Welcome to Plans Are Booked, podcast for every reader. I'm Molly Geller. I'm Caitlin Madison. Welcome to Chapter 22. Cue the Taylor Swift. Okay, so 22 is kind of a lucky number for me. 17 is my real lucky number, but 22 is another one. I don't know if you guys definitely don't know this. I don't know how you would. But when I was a senior in college, I lived at a house 22 Howard Street, and we just called it 22. And we all turned 22 when we lived in the house. And we felt that that was lucky.
And then Richard Morris was on and I don't know for some reason I just liked 42 I don't know and I was 22 in softball at one point for a couple of years I just like it it feels good How's everyone doing? Oh, geez. Just getting getting right into Steph has not been messing around the pre pod. She was like, I have big plans. This is what they are. I was like, do I need alcohol? It's only 1030 in the morning and it's been going well so far.
should say that we haven't been together in a week and a half. No, it's no I mean sitting down to podcast has been been that long, but we had my birthday. I know, but that wasn't like, there were other people there. It wasn't like I could be like, here's the list of things in my head I've been meaning to share with you. Yes. Yes. Okay. So I saw this thing on Twitter over a week ago and it blew my mind apart. Like I didn't even know how to process it.
I've bookmarked it so I can send the video to both of you. I think I know what it's going to be, but go. I think there is a viral thing going around about do you have a voice in your head when you read? Yes, of course I do. do you mean like what do I hear while I'm reading? there's not for so ignore the reading aspect right now when you are by yourself. Are you talking in your head? Apparently half the population do not have inner monologue.
So in this video on Twitter, this guy and this girl are sitting down together. I think they're in class together and he asks her because she does not have an inner monologue. So he asks specifically about reading. How does she read a book? Because she cannot hear a voice. So like when I read, in my head, I'm like, head my voice is narrating the book. She does not. She sees the word. She says she mouths it sometimes, or she'll read aloud.
But she sees the word, she places it where it needs to go into the plot, but she doesn't picture the things that are being said. His reaction was just a sort of silence, and I had the exact same reaction because. How? I've seen articles over the years about these people that don't get mental images when they're reading.
And there's a lot of, because I'm a teacher and because I teach English, I've read a lot about it because there are a lot of kids, they get to middle school and they're like whisper reading, which is like the kind of saying it out loud sort of thing. And for a long time I was like, oh gosh, did I give them a book that's too hard for them that they're like whisper reading it out loud?
And then when I did some digging on it, it was like, no, as usually people who don't get - have an inner voice and don't have a mental picture of what they're reading. And I was like, what? That's a thing. And so that's when I first learned about it, but it was because it was for like an entirely different reason. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm giving kids books that are way too hard. girl in the video says she doesn't read books for fun.
She doesn't read fiction because she Okay, you guys can't see me but my eyes are like stuck elevated like I'm still reacting to this. I can't imagine I can't imagine first of all not just like narrating the day in your mind. I have every conversation in my head before I actually have the conversation. Sometimes I say them out loud in the shower if it's gonna be a tricky one.
Like if I'm, like I, you know, back when I was like in a really stressful job situation, I'd be like, all right, I need to play out what I'm gonna say when I'm in this meeting with so and so and like, and I, sometimes I would do it out loud in the shower. I mean, there's an iceberg and like you're you're only seeing the tip of of all the conversations I've previously had and worked out so it has to not have to have them in real life.
but I also I'm still processing everything that you just said about that people don't have that and that they don't read like that but also I had a conversation with a friend recently about people who don't spend all day thinking about what they're gonna eat next which is like legitimately like 80 % of my brain is like should I go out for breakfast or should I not? Should I make something? Should I not?
If I eat this for breakfast and I can't have this for lunch because those ingredients are too similar. your cabinet and your pantry and your refrigerator and what you have and what things could go together is a little puzzle I play at two o 'clock every afternoon.
True. if someone is walking through the world not thinking about what they're gonna eat next like I I can't even imagine what I could do with all that extra brain space she just has like mental pictures of the thing, but there's no... She's not hearing the word in her head. Yeah. I... I looked up what the official term was because I was curious. It's called aphantasia.
And people with it may also, so if you find it difficult to picture voluntary images in your head, AKA, I call it daydreaming, right? Like you're in the car, you're driving, a song comes on, it makes you think of somebody or something. And then all of a sudden you're playing out Travis and Taylor dancing to it at their wedding, you know, that sort of thing, right? picturing an entire book scene and writing the dialogue in my head to go with it. productive than mine. But like that's right.
