Galaxies and Goddesses: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bookcast

Independent Bookstore Day Adventures in Montana
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.
[musical intro]
Andrea: Welcome to Galaxies and Goddesses.
Elizabeth: On this week's episode, we're talking about our Independent Bookstore Day adventures.
Andrea: Specifically we'll be chatting about bookstores we visited together, and fun bookish finds that made the day special and sweet.
Elizabeth: On Independent Bookstore Day itself, we visited five different bookstores in total, a mix of new, used, and a little bit of both, but we also saw some other bookstores in the few days before and after the day as well.
Andrea: Let's get started.
Andrea: A brief explanation of what Independent Bookstore Day is. It's a nationwide event the last Saturday in April celebrating independent bookstores across the United States. They usually have exclusive merchandise or discounts and it's just a really fun day to go out and buy books with a bunch of other book lovers. There's always this fun energy associated with it, and it's like a little holiday for people who love books. Had you ever done Independent Bookstore Day events before the podcast or was last year your first year?
Elizabeth: Well no, we went once in Seattle.
Andrea: Oh, that's right. Yes.
Elizabeth: It was some years ago but there was the passport.
Andrea: The stamp program for the passports in Seattle. Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: When you went to the store, the store would stamp your little passport that you could pick up a blank one at any of the bookstores that were participating.
Andrea: There's like a one time use discount if you go to a certain number of stores. And then a larger discount for all of the stores if you go to all of the ones on the passport. So…
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Unfortunately, neither of us was in Seattle this year, but we trekked out to Montana.
Andrea: Montana.
Elizabeth: Yeah. I don't know, you say unfortunately or fortunately, neither of us were in Seattle 'cause we were in Montana.
Elizabeth: Yeah, so Andrea came on Friday and flew into Bozeman and I picked her up. And we spent the night in Bozeman. On Saturday we went to three bookstores in Bozeman.
Andrea: Well actually, right after I landed we did go to a used bookstore that I didn't think was gonna be participating.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Andrea: And then we found out, “if you guys come tomorrow with the receipt from another bookstore, then you get an extra 10% off.”
Elizabeth: Right.
Andrea: So that was incentive to come back the next day.
Elizabeth: So we went to that bookstore twice.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: It's called Aisle of Books in Bozeman used bookstore. There's one in Butte, Montana. Also a used bookstore. I've been to that one too. That's a really good used bookstore.
Andrea: Yes, it was really good.
Elizabeth: A lot of different books to choose from, tons of books. Like, mean I probably could have brought in a dolly and walked out with a dolly full of books. I mean seriously.
Andrea: Well we saw somebody leaving with a giant box full of books.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Mhmm.
Andrea: And she was so happy. She had a giant smile on her face and that's what I'm talking about, the fun community vibes of you cheering people on for their book finds.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Trying to encourage everybody to buy more books.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah. So when we went on Friday and then found out that the next day they were actually doing a 20% off deal. But then if you brought the receipt from another bookstore that you went to that same day, that was an additional 10% off.
Elizabeth: So total you could get 30% off your already discounted books 'cause they're used. Yeah, that was a great bookstore. The people that work at that store really love books. I remember just talking about titles with the person checking out.
Elizabeth: That was a cute bookstore.
Andrea: It was fun.
Elizabeth: Before I picked up Andrea, once again this is still on Friday, 'cause I drove from Helena to Bozeman to pick her up. So along the way you pass through a town called Townsend and there's a used bookstore called Reading Leaves in Townsend.
Elizabeth: So I actually stopped there and bought a few books before I even picked Andrea up.
Elizabeth: Saturday we started with the Country Bookshelf, which I think was all new. New books.
Andrea: That seemed like all new books. Yes.
Andrea: They had a lot of those shelf talkers, like little description for books, like staff picks and recommendations. That was impressive.
