body, white background, just a little wet. And Sarah said, "Clarer, I see a ring light behind you. "Why don't you use it? "You're so dark." And Clara said, "Because I don't want to." And Sarah said, "What about that lamp?

"Maybe you could move it and just light yourself a little more." So it was behind her and moved it a few feet to the right still behind her. So she's still completely backlit, but now there's just a big lamp in her camera. - Wow, I feel like during that joke, like moving the lamp was the joke. I feel like during it you were really supportive. - Job. - And he works. - I get scared. - Clara, but you're still dark. - That light happened.

- Yeah, and then what happened was I stared at a big, but the lamp, a faceless person for her entire... - Clara could be crying right now. She got tears streaking down her face. We would have no idea. - I'm backlit. - Well, I can't bring it over. There's no room. I can't bring it over. - So yeah, thanks for that. - The desk position. We're in the process of making my office a nursery and we don't really know what to do with the desk right now. So it's not in a great place.

And there's no room to move the lamp. - You don't have to think about it. - Yeah, we're gonna have to think about it. But if that mate, I'm sorry that my home isn't bigger, Johnna. - Look, you have a whole, you have a room. - You have a multi bedroom. - You have the biggest house, one bedroom. - You have the biggest home out of all of us. I know, let's say you're getting a nursery, like this next kid I'm having is a big nursery, like there in our room until they're very nervous.

- You guys see me okay. (laughing) - Johnna's shining a flashlight into the camera. - Yeah, it's very fun. - Really well, I don't really know what I could have possibly done about it. - I can't move the ring light over. There's no room over here. Okay. You almost turn the lamp off. It might have helped. - Yeah, it would have been better. - Well, someone had said, now that the joke's over, please turn the lamp off, I would have, but everyone kept it inside.

Everyone held on to it until they enter the cast. These against me, fine. I didn't realize it was a joke. I thought it was like the setting up the internet thing, you just didn't understand poor thing. (laughing) - My asshole, I guess, is Johnna for what just happened? (laughing) - I just feel safe, I'm not worried. - I'm not worried about that. (laughing) - All right, now you shouldn't be worried. I wasn't gonna target you, Johnna.

I honestly, I feel, 'cause I also had simpler thoughts to criticize Claire for being dark, but that sounded racist what I just said. - Yeah. (laughing) - That sounded so white you want. (laughing) So maybe I need to backtrack on that, just because of what I just said. - Uh-oh. - I feel in danger. (laughing) - Yeah. Yeah, 'cause I guess Claire and I were on the same side of the stowager thing, but she was really against my ranch dressing jokes. - We've already sort of conquered that. - Oh wow.

It seems like Johnna was on the wrong side for you. - Oh, both of those. - You're right, that's such a good point. Okay, Johnna, Johnna's my favorite. (laughing) - Cool. - Our main arguments from the cast that really little is to be with the book. All right, but there was three votes for Claire. It's a Claire, congratulations for the first episode. - No, it's a three for Johnna. - There's two votes for Claire. - Oh, okay, this is too much. - Oh my god, you're right, that is math.

Okay, Johnna and Claire, you are little fuckers in the past, sorry. - I feel like a deer during hunting season and I just watched a hunter line up another deer and caulk the trigger and then out of nowhere, swing around, a hundred and eight, (laughing) - I was a strabler and it just took me out. - Look, it was really, it was like a hunter turned to saw you and was like that deer deserved to die actually. - Well, I almost, I almost threw an ax at you.

- I trained it on Sabrina for a second, but then she pointed at you. (laughing) - I saw that all happen. - Look, that's, and that's just how little fucker the cast works, it's really, the most melodic, most perfect. - I was the first hunter, I spared your life and then a second hunter came along and I said, "Spare it no more." (laughing) - All right guys, what the fuck are we reading next, for an excess? - Divine rituals. - Divine rivals. - Divine rivals. - Divine people.

- Polonio book, available on YouTube. - Thank you for telling me. - Okay, thank you for telling us that. - Yeah, I appreciate it. - We know to tell me that in the future, Sabrina. - Yes, I should, I mean, I'm never reading so far in advance that you haven't gotten your book unless, yeah, you're usually getting the wrong book, which is what happened here. And Divine Rivals is by Rebecca Ross, so excited for that one, getting a little YA, I believe, in our, in our midst.

But yeah, we'll see you in a week or so, two weeks. We'll see you in two weeks. - Yeah, we'll see you. - You'll hear us in two weeks. We'll actually not see you or hear you, but you'll hear us. - So, you will finally listen and not say a word. - If by the time you hear this, you haven't seen the movie, "American Fiction," this is your sign. Go see it. - Okay. - And it's have it. - Book related, so. - I'm so excited. - I'm so excited. - I haven't seen it.

- I also have heard good things about it and haven't seen it. But we are a meme book club on all the socials. Please become a patron of our Patreon, so we can keep making this cast 'cause my husband keeps asking me why I still do it. Really, really. - Okay. - I don't know. - Okay, I don't like that. - Yeah, what that at all. - I just thought, I think he doesn't like that it takes time away from him to being able to play video games.

That's my, - Because this is where, I mean, that pause was critical. - Yeah. - First, it's in like, you're attending and sharing your attention. - No, he doesn't want my, he wants the room to play the video games. - This is to be your player. - I see. - He's a very, yeah, we have a really healthy relationship. - Yeah, but we'll, - This is the room. (laughing) - Yeah, we don't have as many rooms as Claire does, so.

- No. - Well, it's not really that much of a solution to have an extra, a lot of rooms. - Okay. - It could be, it could be. - It's not though. - No, no, I live, how dare you. - Talk about all your rooms. - We tried having the desk in the downstairs room, but that's, that's sort of been shoving stuff, so that's so too much. - You're bragging about people. - You have a room to shove stuff? - Yeah, we have a room to shove stuff.

- Do you still have that room where you just have a hundred boxes, empty boxes? - I think that's a crawl space. We have a crawl space that has that. - What? A crawl space? - Claire says you want to keep it for vated a plan. - No, Matt wants me to do podcasts from there. Claire's corner really embraced the third corner and the whole lot. - That's typical. Make him do video games from there. - That's not even a boxer when I visited. - She opened it up.

(laughs) - I locked her in the, - I pushed her in and I locked in. - All right. - She made me go in the box room. - I don't think, I think, this doesn't sound like me. - Did Matt? - Me, you go in the box room. - It sounds more like Claire in the mat. - Someone made me go in the box room. - I don't think so. - Vada, did Vada make you go in there? - I was in the box room. - I don't want to be. (laughs) - So cold, so dark. - It's kind of big for a crawl space.

Like I think I can stand up or like I can almost stand up. - Oh wow. - So much fun. (laughs) - All right guys. - Oh yeah, okay. - It's time to go. - Bye. - Bye. - Goodbye. - Bye. - Bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (そ's voice)