So like we do that. So that if you don't have that, it's called aphantasia. A lot of people that have that also have another thing called anaderalia, which is a term now being used to describe the absence of auditory imagery or your inner voice.
So they're now connecting, like, if you have this one thing, it's pretty likely that you also have this other thing because it has to do with, like, being able to imagine in your head, which I just thought was, like, we were all born with that, but... know. If anyone listening, please reach out to us because I'm just so, if you don't hear, if you don't hear voices in your. That's probably OK, everyone. But I want to know what kind of careers people go into who don't have the inner monologue.
What are their superpowers? I think they can be superpowers. I know that I'm pretty sure had it are like really into like kill and drill spreadsheets, math, formulaic things. They're very, or like straight organization of like, okay, here's all this information and I need to put it into these like data tables and you know, or coding really good at coding. Anything that has like a rhythm to it that you don't have to like, imagine. It's like non -creative jobs, I guess is what I would call it.
it. I do wonder if there are any writers who have. Would that be possible? I feel like no. Well, then it's a good question. 90 % of creating a book happens in my head before I even sit down to a computer. thinking back to when we went to the romance author event and someone asked do they outline, do they plan, do they whatever and many of them were like nope I just like the story takes me where it takes me. What was the character you have to say? The director. What else did you have to say?
You're out there. Yeah. The answer? The answer? The The answer? When you lose that one, that thing. No, I think it's like the scene in the movie, that's this one, you're not planning. Oh. It's not planning versus the answer. Not really. Anyways. moving on. just... So my inner monologue is at its peak when I am trying to go to bed, which is anxiety. Showering is also another big one.
And so I write, I'm also, I'm more heavily medicated than that, but I use a fan for white noise to drown out... to keep all of my nervous noises because they're like creaking and rattling. birds and this, that it's just like my brain is spinning and it doesn't turn off. And I used to, it used to be like just stress, like I was stressed about work and I wouldn't stop thinking about work or my students or whatever. And my inner monologue would just be like out of control.
People that don't have this, think about it. it. When they're just sitting there, you know, like quiet, there's... Well, so like I can't meditate because I'm going through lists. Yeah. You can't turn it off. They must sleep like babies. They must have... So maybe those people are actually like the super producers of the world. Isn't that a Malcolm Gladwell term? Super producer. People that like are able to do more in a day than other people.
That must be those people because when they... call those people Beyonce, but yes, maybe he calls them super producers. I had a, I had a principal one time that was a super producer, operated on like four hours of sleep, did more than anyone I knew. She was like a principal at our school and in a PhD program and taught grad school courses to people that wanted to be principal. Like she had two kids, like single mom. I was like, what, what? And I think. like, I want to see that.
are you an intermonologue person? Because I'm just wondering if there's a correlation between super producers and we got really meta on this pod. Like right from, I told you 22 is a good one. 22 is good. Steph started us off strong. is yes, the truth of the age that we have reached right now. I want to transition just to saying thank you to some of our listeners who responded to a question we posed with the latest episode.
We talked about The Butcher and the Wren and the mystery genre, and we asked what mystery books we should consider reading next. So shout out to Sally and to Ellie for their great suggestions. The Girl on the Train, which I know many of us have read. I hate that book. I just, of course she did. I mean, I just hate, why can't I think of the term? Unreliable narrator. I think that was the book that I first told you about that term and you were like, huh, I hate someone that I don't believe.
Yeah. The next recommendation is one I think all of us read and loved. One of us is lying. YA. You can picture the cover. Set in high school. other ones. Yes, they did. I didn't either. And then the last one is about a specific author, Tana French, anything by Tana French. Wait, time out. Is Dublin Murders Tana French? Did you watch that show? Oh, fantastic. I don't know. It was, I think it was during the height of COVID. Bad Sisters is phenomenal.
So we thank you for your excellent and certainly put up more costume boxes as the weeks go on because we love hearing from you and seeing what we do in these days. Same thing, so thank you for engaging with our content. We appreciate it. I also want to share for those who are in the middle of a pandemic, last night I went to a bookseeing restaurant. It's called The Lord's Restaurant in Fort Smith, New York.
Just as I said, I need to say that this restaurant is... um, has a pretty strict cancellation policy. If you don't cancel before 5 a .m. the day of, they charge you $30 per person if you don't show up. The reason I am mentioning this, yesterday there was a pretty intense rainstorm going on. And as I was driving up there, it was bad, but like manageable. When I drove home last night, the rain was coming down like in sheets. I was right up there. entire time.