Elizabeth: There were a lot of staff picks. I remember thinking to myself that clearly the people that work in this bookstore are very well read, ‘cuz there's so many staff picks and they had a really great selection of books. I think you kind of mentioned that it wasn't necessarily all brand new books that were published in the last year or two. But a lot of just really solid selection.
Elizabeth: You know, it's always kind of fun when you look at a shelf and can say to yourself, oh, I've read that, and that, and that and that…
Elizabeth: When the bookshelf sort of matches your own previously read and TBR list.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: They’re like your kind of books.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: They had a discount book section upstairs.
Andrea: The bargain book balcony.
Elizabeth: The bargain balcony. I think I bought two books there.
Elizabeth: I bought a bookmark for you 'cause you have the $5 minimum charge on your credit card.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: And you're like $4 bookmark was all you were buying, so I bought you bookmark.
Elizabeth: So yeah, so I bought from the bargain balcony Vesper Flights by Helen McDonald and Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. I haven't read anything by Helen McDonald, but her book H is for Hawk is a cover that I've seen around, I don't even know if I've heard anything about it. It's got a good cover and it looks good.
Elizabeth: H is for Hawk has been turned into a movie. Came out last year.
Elizabeth: And so then this other one, Vesper Flights, is a book of essays, nature memoir type essays.
Elizabeth: And then, yeah, Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. I've read an American Marriage by her, which is really good. So when there's a book that is new, but discounted off the price, by an author you like, then sure. So I bought that.
Andrea: It's hard to pass that up. Yeah, it's definitely hard.
Andrea: Speaking of movies that are coming out, they turned Remarkably Bright Creatures into a movie for Netflix, and that comes out this Friday.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Andrea: So I'm excited to watch that. And I think you still have that on your to read list, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: It is. It is.
Andrea: It's a rare case where I've read the book before Elizabeth has, but it's a really cute book and it takes place in the Pacific Northwest, which is a nostalgia point for me. Looking forward to seeing that movie adaptation.
Elizabeth: After the Country Bookshelf, we went to Vargo's Jazz City and Books. Like three doors down on Main Street in Bozeman.
Elizabeth: Three doors down from the Country Bookshelf. That is also a music store, so they also sell vinyl records and CDs, and they have an incredible postcard selection.
Elizabeth: And I have also bought postcards in there before.
Elizabeth: You bought a book there didn’t you?
Andrea: I bought two books there from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Section. I bought a book of short stories by Ted Chiang called Exhalation, and I bought the second book in the Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series. that comes after a Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. It's called A Closed and Common Orbit, I want to keep reading more of that series.
Andrea: One of the cool things about that bookstore, Vargo’s. They had a list of NPR Readers Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy books.
Andrea: Number one on the list was Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. And the second one was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and then Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Four was Dune by Frank Herbert. Five was A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.
Andrea: I had that feeling of I'm doing pretty good. I've read all those books. So that was fun, and I took a picture of it so that I can start going through the list. I know that you were going through the list of the New York Times 100 Best Critics Choice. Yeah, so now I have my own list I can follow.
Andrea: I have a new list to guide my reading outside of the podcast.
Elizabeth: The two lists are the New York Times Book Review 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. One list is the Critic's Choice and the other list is The Readers’ Choice.
Elizabeth: I don't remember you telling me that you've found this list of sci-fi fantasy books. You did not show that to me. You should send that to me 'cause I'm a big fan of book lists.
Elizabeth: When I looked at that Readers’ Choice list I was impressed with the list. I've read many of them and agree with most of the books that are on that list being some of the best books of the 21st century. So I just figured it was a good list to guide my reading and to use. But that doesn't mean that I only use that list. I'm a big fan of book lists like that.
Andrea: Other lists, other influences.
Elizabeth: Yeah, uh cause…
Andrea: Okay.
Elizabeth: I’ve read all of those except for Ender's Game. I haven't read Ender's Game, I've read Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. So I should read Ender's Game.
Andrea: Anyway, back to Independent Bookstore Day travels. So we hit those first three bookstores all on Independent Bookstore Day. But we didn't get to talk about the third bookstore. We went back to Aisle of Books and we got some more books.
