Galaxies and Goddesses: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bookcast

Andrea: I’m Andrea.
Elizabeth: And I'm Elizabeth.
Andrea: Join us as we chat about sci-fi and fantasy books and beyond.
Elizabeth: Looking for a little escape from reality? So are we.
Andrea: Welcome to Galaxies and Goddesses.
Elizabeth: On this week's episode, we'll be discussing the changing of the seasons and how fall, or more specifically, how spooky season impacts our book choices.
Andrea: We'll talk about some of our favorite books with witches, vampires, or just some, kind of supernatural things.
Elizabeth: As well as books that we'd like to read that are on our to be read list.
Andrea: Let's get started!
Andrea: So there's just so much I could go into about spooky season. It is probably my favorite time of the year. And I'm curious, Elizabeth, do you decorate for Halloween?
Elizabeth: Not really. I might carve a pumpkin and put a pumpkin out, but otherwise, not really. No. Do you?
Andrea: I have my holiday bin of stuff and about half of it is Halloween and half is Christmas and there's like a few maybe Valentine's Day things sprinkled in there.
Andrea: I have to be a little bit more strategic with my holiday decor in general with having little kids now.
Elizabeth: Sure.
Elizabeth: I have a fair number of Christmas decorations, but don't have any Halloween decorations. There was a woman that lived next to my grandmother for years and years and years, and then later I lived in that apartment, so she was my neighbor too. And she was kind of the, the kooky old, you know, single neighbor lady.
Elizabeth: And she had so many Halloween decorations. She once counted them and it was like 160 or something, a little outrageous.
Andrea: It's fun to see other people around the neighborhood decorate too. I'm always surprised it's like, where does this go?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: For the rest of the year?
Elizabeth: Some people go crazy! There's so much stuff!
Andrea: Anyway, I do wanna talk about books, but maybe because it's my favorite season, I feel like I tend to read books about witches and ghosts and vampires all year round. But especially during this time of year.
Elizabeth: Are you reading anything right now? That’s spooky season?
Andrea: I just finished listening to the audio book for The Heartless Hunter, the Crimson Moth number one by Kristen Ciccarelli.
Andrea: It was on the darker side I'd say there's more like witch hunts and there's some kind of gruesome scenes I wasn't expecting, because it seemed YA and for a younger audience. And then all of a sudden there'd be like blood like descriptions with kind of …
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Graphic blood.
Elizabeth: Did you feel like the cover of this book made it look like a young adult novel as well?
Andrea: I think so. It has really large text for the title of the book, and then it has some glitter kind of on the ends. It's a very visually pretty cover.
Andrea: It follows the story of a young woman named Rune who has to turn her grandmother in for being a witch. And then she finds out later that she's also a witch and she wasn't expecting it, to be a witch, because magic doesn't have a clear system of who gets witch powers in this world. So she has a lot of guilt about turning her grandmother in and then there's the Enemies to Lovers theme.
Andrea: And yes, I don't wanna give too much away. I read it because it was spooky season and it was kind of fun, maybe I'll listen to the second one next Halloween.
Andrea: I mean, on Goodreads, it has a 4.18. And over 300,000 ratings for the Heartless Hunter. Rebel Witch is the second book, and that has a 4.2 on Goodreads with over 190,000 ratings.
Elizabeth: Oh wow.
Andrea: And that was published this year.
Elizabeth: Oh wow.
Andrea: And so it was a very highly rated series and I'm sure a lot of people enjoyed it.
Andrea: One of the things I liked about the book is it had a very practical magic system in a sense of there were very hard rules about blood being the source of magic and sort of creative ways for how to procure that blood. We'll say that I had never read any witch or fantasy book before, so yeah, maybe blood is a theme on today's episode.
Andrea: 'Cause you were telling me that you were reading Carrie?
Elizabeth: yeah,
Andrea: by Stephen King. Right?
Elizabeth: Totally. Yeah. I, yeah, I finished it the other day. It is his first book and Stephen King in particular, because he's so prolific and he's written so many books over a really long amount of time, you can sort of follow at times someone's writing skills that, like Carrie is good, but it's a little bit sort of rough and choppy almost. 'Cause it's his very first book.