I thought about pulling over a couple times, but then I knew because I'd booked a thousand and I looked at the SBCC right down the car, it wasn't gonna get better. I feel like you could have that many moments in a lifetime of like, this could be where it ends. Like, it's been really compelling to me, like, that was my experience in that drive. I feel like, wow, this is like, really, really sweet power of the future and you just need to realize that maybe you should have stayed out of it.
But, I mean, a lot of people, if you are a very competent citizen, is a beautiful bird, even though that's what we like to guess, you're still a farmer, and they have these gorgeous displays in the dining room. of like every book that comes with a second, first edition book, beautiful, leather bound and arranged in these stunning ways. And the whole cocktail menu is literature themed. My friend, Mavan and I had a strength called the three expectations.
I was involved in the last word which was author and the instruments as well. Yes, the drink was great and the - food is just like a normal upscale restaurant, but they brought the check inside of one of those like gorgeous books. I just love those kind of like small details that make it all kind of come together. Interestingly, it had a pretty like fancy white tablecloth vibe except all the servers were wearing black and gold sequin vests. And I was like, are we in a security room?
It was the most bizarre outfit choice for the teen. And at the end of the teen's the restroom. we got on the road and it's in the basement of the building. And I felt like I'd been transported into like my elementary school. It was like where the toilets are like low to the ground and those tiny stalls. And I was like, how is it that a restaurant this nice has like an elementary school style bathroom? not gonna lie.
There is something in time to play out of you guys' clothes, I know that because I'm friends with people that are going through this. There are times in time that it is you here that you take the best back of yourself and you're in the same boat. And so I'm not really trying to be rough, I'm just going to take these two less props because the back of you is insane.
So the fact that this place is an in on the bathroom game is a little... super bizarre and when I made the reservation and then again When they send you like the automated text they reinforce every step of their communication with you that quote upscale dress is required and I was like, how can you say that and then this is your bathroom? This should be a bathroom with like gold trimmed mirrors and like real cloth towels and like I just it was so bizarre. you know my thoughts on bathrooms.
I'm sure I could have found that that, you know, caulking was used in the wrong place or grout was, you know. I'm sure you're right. Any other catch -up items before we move into our book of... sunny. I played golf. I turned 39. I met my parents' dogs who are super cute. Two Boston Terriers. Lots of puppy energy. are the dog's names? Fergus and Fiona. Well, my parents are old and there's just no, there's just no talking to them and other things.
we're on the adoption conversation, I have to admit something, which is that we've talked a few times here about Barstool sports and various connections to that. I don't follow it closely. I'm not a huge sports fan, but many people have started following the account for Dave Portnoy's new dog, famous Miss Peaches. This dog was adopted from a hoarding situation in Atlanta. I wasn't really interested, it was just like I started to explore the region.
And then I just followed through and started following it. But I could not get the feeling that I had a normal sports. I had to carve it. so cute. It has peaches down the sleeve and it says adopt don't shop and all of the merch that he's selling goes to adoption shelters. It's so awesome. show it to you guys before we part ways in case we want to get like matching I would be delighted to finance that I Am I don't know much about him.
I know he's like a controversial Person, I really don't know enough to even speak on it But I'm obsessed with this dog and I'm obsessed with the fact that every single penny breathing on this perch is amazing. It's just like amazing and I'm so much more happy and he's doing everything, like everything that I want him to which I don't know why he decided to do that, because he's kind of not always like the most important thing, but like, elite and all that. So, I don't know. Sports.
It makes me a bad feminist. It's fine. Um, the backstory on that is that he was dating a model for a really long time who had a rescue pit and they broke up and he and his ex -wife Renee had a miniature. I can't remember what kind of dog it was. He always called him the king of the toys, the king of the toy dogs. But that was a dog that I think his wife maybe had before they got married. And so I don't think he's ever adopted a dog before.
Dan Katz, AKA Big Kat, who Molly went to high school with, he also has a rescue pit named Stella and he has a coffee brand named Stella Blue Coffee. and he makes his money all the time from a rescue that, which I think is in Chicago, that he got. Stella from. And he's had Stella, I mean, she's got to be getting up there in age. Um, but she is like the logo of his coffee brand. And so I think that Dan might've been like, Dave, if you're going to get a dog, this is what I would do.