Elizabeth: Got some more books.
Andrea: And that, I remember there were some books I was debating on buying, but I'm like, “wait, do I already have this book at home?" I couldn't remember. Traveling, I didn't wanna take home a big book that I might already have.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I’ve definitely done that. Like I think I do…
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: And usually I am right. If my gut instinct is that I already have it, I probably do.
Elizabeth: But we went to that bookstore the day before. So I'd already scoped out some books that I wanted to buy. And so what was kind of fun is that when we went back the next day, one of the books that I had scoped out the day before was gone!
Andrea: Ohh!
Elizabeth: And somebody had already bought it, which is great. And we weren't there that late. We were there at maybe one o’clock.
Elizabeth: But that was The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. My sister's read that book and she said it's really good. But that was the one that I did not buy 'cause it was gone.
Elizabeth: Another one that I bought was called The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Elizabeth: He also wrote Klara in the Sun. So I read that very recently. And it is excellent. He also wrote a book called Never Let Me Go. Both of those books, by the way, are on that New York Times Reader's Choice 100 Best of the 21st Century.
Elizabeth: Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize in literature.
Andrea: Wow.
Elizabeth: That’s always awarded to somebody, not for a specific book, but for the books that they have written, for their body of work.
Elizabeth: The other one I bought was called Shōgun by James Clavell.
Elizabeth: They turned Shōgun into a mini series on FX that came out, two years ago. Won a bunch of Emmys.
Elizabeth: It was a really good show. And having just returned from Japan then I am interested in all things Japan right now.
Elizabeth: It's a really long book. It's 900 pages or something. But as we've discussed before, that doesn't scare me. It's also the start of a series it's called the Asian Saga. I literally only learned about this whole Asian saga when I was looking at these books on the shelf at Isle of Books.
Elizabeth: It was originally published in 1975. So the book is 50 years old at this point. From looking at these books that were on the shelf, some of the publications had on the spine, the list of the books that are part of the Asian Saga.
Elizabeth: So I guess I'm signing myself up for another really long series. But yeah, the show was really good. And having recently been to Japan, I was like, “Oh yeah, I'm gonna read that now.”
Andrea: The one book that I bought at Isle of Books was The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, the first book in The Wheel of Time series. I have not read that series, but it's an 800 page book that starts a giant saga. I'm excited to read that.
Andrea: They turned it into a series, but the series didn't complete the books. So the books will keep going where the show ended. I liked the show. I was really sad when I found out that they weren't gonna continue it. I don't know what the cause of that was, but I thought it was a good cast.
Andrea: It was lots of action. Cool special effects! Fantasy, come on! But yeah, no, they're not continuing it. Brandon Sanderson actually wrote the last three books of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Kind of passing of the torch between fantasy authors.
Elizabeth: Was that the only book you bought? I thought you bought two.
Andrea: I only bought one book at that store, but it's a big one. It's 800 pages, so that count as more than one book.
Elizabeth: Okay.
Andrea: My goal is to read The Wheel of Time and then read Brandon Sanderson's Body of Work, and I've heard great things about both of these authors, so I'm excited, but it is a bit intimidating and there's so many books to read, and I'm trying not to get overwhelmed but just appreciate looking at the books on the shelf. That, that's something I get to look forward to.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: You just got back from Japan, but have you ever heard of the term Tsundoku?
Elizabeth: Oh yeah. Yeah it’s like 100%, fully 100%, describes me.
Elizabeth: Yeah. The quiet joy of collecting books faster than you can read them. It embodies a celebration of curiosity, possibility, and the comfort of stories waiting their turn.Yeah.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: I read a lot and I read everything. Not to brag or anything, but uh warning, I'm about to brag a little bit here. Since January 1st, I have finished 34 books.
Andrea: That’s a lot.
Elizabeth: And I'm even impressed with myself.