Andrea: That's what I was gonna say. I was like, did you know that going into it? When you said you were reading Carrie for kind of around Halloween time. I looked it up and I was like, oh, his, his first book and there was a little bit of history about why he was a little hesitant about publishing it and he went on to become such a prolific writer. So…
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: It's almost just an interesting book to read from that standpoint of it being Stephen King's first book.
Elizabeth: Yeah, totally.
Elizabeth: So it's 51 years old. There are parts in it that are a bit cringey for sort of modern gender roles. And a young white man is writing this like about a female main character that's a little like, ooh.
Elizabeth: But yeah, so Carrie, it starts with her character getting her first period in a shower scene. She doesn't know what it is.
Elizabeth: She's like 17 and so quite late, honestly. And she doesn't really know what it is 'cause she's from a super, like, religious conservative single mom that mostly they just just reads the Bible all the time. And so like, never really discussed that kind of information. So she doesn't know what it is.
Elizabeth: She thinks she's dying. All the girls start throwing tampons and pads at her and yelling at her like, plug it up, plug it up. It’s terrible.
Andrea: Oh gosh.
Elizabeth: It’s terrible. But, you know, thinking about like a young white man writing this scene, right?
Elizabeth: Anyway then she has telekinetic powers and as sort of like a frank, guy who's actually dating somebody else asks her to go to prom and then they end up getting voted prom king and queen.
Elizabeth: This story's 50 years old, so I'm not like giving spoilers or anything, you know.
Andrea: I feel like the like iconic image that I think of when I think of Carrie is yeah, just like blood being dumped on someone. And I think that's why I've never watched the movie because really like honestly, blood, just, blood and horror usually aren't my things. I'm okay with vampires and blood. There's something about it being a vampire that I'm like, okay, that's far enough from reality, but
Elizabeth: And vampires are sexy.
Andrea: Yeah.
Andrea: But yeah, I haven't really watched Carrie, the movie or read the book.
Andrea: But I think it's interesting from the standpoint of it being the debut novel by Stephen King.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: And then she does have telekinetic powers, and I think that is qualifying as fantasy to a certain extent.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Maybe it's technically magical realism.
Elizabeth: Oh, are you gonna get into like the semantics of what counts as fantasy versus not? I mean, it's fantastical.
Andrea: So would you recommend people read it? Like even though it's kind of cringey, let.
Elizabeth: It is kind of cringey, but like, it is a classic. He has such a wild imagination and so many of his stories are so different from all the other stories.
Elizabeth: If you're a fan of Stephen King, I'd say yes. If someone's not a fan of Stephen King, I wouldn't start with it. If I read anything by Stephen King, I would not start with it. It definitely, a lot of other books that I 100% would start with, 11/22/63.
Elizabeth: That's just a great book. The Stand.
Andrea: The Stand was the first Stephen King book that I read, and I really haven't read much Stephen King, I think we've mentioned this before. But I did enjoy The Stand.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: I think part of it too is like my dad read it and said it was really good and I was like, huh, maybe. Maybe I'd like this.
Elizabeth: I think some of his collections of short stories are great. So much of Stephen King has been turned into movies and television, and you don't even necessarily realize how many things he actually wrote. So like, the Shawshank Redemption that's like based off of a story that Stephen King wrote so the, the name of the short story is actually Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.
Andrea: Ah.
Elizabeth: I think right.
Elizabeth: But then also in Different Seasons is the story that they turned into the movie Stand By Me, I wanna say.
Andrea: Oh,
Andrea: Interesting.
Elizabeth: But anyway yeah. So like, if somebody's really into Stephen King, then definitely like, it should be read.
Elizabeth: But yeah, if you've never read any, don't start there.
Andrea: I'm just reading this from NBC News. This came out recently.
Andrea: It says King's Books were censored 206 times.
Andrea: With Carrie and The Stand among the other 87 of his works affected.
Elizabeth: 87 of his works? What? I don't think he's written that many books.
Andrea: Yeah. I mean, this is from an NBC news article. Yeah.
Elizabeth: Wild.
Andrea: Well, it's really fitting because this week is, banned books week. So
Elizabeth: Oh…
Elizabeth: Totally. My sister's book club. The most recent book club that they had, it was her choice. And she picked Beartown by Frederik Backman. And apparently
Andrea: Oh.