And like, Stella's so awesome and you love her and like blah, blah, blah. And I think that Dan might've influenced him a little bit. I think it's important to have a quality process for the coffee that you sell goes to adopt the colors. So there's always just one needle in that. You know, you could do that and it's probably not the biggest difference between the sales and the pounds in all the different signs, but I don't know.
if that's like a behind the scenes thing that's going on, but I don't care because of who it benefits. So like it's a win -win. Also, you know what, there's travel, right? Every time I saw you, you were so awesome. printed pictures of Miss Peaches and are framing them and putting them in his hotel room. Unbelievable. I've seen so much content that's like, I hate Dave Portnoy, but I love his Miss Peaches dog dad voice. And it's just like, it's true.
He has like a different personality on that account. And I've been watching it like sore. I think when I first noticed it, he was at like $300 ,000. And when I looked yesterday, he was at 857 ,000. Like they're going to get to a million probably in the next couple of weeks. The Day at Land Mall? Day at Land Mall? Okay. Um, to see the Easter bunny and the mall. paid Miss Peaches as like a celeb and all the money went to whatever shelters Dave picked. I'm extremely into it. I enter her account.
Okay, amazing. We'll look at it after this and then I'll order it. Okay, amazing. Okay, any other catch up items? No? almost done with tiling. I just have a tiny bit left. Yay! Tiling is almost done! tell the people like a broader update about your timeline and what you're marching towards. It's taken me two weeks to do both bathrooms, walls, marble shelves, and flooring, but the... was worried it might fall down. worried.
No. No. She's not worried about it going anywhere She's worried that you're like Turning your body into a pretzel and that it's really difficult and why would she do that to herself? I believe was the direct quote think Steph asks herself every day why she's doing this to herself. on one of the posts and wrote gravity question mark and I was like, I don't even know how to respond to this. Yes, it was stressful.
Had a lot of, you know, built up anger towards the tile and why did I choose to do this? And maybe I should have just become a veterinarian. But anyways. It's done except for one small piece that I will do this week. Tomorrow, countertops are going in, bathroom vanities are going in. Wednesday, appliances are arriving. Wednesday, the tub is getting refinished, which if you don't know, you can refinish a cast iron tub. It gets blasted and sanded and then they reenamel it.
It is the cheapest option, I believe. for not having to break apart a cast iron tub and take it out if you ever need to do that. And they can paint it any color you want, just so you know. We're hoping to be listed the second week of April, so stress -free life is ahead of me. It's just a little out of reach. So that's it. We always go on a tour of Stephanie's homes after she finishes. So I'm very excited to see this one. Sometimes I see them in the early stages or midway through.
Like, you know, sometimes we just happen to be naturally driving past the homes. But I haven't seen this one in person at all. So I've been following along like everyone else on your Instagram and I can't wait to see it when you are feeling it is finished. What if we started a tradition where we recorded a pod in each of the houses? Yeah, like when it's staged. there's no internet there Okay And the acoustics would be amazing okay. I'm going to look into how we hotspots. Don't people hotspot?
Isn't that a thing? Wattpad hotspot. I don't know. Shit. Got nothing. candles, we'll travel. Okay, let's get into our topic for today, which is the author Tia Williams and two of her books that we absolutely adored. I want to start with Seven Days in June, which was kind of like the gateway book for all of us. There are a few ways that I learn about new books besides these two brilliant women, which is I follow a ton of authors on Instagram and often they get advanced copies.
And so if they're obsessed with something, they'll usually shout it out pretty loudly. And then there are a couple of book reviewers that I follow, same thing, like they'll talk about early access to stuff. Seven Days in June was all over the place in the months before it came out. So I added it to my Goodreads and then unbeknownst to me, it was selected as a Reese book club pick and then it like blew up. I thought this was her first book. It is not. Um, but I think it was such a phenomenon.
It's like really the word, um, that many people thought that that this was like a debut novel and this was like her bursting onto the scene. Tia Williams has a very fascinating background, which is that she was a beauty blogger before she ever. Yes. and I wrote down the name of it, but hold on, her beauty blog was called Shake Your Beauty, extremely cute, I love it. And then she was an advertising editor, Paul Lamer, 18 people, essence. And then she was an editor for Estee Lauder, the makeup.
before the books came out. So Seven Days in June was my first one and I... I mentioned to you guys before we started recording. I always do my good, and it was really like the second that I finished a book, so it looks like it's fresh in my mind. I gave this five stars, and this is not the end of the book. I wrote on March 23rd, 2020. I devoured this book. I was rooting for Eva and Shane every second. William's writing is raw and real and at times takes your breath away.