Elizabeth: But at that rate poised to break a hundred this year.
Elizabeth: I read 70 last year, so if I broke a hundred like whew…
Andrea: [chuckles]
Elizabeth: It's like a lot more than last year.
Elizabeth: Anyway. So I read a lot of books and I mostly probably read books that I own, like not library books, but I also do read library books too.
Elizabeth: So obviously library books a little bit different 'cause you don't have them for very long.
Elizabeth: So I am constantly bringing books in and trying to get books out constantly. And yet it seems like the number of books that I have in my possession only grows.
Elizabeth: So yeah, the comfort of stories waiting their turn, just really cute.
Andrea: I wish we had a similar word in English, but I love the idea that there's a word dedicated just to that. Yes.
Elizabeth: Yeah. It feels very Japanese, I guess for their to be a term for that.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Oh no, the other book that I got from Aisle of Books was a very last minute I was up at the cash register, last minute purchase, did not intend to buy this, but was up at the cash register, and it was up on a little display. And I have seen it around and it's called A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love Obsession and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhurst. Narrative nonfiction about a real life survival story. And, this British couple that were adrift in the Pacific for 118 days in 1972 after their boat was sunk by a whale.
Andrea: My gosh.
Elizabeth: Perhaps I’m getting into you know stories about whales destroying boats, and then people being lost at sea because of it.
Elizabeth: Time Magazine, at the end of the year, will always do like best of the year lists of 10 best movies, 10 best TV shows, 10 best books, 10 best albums, songs, et cetera. And it was on the, the list of the 10 best books of 2025, according to Time Magazine, so…
Andrea: I haven't even heard of this. I'm surprised. I'll have to look at this.
Andrea: What was the name of the book again?
Elizabeth: A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love Obsession and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhurst.
Andrea: You couldn't pass it up.
Elizabeth: Nope.
Andrea: [chuckles]
Elizabeth: Sure couldn't.
Elizabeth: Okay, and then we drove to Livingston, Montana, which is…
Andrea: Yep.
Elizabeth: Perhaps one of the most picturesque towns in Montana, in my opinion. I imagine that you would agree with me, that it is very picturesque little town.
Andrea: Yes.
Andrea: Bozeman was really picturesque too. It had a nice Main Street.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Kind of classic Western stores and… I liked Bozeman.
Elizabeth: Yeah. I feel like Bozeman doesn't have quite as good of a like postcard shot of the town, whereas like Livingston, if you stand at the corner of Main Street and Park Street and look towards the Absaroka Mountains, then you get the full stretch of Main Street that is iconic looking. And then with the Absaroka Mountains in the background.
Andrea: Nice.
Elizabeth: It literally is a postcard.
Elizabeth: I didn't buy that postcard. I thought about buying that postcard, but there was a postcard of that shot in the first bookstore that we went to there, which was Elk River Books. Which just super cute little bookstore.
Andrea: That was a nice bookstore.
Andrea: And right when we walked in, they were doing author signings, which was really cool. And they had snacks. It just felt very welcoming.
Elizabeth: Mostly new books on the ground floor, but then did also have used books too.
Andrea: A mix of both. Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: And a book that I had been looking for in previous bookstores they had there, which was The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. And I haven't gotten to read it yet , but that's what I'm gonna read next. You did get a chance to borrow that while I was visiting.
Elizabeth: Yeah! Read it in the course of 24 hours.
Andrea: I thought about doing that as our audiobook for our road trip, but I'm really glad I bought the physical copy because there's illustrations in it, which are so cute.
Andrea: I did read a little bit of the first chapter or two just to be like, what's this kind of about? And it's about the idea of looking at the world as a gift instead of an object that you take. And I really like the idea that I can share the book with other people. There's the idea with gifting that you don't take it back, that it keeps moving through the community. So I guess after I finish it, I'm gonna put it in a little free library near my house.