Elizabeth: That is on a list of band books. And so she did a, thing with her book club. I didn't get to go unfortunately.
Elizabeth: But she did a whole thing with her book club about band books. 'cause actually over the years, the book club that she's in, they've been together for like 25 years, maybe like a really long time. And so they've read many books over the years. And they've read many books that are on banned book lists. So that's cool.
Andrea: I feel like I could do a better job of educating myself on what books are banned. I was exposed to a lot of different books growing up and I think it's just better to have the option of reading these books. Right. I don't think books should be banned.
Elizabeth: I agree. I mean, I think there is some room for discussion of like, what counts as like a young adult book and where do young adult books get shelved versus what is considered more adult?
Andrea: Yeah.
Andrea: Anyway, witches. I like witches
Elizabeth: Yes, you do.
Andrea: You know, like how Carrie has telekinetic powers, does that make her a witch? Do they ever in the book call her a witch?
Elizabeth: Ooh no, think so.
Andrea: Is there ever like the talk about witchcraft mentioned?
Elizabeth: Ooh, no, they call it a gene, the TK gene, telekinesis gene.
Andrea: Okay.
Elizabeth: That gets passed down through families. But if I remember correctly, maybe recessive. So it doesn't come out all that often.
Elizabeth: The book is interesting it's like kind of choppy with what would be considered the normal flow of the plot versus these snippets from magazines and books that are written about what happened in this town on prom night.
Elizabeth: It helps push the plot forward. 'Cause these snippets will be sort of like in time with the narration. Does that make sense?
Andrea: Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: You know, It'll have law enforcement interrogating witnesses about what happened, what they saw.
Elizabeth: And so it'll be transcripts from those interrogations. So it's, necessarily like from point A to B.
Andrea: I do like it sometimes when books include other elements, like aside from just the narrative of the main character that you're following,
Elizabeth: Like an epistolary novel?
Andrea: Yes! Yes, like The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta. I really liked that. And you know, I think it adds to the richness of a book when they have other points of view in general.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Once again, this book is not very long and a lot of the book is those different things. So actually I think it was a bit too much in this case. It's an interesting story and Stephen King's imagination is incredible, but it's his very first book and he yeah, definitely honed his writing skills better as time went on.
Andrea: He got better over time. I mean, I think that's, yeah.
Andrea: That's okay to say it.
Elizabeth: And sort of like the first book of the Dark Tower series, like the Gunslinger is weird. And I'll say it again. You just gotta get through the Gunslinger, get to The Drawing of Three, and once you start page one of The Drawing of the Three, you're like hook, line, and sinker man. You just gotta get past the next page past The Gunslinger. You know, and The Gunslinger was many years before the drawing of the three was written. He honed his writing skills better. He fleshed out this world more.
Andrea: Well, I don't know if they call them witches in the book yet or not, or they just sort of magical academia, but we've mentioned it before, the book by RF Kuang, Katabasis or Katabasis. There's, there's a lot of different ways to pronounce it, I guess. But I really wanna read that I got to go to the lecture that Seattle Arts and Lectures hosted.
Andrea: And she is just a great speaker. I was so impressed with her answers to the questions. She had very eloquent answers, so it made me excited to read the book. And what I had sort of heard before was that it was perhaps overly academic, but I'm like, maybe that's why I'm going to like it, because I like academia and all of the things that she researches, that she references, I think I'll find interesting.
Andrea: And I think it'll make the book better. So after seeing her speak, I am just so excited to read the book and I have not read it yet, but I'm, I'm hoping to read it before the end of the year. So that's one of the books I have on my 10 before the end list.
Elizabeth: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: What about books about vampires?
Andrea: So last year I kind of did a big vampire binge. I tried to read as many books about vampires in the month of October as I could. So I haven't read as many this year. But in general, I just like vampires. I will read them at all times of the year. And kind of a fun one maybe.
Andrea: Was Bride by Ali Hazelwood and it's a vampire romance.
Elizabeth: I mean they’re all vampire romance. That’s not a thing you have to say. It’s always vampire romance.
Andrea: It was a vampire werewolf romance. You can't say that about all…
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: all books.
Elizabeth: But vampire equals romance.