There are so many brilliant phrases, sentences and entire pages that if I had been using a highlighter would have turned the whole book yellow. already been on the internet and on social media and I can't get you to remember these characters when I'm reading them. I know some of you saw some of them out there reading them. you our hard copy here. I didn't either. I don't think I realized that.
So I just want to read the beginning because this book had me from the first sentence, but I'm going to read the first paragraph. I feel like this... In the year of our Lord 2019, 32 year old Ava Mercy nearly choked to death on a piece of gum. She'd been attempting to masturbate when the gum lodged in her throat, cutting off her air supply.
As she slowly blacked out, she kept imagining her daughter, Audrey, finding her flailing about in Christmas jammies while touching a tube of strawberry lube and a dildo called the quarterback, which vibrated a much higher frequency than advertised, gum choking frequency. The obituary headline would be Death by Dildo, hell of a legacy to leave her orphan 12 year old. Okay, so we're going to take a look at the painting, and I'm going to talk to you about it later. So don't let that scare you.
It's a ho - yeah. But this is a book about, this is how it was pitched to me because this was in the depths of my TBR pile. I had been given this a long time ago and it just kept going towards the bottom. And then finally, Molly and stuff were like, read this goddamn book. We need to do a pot about it. of us. of you did. And then that's when I was like, okay, I got to dig this out. It's about two kids from traumatic backgrounds that meet in Washington, DC at the end of 12th grade.
And they're together for this like very passionate, very eye -opening week in which. they both have health issues and they have a really bad knee injury. Also, I've learned that childhood distance is high. And that's 20 years later. at a time they were 15 years later, they have both... writers and they haven't seen each other since that week and they bump into each other and it kind of turns both people's worlds upside down in different ways.
And it's about people that are caught in obstacles and battle their fears and exterior events and what success can look like. There's the inter - between friends and family on the internet. rear seats. And here's what we're going to do. We're going push the dog into this hole. And it's just fun. lot of different things going for it.
And I actually was very heard off in the book in the first 20 years of talking to a blind step -slave, I don't know if it's basically that, but the person who actually played a blind love story, she started off being a blind love story. this like book fan convention for her book series called Cursed, which is about like.
witches and witches and witches and witches and witches and and witches and witches and and and witches and and witches and witches and witches and and and and and witches and witches of this like book series and she's got these like funky fans and she has like a debilitating migraine condition that she's kind of like dealing with in stressful situations and I just didn't find her super likable at the start and I was like
oh boy like she's gonna be one of two main characters like this is really she's like got a point off and she's like pretty fancy and like, she has this interesting personality, but she also like kind of has a lot more. walk with her, we all got a drink. I was just like, met her and it wasn't until the flashback where you find out how far she's come that I was like, ooh, now she's interesting. Where, truly, the male protagonist, he was interested in how she got to know the girls.
He is a really good writer and basically does promotions for everything. He's kind of like a... guy, very mysterious. He's like two years sober, has kind of had a lot of ups and downs in his life that like drinking has kind of been a constant. And he teaches English at these like random high schools where he mentors kids that he sees himself in. So like as an English teacher, like... like literally from the first page that he came into existence, I was like, I want to... in the work. him.
He's interesting. And it just took a little longer with Eva. And I think that once I got like maybe 50, 60 pages in, I was like so intrigued by Shane that I like stayed along for the ride. And then when I found out more about Eva, I was like, okay, like I'm in. talking to you. And was like, yeah, I'm talking to you. But you have... couple spots that kind of like, um, I thought the phrasing was just really good. And I was like, this has got a lot more going on than just like a rom -com.
Well, to answer your question, I don't want people to deter me that this isn't a book. I think I like the book than any book. In my life, the journal I'm going to be searching for books for is sort of like light, fluffy, cosmic, what I think that would be. happen in real life. And instead, this book feels very rooted in realistic, everyday traumas. and doesn't feel like you have to do it all at the first tear. It has to be a place, and it's in Lake City. That is how the book is.
So. don't think that it's funny because it's located in the wrong intersection. I totally feel like I'm talking about this more than I think I'm calling it. I feel like it's more sophisticated than that. it delves into their past in a way that's really powerful. And while Caitlin is looking for the other pages she wants to read, I just want to say that I was picturing while I was reading this, this one particular actor as Shane. he also in the vampire diary sequel? yes, as jesse.
he's also in big fan of the original. Yeah, I could not put this in the last one. I mean, it's a lot. Anyway, I'm not going to be talking about rest, but that's what I'm to say. I just, there's something about him, even though he's like so flawed and he has so much going on and he's like his own worst enemy. You're just like attracted to him. There's something about... me that wants to go home and just get a little bit of a beam of writing.