Andrea: And hopefully give back to the community.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Either that or I could ask around and see if there's friends of mine that would wanna read it, and then they have to put it in a little free library, or they have to give it to somebody else and make sure that it continues moving.
Elizabeth: This idea of the like pay it forward mentality. It's very anti-capitalism.
Elizabeth: There's a little conundrum here 'cause then sure Robin Wall Kimmerer wants you to the book. And so if you buy the book and then you give to somebody else, 'cause you are paying it forward, but then that person isn't buying the book.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: I'm sure though that she would be delighted to have somebody put it into a little free library for sure. Robin Wall Kimmerer's background is in botany. And so sort of looking at the serviceberry, since her specialty is in plants she can use that as a good example.
Elizabeth: But, basically that the serviceberry doesn't ask for anything. It takes in the nutrients from the soil and the rain, and the sunshine, and it creates this delicious berry. And then the people and animals that eat those berries, especially the birds, excuse me avian dinosaurs, eat those berries and then spread the seeds.
Elizabeth: It's reciprocal, that whoever eats the berry, gets the benefit of the berry and the delightful sugar and taste. And the berry also benefits from something eating it. Expanding on that theme in everything in life. One example was um the farmer needs to make money, but they will sometimes, when there's a big huge bumper crop of serviceberries, they'll invite the community to come and pick them free of charge.
Elizabeth: And the idea is that by investing in their community and strengthening those relationships within the community it all comes back to them in the end, whether they earn money from it or not. Taking that sort of theme into almost like everything in life.
Elizabeth: When capitalism is so focused on accumulation of possessions and wealth, then that's very individualistic and very selfish, honestly, in the grand scheme of things, as opposed to having more of a, a reciprocal relationship with value and possessions and things.
Andrea: Well and as I read the first chapter, I was thinking this would be a really good book for someone in high school or earlier to read because it could have a big impact on how you see the world at a young age and be one of those foundational moments changing how you see the world and how you participate in it.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I mean I've definitely picked up that book a few times and looked at it. But I was glad that you bought it and I got to read it. I got to read the brand new copy.
Elizabeth: 'Cause then her other book, Braiding Sweetgrass, I have heard fantastic things about that book.
Elizabeth: I do have a copy on the shelf. I need to read it soon. But yeah, from a friend of mine, who's a big reader and I always trust her book recommendations and she just raves about it. So I am excited to read that soon.
Elizabeth: After that we went to another bookstore in Livingston called Wheatgrass Books. That was all new books. They had a children's book section. They also had snacks for the Independent Bookstore Day. They had cute cards, like Montana and Livingston souvenirs.
Andrea: I bought some stickers there.
Elizabeth: Did you not buy the koozie?
Andrea: And a koozie.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah, and you bought a koozie.
Andrea: I did.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: For the size of the bookstore, they had a pretty big like Montana section, which I thought was cool.
Elizabeth: And then, yeah, upstairs they were doing like a community art event. So it was an art auction to auction off skateboards that had been painted…
Andrea: By local artists!
Elizabeth: By local artists, like on the underside of the skateboard.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: And it was to raise money for a nonprofit organization called Montana Pool Service, which has built over 40 skate parks around the state of Montana.
Andrea: Oh wow. That’s a lot.
Elizabeth: And it was founded by the bass player for Pearl Jam, Jeff Ament. He is from Big Sandy, Montana and he is big in his skateboarding. So he founded this organization and has helped to build skate parks around the state of Montana.
Elizabeth: So yeah, we popped into that real quick. Neither of us bought a book there. Did we?
Andrea: We just bought like other fun things that you can find at bookstores and it was just kind of fun to explore. And by that point, you know, I'd bought four books. It's like, how many books can I fit in my bag? How many do I wanna carry around? There's books I'm gonna borrow from Elizabeth and take home with me.
Andrea: So …
Elizabeth: I had no such limit cause I was the one driving.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: And have a whole car that can carry as many books as I can stuff into my car. And Andrea can attest to the fact that I have a book mobile essentially.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Open the back door to a secret book mobile.