Andrea: Yeah. But it was fun. And she just came out with a new book Mate.
Elizabeth: Side little tangent here about the word mate. I find that so many of the books that we are have read are reading, you know, like ACOTAR, like the Fourth Wing books. Like so much of Romantasy, they always use the term mate. And it bothers me every time. I hate it. I just wanna make this clear to all the people out there. 'Cause I think there are probably a lot of people who might agree with me. Like, it's just so overdone just stop. I, I, anyway, okay. I said my piece,
Andrea: I think it's meant to show like this fantasy element or that they're not humans, right? They're some other creature that has a mate, like the soul mate.
Elizabeth: Like some sort of bond … beyond or separate from love?
Andrea: Yes.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: I guess so to your point, I mean, it's dehumanizing I suppose.
Andrea: Right. So like a werewolf mate, A vampire mate.
Elizabeth: I mean, I suppose it depends which fantastical world you're in. 'cause they're all gonna be different, have their own rules a about, and I'm sure.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Right.
Elizabeth: I guess I'm sort of externally processing this as we're talking because I've never really thought about like, why does it bother me so much? When we talk about animals, we always say, oh, they mate for life.
Elizabeth: You know, like swans. They mate for life.
Andrea: Right.
Andrea: But yeah, so my, my favorite vampire book from last year would've been Bride by Ali Hazelwood. It was a fun read. And you know, you have to be ready for a little bit of spice with that. Have you read it?
Elizabeth: No.
Elizabeth: I'm trying to think vampire books that I've read. I haven't read anything in a while, but I definitely read all of the True Blood books. And the show True Blood had six or seven seasons.
Andrea: I loved that show.
Elizabeth: Oh my god, so good!
Andrea: I was addicted to True Blood
Elizabeth: And this actually I think is one case where the show is better than the books, and that's mostly because, Alan Ball.
Elizabeth: He did Six Feet Under, TV show. So he did a really good job, I think, like turning it into a fantastic TV show.
Elizabeth: But there were like, as far as I remember, maybe I've read 13 of them? 11 or 13 of them.
Elizabeth: And you know, like the first books were better and then it just got a little like, kind of kitschy towards the end. But yeah, I haven't read one of those in a long time.
Elizabeth: Have you ever read Dracula by Brom Stoker?
Andrea: I started reading Dracula when I was in high school and I just never finished it.
Elizabeth: Oh.
Andrea: It was one of those that was like, you could read this as an option from a list of books that you could choose to write a book report about. And I started it and was like, I'm gonna read something else actually.
Andrea: [A] book that I read this year that had vampires where vampires weren't the main character or like weren't the main creature kind of until later on in the story. So it didn't immediately come to mind. Was the book Quicksilver by Calli Hart and that was excellent. Yeah, that was one of the five star reads on my list for this year and she's coming out with the second book in November called Brimstone.
Andrea: I'm so excited to read that. It totally fits with fated mates. And it's five stars for like Andrea's guilty pleasure five stars. I was maybe gonna save it to talk about it when we talk about When the Moon Hatched. 'Cause I feel like they are in the same vein. It's a similar feel for the type of book. But I really liked Quicksilver and I would recommend that you read it if you liked ACOTAR or Throne of Glass or like all those kind of Romantasy books that kind of started this I don't wanna call it a fad 'cause I feel like there's always been romance and fantasy, but it, it sort of hit the mainstream now.
Andrea: And I'd heard mixed reviews about Quicksilver, but then I read it and I loved it and so I'm like, I don't care if it's not great literature. I 100% enjoyed reading it and I think I read it in like three or four days.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: So…
Elizabeth: Cool.
Andrea: Yeah, it's a fun read.
Elizabeth: Yeah, you did tell me about that book. And then I put a hold on it in the library and then it arrived and I didn't pick it up in time and it was re-shelved. I missed it. Oops.
Andrea: Oops.
Elizabeth: I gotta try again.
Andrea: So that's a vampire book that's on my TBR. Like I actually pre-ordered the second in the series Brimstone. And I'm excited to read that in November. Another book on my 10 before the end actually.
Elizabeth: Nice.
Andrea: But witches and vampires do make great Halloween costumes, so I think I've been both a witch and a vampire at different times throughout my life. And I think one of the things that can really up the quality or sort of believability of any Halloween costume is temporary tattoos.