She was told about this and she has this little item that kind of falls for her. So the pen came and I just put it on my wrist and I just, I don't know, I just just, I it on I don't -y type author. I think that this would be beautiful on screen and it would destroy me and I would cry horribly, but I think it would be... I really hope that it gets made. Yeah, me too.
Okay. here are a couple of I'm I feel like recently I've really been like a minor character gal like I've really I'm oh I'm big on sidekicks and books usually like growing up reading books that had sidekicks I always liked them better and like Ron Weasley is my favorite character in Harry Potter like I love a sidekick but recently the minor characters have really been like pulling me in. I don't know if it's just that I'm reading books where the authors do them really well.
But at the beginning of the book, there's these like two literary friends that Eva has and they have these like hilarious lunches and dinners and they're just in each other's lives and like very like robust ways where they kind of can say anything to each other. And there's at one point in the book, they're at a like a book convention thing and And Eva says. what's the point of this? Have you ever been to a book convention? And her friend says, physically, yeah, the spirit comes out.
And Eva says, really, I've never been to a Yes, of course. I feel like we have to work. Physically, yeah, we The spirit comes out. And that's what Eva said. book, again, the trio of friends is having like a serious. not a serious politician because I'm serious. I mean, they're all talking about bad people. like the doctor said, something that might come up in the end.
And so she's like, this is what we've been trying to unite between, this is like a fire hose, this is a real bad situation, and then like her two friends are going off about vaginal health, and like getting them to join us, please, and all this other stuff. And they're like, you know. monologue part with Eva where she goes, am I really laying my heart into the deep of these pockets? I've been laying my months.
I've like, I'm not laying my heart into the deep of these pockets for many I'm not laying my the deep for many My favorite part is she didn't give off the cutest tweet in the world. This is like really... kind of funny explanation about this turtle that he meets. While he's like living the fraud, he's like, this terminal will come and go. The terminal will come and go, and then show back to the people that here. I would be like, it's okay.
I'm like right now, the terminal is like constantly disappearing. He's like, I'm coming in here. I'm coming in here. ride, and I'm going give you a ride, and and I'm give you to give ride, and I'm going to give you a ride, and I'm going to give you a ride, and I'm going to give you a ride, and I'm going to give you a ride, and I'm going to give you a ride, And so then Audrey, the tween daughter, looks at Eva and she goes, which one of you is eternal? And they're like, what?
And she goes, which one of you is eternal? You know, one of these comes back and again, one of the other leaves. It's a metaphor, like, think about it. And so they kind of just like, this is like a kind of classic film, filled with that, where they're like, like, I'm watching it. you. And this is like, in real life Tia has a tween daughter and many of this commentary is based on her. We also read her book that just came out in February called A Love Song for Ricky Wilde.
Steph graciously pre -ordered it and went to Pellmont Books and picked it up so that we could dive into it immediately with the rest of the readers. I was so into this book because how much I love it is like, I shouldn't have had the head space to go into it. Like, writing the copy of the previous book and expecting the next one to be magic, for writing this book, I still change great. great at Panther, which as we've discussed is the key to so many of these books.
This story is set in Harlem in New York. has a very, it's a very nice history and there's some kind of humorous stuff that they talk about. A lot of leading characters celebrates the history of our country on our day. I am going to go into this because I feel like it's important. So if you guys have time to see if you want to just see your head in 30 seconds. There's some time travel I want to... And I didn't know that going in. did I when I purchased the hardcover.
Yeah. And when I got to that part, I think out loud, forget the inner monologue, out loud, I went, oh no. Like I just, it was a turn I wasn't wanting or needing. And it felt like I got less excited to keep going. I did finish because I love her and I thought maybe it's going to redeem itself. I looked back at my Goodreads review this morning. I give this one three stars. It's still beautifully written. It's still very moving. It just didn't like gut me. Yeah. Seven Days in June did.
And I think that's common, where like a writer has a book that's crazy explosive successful and the follow -up sometimes just isn't on the same level. think that we should have gone into it not thinking at all about seven days in June because how can you even compare to that? You can't. It was perfection. Hard to follow it up, but I've been following along on her book tour because we follow her.