Elizabeth: There's a lot of books in my car.
Elizabeth: The books that are in my car right now are completely different from the books that I literally was driving around with for the past year. I had a different box of books in my car for a really long time, maybe a month or two ago I decided to, you know sometimes the urge takes you…
Andrea: To sort?
Elizabeth: Yeah. I was like I’m gonna sort through… I'm gonna, I'm gonna organize my books a little bit more.
Elizabeth: So yeah, a month or two ago, I completely re organized all of my books.
Elizabeth: So now the box of books in my car is a completely different box of books and yeah, added a lot more books. The box of books has no space in the box.
Elizabeth: So now there's just like stacks of books next to the box of books in my car.
Elizabeth: We stopped in the town of Gardiner the next day before we went to Yellowstone. And it said there was a bookstore, but there were no books in there. So we did try that.
Elizabeth: Monday we were in West Yellowstone at the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. And we stopped a store called The Book Peddler.
Andrea: They had a little cafe there too. And I got a scone that had like a orange glaze on it. It was really good.
Elizabeth: Yeah
Elizabeth: I bought like a savory croissant, also very good. It was maybe more souvenirs than books. There were a lot of books, but it was probably more …
Andrea: Highlights, bestseller picks, popular books.
Elizabeth: Yeah. It was also a used bookstore. There were some used books in there.
Elizabeth: I bought My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. I have read from him, I've read a book called The Only Good Indians. He's part of the Blackfeet tribe. ‘Cuz yeah The Only Good Indians took place, I think took place out around Browning Montana, which is like the main town of the Blackfeet Nation. It's Native American horror.
Elizabeth: So I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to everybody. Could arguably be fantasy. This definitely had elk spirits and stuff, like the horror aspect, so I think it could be fantasy.
Andrea: That's cool.
Elizabeth: His most recent book that came out last year is called The Buffalo Hunter, Hunter. That I think is also horror. I think that's mostly what he writes is like Native American Horror, which is awesome.
Andrea: Well and that one has vampires in it, which has been the piece that's like: Vampires! Maybe I'll pick that up.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Andrea: But I do like trying to, read my vampire books closer to Halloween or thematically arrange them. That doesn't always happen, but…
Elizabeth: When I was first looking at all the books. There wasn't anything that really stood out to me, so it was just kind of like right at the very end there was this wall of books, sort of bestsellers, more recent books, and I saw it. I think it was published in 2021.
Elizabeth: I saw it on the shelf and it was like, yeah, sure.
Andrea: Like you were saying, it was more of a tourist souvenir type shop, so I didn't buy any books there, but I did buy some soap. I bought some huckleberry soap that smelled really nice. So that's a nice thing to take home.
Elizabeth: Cool.
Andrea: Well we ended in Helena.
Andrea: We did go to some bookstores in Helena too.
Elizabeth: Oh that’s right I forgot.
Andrea: Making a road trip complete.
Elizabeth: Wednesday?
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: So we went to the Montana Book Co. A new bookstore on Last Chance Gulch in Helena. And then we went to Aunt Bonnie's Books a used bookstore on Last Chance Gulch in downtown Helena. I don't think we bought anything at either of those stores.
Andrea: We didn't buy anything at those stores, and then we went to, was it a brewery?
Andrea: They had a take a book, leave a book situation, and I took a book. And that ended up being the next book that I read. So I'm in the middle of reading that now.
Andrea: And I didn't have to pay for it. It jumped the line.
Elizabeth: Is that Sharp Objects?
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: by Gillian Flynn? Nice.
Andrea: Yes. It is very dark. Very dark.
Andrea: So a thriller, different from what I normally read, but sometimes that's fun. I feel like I think I know how it turns out, but it's so messed up.
Elizabeth: Ooh, it’s really messed up.