Andrea: So I just feel like it's the one time a year where you could wear temporary tattoos and nobody will give you any grief about it. It just makes your costume look 10 times better. And we actually have a promo code for Sparrow and Wilde, they're a company that sells bookish merchandise and temporary tattoos, and you can get 10% off with the code GALAXIES.
Andrea: So it's G-A-L-A-X-I-E-S from their website. They have temporary tattoos and they have other things too. But what I really liked was they had one that was like a full sleeve of these swirly bits. You could do the swirly bits around your wrist and have like the, the bonds that show up and some of these books.
Andrea: Right. Like, you could, could play with that a little bit.
Andrea: Like you and your mate have the same temporary tattoo.
Elizabeth: Was that both ACOTAR and Fourth Wing that had the tattoos?
Andrea: It’s a thing in multiple books.
Elizabeth: It is a thing, That's cool.
Andrea: So, but I think it's a fun thing. I enjoy it.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: I've worn temporary tattoos before to like the Renaissance Festival and gotten compliments on it, and somebody asked me if it was real, and it's like, I had to say, no, it isn't real. She's like, oh, 'cause it's such good, like line quality. Like, thanks, thanks.
Elizabeth: What kind of a tattoo at a Renaissance festival? Like what kind of tattoo did you have?
Andrea: It was like a skull and roses, tattoo
Elizabeth: Ah,
Andrea: On my back. It looked cool. I was kind of dressed up in a pirate theme. Yeah.
Elizabeth: That's cool.
Elizabeth: I remember as a kid we had a cool witches hat so I definitely went in as a witch as a kid. I don't think I've ever gone as a vampire though.
Andrea: There's time.
Elizabeth: Still time.
Andrea: Because the thing is like, vampires get to be older.
Elizabeth: True.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: And often are old.
Elizabeth: Oh, I've definitely read the Twilight series. That's been in a long time.
Andrea: I feel like Twilight is making a comeback.
Elizabeth: Really?
Andrea: I've seen some new, deluxe collector's editions.
Andrea: So the original Twilight book was first published in 2005, so it'd be the 20th anniversary of Twilight.
Elizabeth: Huh.
Andrea: And they really some special editions for that. Yeah,
Elizabeth: Hmm. Have you read those?
Andrea: I, but
Elizabeth: You've read those.
Andrea: I have, yes. I don't wanna say of course, but of course. Yeah. Yes, yes. And Stephanie Meyer, the author of Twilight, it was from the Phoenix area.
Andrea: There's some references in the book to Scottsdale and it's like, I know where that is.
Elizabeth: Yes, you do. And then takes place in the, Pacific Northwest,
Andrea: Yes, in Forks, Washington. So at the time I was not living in Washington when I read it, but yeah, I definitely felt like a connection to the books and Stephanie Myers book that was for adults, it was called The Host. That was really good too. It was about these aliens that embedded themselves in humans, that used humans as a host.
Andrea: And that also took place in Arizona. For people, if they're trying to go back and read Twilight, I'd say also go back and read The Host. 'cause I thought it was pretty good. Granted, I did read it a long time ago. I have not read it recently, but I enjoyed it when I read it back in like, probably 2010 or so.
Elizabeth: Hmm.
Andrea: There's so many different things. We've talked about witches and vampires, but there's also ghosts and haunted houses and other things that lurk in the night. Halloween is just a fun time of year, I feel like.
Elizabeth: Yeah,
Elizabeth: I was gonna say is it just an American holiday?
Andrea: Hmm.
Elizabeth: I mean do you actually know where it's from or what it's from?
Andrea: At one point I had heard of where it was originally from, but I couldn't tell you.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Why don't you enlighten us, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: So I have lived in Ireland lived there for a year and a half in the last couple years. Like, maybe kind of knew it was Irish or Celtic or something, maybe, but not really. But now having lived there, I, know much more about it.
Elizabeth: So yeah, it's spelled S-A-M-H-A-I-N and it's pronounced saa-wn. And it is, if I remember correctly it's I think it's considered like the first day of the year.
Andrea: Hmm.
Elizabeth: The the Celtic calendar. And it's considered the day where the separation between the present and the sort of other world is the thinnest.