And it has been so freaking cool to see how many women of so many different ages, so many different races are showing up to support her every single place that she goes. Packed rooms, standing room only, people buying the hardcover, waiting to have it signed, like... like, people dressing as the character, even when I see it in her books. I mean, it's just like, it's awesome to see what a fandom she has. And whatever she comes out with. I'm sure I will read it.
Because I just, I don't know, similar to like Jasmine Guillory, I'm like, I just love this person and I'm just going to keep. her. We probably need to go back and read her first two books. Yes, so the other books are The Perfect Find, which is actually now a definitely similar book. I really like it. And then... Accidental Diva. Those are the two that came out earlier.
So if people are interested, we'll put all of this on Instagram so you have the full book list, but she does have others if you're curious about kind of what came before Seven Days in June. The other thing that I want to say about Seven Days in June is... there is a point in the book where I probably got very angry at one of my new year groups, you know. is light for them because she talks about cursed being optional to them and they want to play motion and not have fear of being laughed at.
And she's like, yeah, yeah, that's not you. Like, you don't want that. And she's like, I don't want that. But like, it would take the pressure off of me putting out there. books in this series. Like I would have a paycheck. to live off it for a lot of people. Because if you wish to do this at an instant, it would buy you some time. And so I'm wondering, I hope that that's not happening. with her book in real, I hope that's not happening with her book in real life.
And I think that she wouldn't let it happen. But I also want to talk about the cover just for a minute. minute. Because the color is just actual contrasts to contrasts of people that you can find in it's in my life. And... cannot do a full length QC character or a full length character. guy with the ax and then the girls in the flouncy dress and you know, the ones that I'm embarrassed to bring up to the register. It's not that at all.
of actions, gonna gonna gonna get of And so I think that the other book, the last one for a while, is similar. It's both happening again, but real cool. And I just think that that is a great testament to how hard it is to commit to doing this sort of right thing. And she's like, yeah. this is a book that's about these people and this is how I imagined it. And this is how it's going out into the world. And. you just don't really see a lot of that.
So I think that's the first thing I can do to raise the bar. and to have more people in the It's gentle. And that's it's all about. So, how the future is going to look. <|23.00|> it like from the side so you didn't really see her face? Oh Sorry, I'm thinking of the other books so as you said, later on, we'll have a read out and listen to it. And it happens that she's on the side of an Asian girl. And I was like, okay, so she's like, we're doing this.
And I just think that that is really... sure you're right and I and what's interesting is Another book we chatted about on here a couple weeks ago that I finished sex lies and sensibility That's also a black female romance author and her cover is like cartoony illustrated I read this week the second book. to Stephanie Garber's Once Upon a Broken Heart. This one's called The Ballad of Never After. I read the first one a couple weeks ago.
It's, I think it's considered like a YA fairy tale type book. It's exactly what I needed while tiling. It's quests and curses and magical spells and trying to figure out if this... course is very relevant in terms of how to connect with other people, how to avoid that. It was probably. It was just my nature. Just, you know, completely opposite from reality. So I'm enjoying it and now I have to order the third book. So, yeah. was in Florida, so I had some time in airport.
So I finished seven days in July and June. Oh my God. I've called it the wrong month every single time. Seven days in June, I finished it. And then a bunch of my students, I always try to do, um, book talks, like book pitches, before we go on the walk, because they don't know what it's like. And Tom goes, like, this is your time. Like, pick something you want to read, read it. So I use this. Plot like 10 books from my library.
like do book talks on them and like try to get them interested in ordering them or going to the library. Or we just had the book fair before break. And my students are like, big time readers this year, like the entire crew of them. So they jump in and then they have me email all of the titles. It's the cutest. It's like, it feels like a hug. I'm just like, this is the most wonderful. Sometimes they hit reply all and say, I just finished this one and I think so and so would like it.
And it's adorable. It's so cute. So I admitted that I had not read Good Girl's Guide to Murder. just holding back my eyes and I'm just how it's been. I told you that I had a few next to me. I'm just about to come across this line. And I think I have a friend. And I was like, I think I have a friend. it. So I'm going to read it over break. And they were like, oh my God, the girl from Wednesday, the best friend that's blonde, she's going to be the lead in it.
And they've already started filming it. And. There's no way, you must read it, the world is like, you might have to read this. So I ran over to the page and she read it, and I like, well, it's her mystery, at least this is all kind of genetic, and this girl decides to do her senior costume project on this girl, and it's a fact. found and her boyfriend commits suicide. And they basically think that that's his like admission of guilt. And this girl, no, this girl, and after that, a new boy.
And it was like, he was not like that. He was kind to her. I was like, I'm going this. And then she like wanders into this investigation, and she turns to him, and she turns, she very much wants to twist and things to see if she unveil, and it's really hard to believe. like that piece of good read and because it was from the perspective of a capsule project written by a teammate girl, which I really liked and they developed it fast.
And I just had a little bit of a setback I said, well, I found the director and so I did that. And the other thing is, butchered Blackburn, the first book that was called Trilogy, which I now know. that there are almost no more of the House of Commons and so it's not a single house, but what you said. But what you're trying to do, my word, has 857 ,000 people. It's about two people who are infamous serial killers who haven't just needed an adult to try to hurt.
and then also decide to make a game out of hunting people. And the assumption is that extra lives would be a good kill bad people. That's kind of how they like justify it. And so they make a game to like make the kill spicier and like more exciting for each of them, because this is how they like get off. They decide to hunt the same person and whoever gets there to the person first gets to kill them is basically. And that's what we have to do with the first one, the alien set.
This is my part of the setup. It's corky, it's actually pretty funny. I think that it's like super -cruciful art to have, but we'll see later on in development to come out of the past setup and decide it for our town. If you don't, it's gonna end up being a scary place to live. um, it has unbelievable readings. People on Tik TOK are raving about it. I think the second book comes out soon.
The author is very active on socials and she, like, you know, acts as a tool, she's like, all the other people in the and then you're doing it for them, and she's like, yeah, she's like, doing it. I'm interested to find out what the cookies are made of. It's kind of hard to use the word cookies. I'm not sure how use that. Basically, I'm interested in how to shape that. And in this first couple of pages, they talk about the fact that all the cookies are made of cookies.
of a body and how it looks like little orzo pastas. That doesn't bother you? Okay. Then you'll be fine probably. Molly wants to die. No. Orzo isn't gluten free, so it doesn't bother me. is a book I will not be reading but I look forward to hearing how Stephanie likes it. This week I went back to Lynn Painter land. We've talked about Lynn a lot. We have a dedicated episode about her. This book is called The Do -Over. Caitlin and Steph had already read it. This is a time loop. story.
I have to say, I think Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall, kind of wrecked me because that was such a good time loop and it was so well done and kept me kind of guessing and into it and... sure, for sure. Yes, totally different genre too, but I don't know. I think it kind of set me up to be like... I don't know that this is holding my attention. I felt that the first half was kind of slow and I was surprised because I love her writing and I love her banter.
And I was like, wow, I'm not like, I don't know racing through this in the way I have the other ones, but the back half I loved the two main characters, Emily and Nick wind up going on what she calls the day of no consequences, which I just love is like a concept. And it was just written so beautifully in the way that they're trying to like be very present with each other and realize that, you know, the clock's going to reset. And so. say I'm, say, be completely honest, get an eye out there.
And then like, and I was very into it and I felt like everything we've done, because I thought this could be a TV show, this could be a movie, this one especially, I thought, this would be better as a movie than what we've done. God, we talked earlier and it was a film. and then at the end, and I think she's done this for other books but maybe I just didn't notice it as much.
She has this one of five playlists, she was inspired by the characters, and I saw that and I immediately wanted look it up, because first of all it's like 50 % Taylor's book. There is one scene where I'm only thinking character, knowing that like the clocks could reset, just decides to do this unhinged shit one day for Christmas. And in that part of the book she says, I walked down the hall with Beastie Boys sabotage, like blaring in my head. And I was like, if that... that's cool.
It's a thing that happened in the future, but it was fine because it was a completely chosen song. So I know that if you liked the other videos, you should definitely have this to your list. Like I said, a little bit of soul <|pl|> <|translate|> started from me, but I was really happy that I read it. And then it just started at this moment. Okay, I'm ready. on a previous episode, and it was my last. book called Famous for a Living.
I'm only like 30 pages in so I'll let you guys know how it is but... Um, it has this cool kind of like visual treatment every chapter where it starts with, um, what looks like someone's Instagram account. And it's obviously about an influencer. So I'm looking forward to digging in. She is going to get canceled somehow and go to Montana. So I think I'm going to like it.
Um, if you guys want to follow along with what we're reading and also see all of the great stuff that we talked about today, we'll share all of the Tia Williams covers and everything else we mentioned, give us a follow over on Instagram. We're at plans are booked. You can also email us. Plans are booked at gmail .com. We love to hear from you. And until next time, our plans are booked.