Elizabeth: And so then there can be, ghouls or spirits can sort of come into our present current world.
Andrea: That's similar to sort of the Mexican Day of the Dead idea too, right? Where like, that's the day where you go honor your ancestors and that's when they're closest to our realm kind of right.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Like yeah. The Day of the Dead. Yeah, exactly. And so there are all these traditions of what people will do to protect their house and their family from these spirits and the other worldly people. And I think that's where like the Jack o’ Lanterns.
Elizabeth: I don't know that they would always use pumpkins to carve, but like, you know, sort of lights to have, lights to kind of protect your house and keep the spirits away. And I think they maybe would use turnips or something.
Elizabeth: They'd maybe carve turnips.
Andrea: I've heard of that. I've actually carved a turnip before.
Elizabeth: Yeah, totally.
Elizabeth: So then my understanding is that with all of the Irish immigrants that came to the United States, they brought this holiday with them. Trying to keep out the bad spirits, then kids would start to play pranks, on those days.
Andrea: Hmm.
Elizabeth: And so then in an effort, to keep the kids at bay, you would just give them candy instead.
Andrea: Oh, interesting.
Elizabeth: Like don’t egg my house, or don't pull these pranks.
Andrea: So instead of the evil things that you're trying to keep away from your door, you're trying to appease the children.
Elizabeth: You’re bribing the children to not egg your house or something. Yeah. So you give them candy and that's why kids will say trick or treat. It's like, you know, and you're going for the treat.
Andrea: Oh, like a prank or a treat, trick or treat?
Elizabeth: Yeah. I think, I don’t know.
Elizabeth: There could be some hand waving there, but anyway it sounds right.
Andrea: It sounds accurate.
Elizabeth: If anyone wants to correct me, please do.
Elizabeth: So yeah, that's sort of the history of it.
Elizabeth: What's funny is that with the spread of American culture, there's so many movies about Halloween, American movies that have been made over the years.
Elizabeth: So that has spread. And so other cultures have now sort of embraced the American version of Halloween, including in Ireland.
Elizabeth: And so now in Ireland, like kids dress up in costumes.
Elizabeth: I don't know if all the kids go around for candy, if that's happens everybody everywhere. I remember when I was in au pair in Germany in like the early 2010s, 2009/2010, I was surprised when there were kids who dressed up in costumes and came around to ask for candy at our house in Germany.
Elizabeth: And that's definitely an American influence.
Andrea: Well, speaking of going to houses for candy . Have you read any good haunted house books or are any that you would like to read, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: You know, I think that I could tie this back into Stephen King actually. I feel like the Dark Tower series, there's a good haunted house in there.
Andrea: Did you read The Shining by Stephen King?
Elizabeth: No, I haven't read The Shining.
Elizabeth: Haunted hotel. Haunted lodge.
Elizabeth: Yeah, at one point I think it's maybe, Ooh, I'm gonna guess Wastelands number three in the Dark Tower series.
Andrea: Well, one that I've had on my list for a while is Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno Garcia. And that has some haunted house aspects to it.
Elizabeth: Is that like a sanatorium or something? Like a haunted sanatorium?
Elizabeth: I'm thinking about a different book actually.
Andrea: So, honestly, I've just heard through other people that Mexican Gothic is really good. It's the first book A lot of people have read by Sylvia Moreno Garcia, and then they say they want to read more, and they say it's sort of about a haunted house.
Andrea: So I've only heard through the grapevine, so to speak, that it's a good book. I wasn't as familiar with what the actual storyline is, but just knowing that there's a haunted house, creepy aspect and that it was good. So, yeah, I, I'd like to read that.
Andrea: You said there was a book that you were thinking of and it wasn't Mexican Gothic. What was that book?
Elizabeth: Uh is called The Empusium by, Olga Tokarczuk. She's a Polish author. And it might actually even be translated from Polish. It set in a tuberculosis sanitarium in 1913, Poland. It blends elements of a horror story, comedy and feminist parable.
Elizabeth: Another book by that same author that I recently purchased at a amused bookstore. I haven't read it yet, Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead is by that same author, Olga Tokarczuk.
Andrea: I've heard. That's good.
Elizabeth: Yeah!
Elizabeth: It’s on that Reader's Choice List from the New York Times book review. Reader's Choice List of the Hundred Best Books of the 21st century. I feel like we can't have an episode without me bringing up that list, which I have not read either, but I've recently purchased it at a used bookstore in Butte. Butte, Montana.
Andrea: We talked a little bit at the beginning of summer how, when summer comes, we might read outside.
Andrea: So it's obvious that in the fall you might read indoors, but there is something nice about getting cozy under a blanket and while it's cold outside
Elizabeth: With a nice cup of tea
Andrea: Yeah.
Andrea: Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Or hot chocolate
Elizabeth: Mm-hmm.
Andrea: or
Elizabeth: Wine.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah. I suppose, do you feel like your reading habits change in the fall?
Andrea: I think I read more. Yeah. Just because it's like rainy, and dark outside.
Elizabeth: I don't know if my habits changed that much. Maybe I might be more inclined to pick up a, bigger heftier book. 'cause the thought of like,
Andrea: Mm-hmm. Hmm.
Elizabeth: Curling up under a blanket with a cup of tea, you know, maybe.
Andrea: Yeah, I feel like maybe I go for the two opposite ends of the spectrum at this time of the year. Like, I'll either go for the big chunky book that I want to finish before the end of the year, or I'll go for a tiny novella that I wanna try to read a bunch of them to increase my book count, the number of books I've read before the end of the year.
Andrea: So it could go both ways, but.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Fair enough.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: I think I kind of do that all the time, though. I won't necessarily read lots of long books or short books all in a row. If I pick up a long book, then maybe the next couple might be a bit shorter, and then maybe I might go back to a long book.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Like a pallet cleanser book in the middle. Yeah.
Elizabeth: I don't know if I necessarily read a whole lot differently based upon the season.
Andrea: You just read all the time, Elizabeth, so that's, is that what you're saying? yeah.
Elizabeth: I do. I think there are often other things that are affecting my book choice and not necessarily the season of the year.
Andrea: I think that's a fair answer saying that, the season doesn't impact the book choice as much as other factors, but I do like the idea of picking a theme for the month of October, trying to read spooky themed books, whether it's vampires or witches or haunted houses.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Or maybe alternating between all three of those. I think it kind of a fun time of year to do that.
Elizabeth: Not to say that I don't ever choose books based on the season. Right? Like I specifically read Carrie 'cause you had said to me like, oh, you know, okay, let's, let's talk about spooky season books. But then was looking at the books that I do have and so then as I was looking at it and was like, oh yeah, Carrie, I just have it on the shelf. And so yeah, I was like, well sure, why not?
Elizabeth: Also another one that I, I don't think my sister listens to this, so I think it's safe for me to say, at least for now. I bought a copy of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I've never actually read it, and it was a funny little, kind of a silly copy, but I'm gonna give it to my sister for Christmas, so if she hears this, oh, well. Whoops. I ruined your Christmas surprise.
Andrea: Oh no.
Elizabeth: But I'm gonna give her this copy of a Christmas Carol.
Elizabeth: And I actually think what might be kind of fun, speaking of novella, it's like not very long, it could actually be kind of a fun book to like, read out loud. Who does that anymore?
Andrea: Oh.
Elizabeth: Have like a family tradition of like, every year at Christmas, over the couple of days of your Christmas holiday, we sit together and read a Christmas Carol out loud.
Elizabeth: I'm proposing that as a new Christmas tradition.
Andrea: Nice.
Elizabeth: So yeah.That could be a, you know, seasonal book.
Andrea: I do definitely try to get at least one snowy book in December. I think that's kind of fun.
Elizabeth: Nice.
Elizabeth: Unfortunately, that concludes this week's episode. We've reached the end of another cosmic journey on galaxies and goddesses.
Andrea: Don't worry. The adventure never really ends. There are always more stories to explore and let's be honest, more bookish, tangents for us to go on.
Elizabeth: But hey, it's part of the fun. If you loved today's episode, make sure to subscribe, leave a review and share in the magic!
Andrea: Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll be reviewing When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker.
Elizabeth: And in the meantime, keep your mind fueled by the magic of stories.
Andrea: And never stop chasing the world's waiting for you between the pages. Thanks everyone!