Andrea: Yeah. I think The Serviceberry will be a nice like palate cleanser after Sharp Objects, reset my brain.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: You know after this really dark book that makes you question humanity almost.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: That people can be terrible and cruel to their own family members. So to then read about this very hopeful optimistic book about, paying it forward and giving back to your community and anti-capitalism.
Andrea: Right. I'm enjoying it in a kind of, like a little bit twisted way maybe. Just 'cause it is just jaw dropping. Yeah.
Elizabeth: And it’s really well written.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I read it years ago. 'Cause then they turned it into a mini series on HBO, that is really good.
Andrea: The last book I read by Gillian Flynn was Gone Girl. I enjoyed reading that. I read it so fast. Knowing that Gone Girl had a big twist at the end, I keep expecting there to be a big twist. I'm a little more than halfway through the book and I'm guessing I know what happens, but I don't really know what happens.
Andrea: I'm expecting to be shocked by the end of it, which is fun. With a romance, you expect a happily ever after at the end, with a thriller, I expect to be shocked at the end. I expect to find out who the bad person is…
Andrea: So it gets more exciting as you get towards the end of the book.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: This one's going a little slower because it is so dark and traumatic. I can only take so much of that at a time. Every chapter is like some other horrifying thing happens and I can only take so much of that.
Andrea: So I have to read a little bit and set it down. And so, even though it's a short book, it's taken me a little bit longer to read. That was the last book I picked up on our Independent Bookstore Day Extravaganza Travels Adventures in Montana.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Looking back at all the bookstores we visited, I thought it was really fun. You don't really know what to expect with each bookstore, but there's always a sense of joy walking into a new bookstore.
Andrea: What stood out the most to you, Elizabeth? What feeling stood out the most?
Elizabeth: I guess this sense of community engagement. They were all doing something for independent bookstore day. It looked a little different depending on the store that you were in, but you know, having an art auction upstairs to raise money for a local nonprofit, or having author signings, or some sort of discount, or … Oh yeah, we didn't mention the Country bookstore had a golden ticket.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: They hid a golden ticket in one of the books. Neither of us found it. We weren't there when someone found it. And I think the prize was a year long subscription to an audio book platform.
Andrea: For Libro.fm.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Obviously, libraries play a huge role in community engagement and finding ways to connect people to the next book they wanna read, but also connecting people to each other, but you know, when you can have a small local business that is doing the same kind of thing.
Elizabeth: That's probably what stood out the most to me, like the role that they play as far as community engagement.
Andrea: And it almost feels like palpable too. It's actual people showing up.
Elizabeth: And it's participating in the local economy too. That someone owns that store and they most likely have some employees that they're supporting. And so money that you are spending at the store is going back into the local economy.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: And that's something that, libraries don't do. They contribute to the economy in myriad ways that I don't even know about. But it is an entirely different setup, it's not supporting a business, so that's pretty fun.
Andrea: So next year, any thoughts for next year? We've seen Montana. Do we do it again next year?
Elizabeth: Yeah! Sure!
Elizabeth: Before we planned Andrea coming out to Montana, we thought about maybe going to a couple of authors that own bookstores around the country that we know of. There’s one in Nashville. There's one in Minneapolis that I know of. Maybe you think about doing that next year.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: It would be would be easy to say, “okay, this year you came to Montana, so next year I'll come to Seattle.” But we've actually done that before. I think it'd be fun to go somewhere different. Yeah.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Would we do it any differently?
Andrea: I feel like it's hard to do it much differently than…
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: I don’t know what you could do different other than doing it in a different place.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Because one thing also was that I'm a big fan of collecting stamps in stamp books.
Elizabeth: So I have a passport that's called Bookstores Under the Big Sky, and it's the Montana Bookstore Trail.
Andrea: Do they do this every year or have you had this a long time?
Elizabeth: This is the second one that I've had. But this second one that I have is because more bookstores joined this passport.
Andrea: Oh.
Elizabeth: It actually has more bookstores in it than the previous one that I had.
Andrea: Is there any kind of prize or discount if you get all the stamps?
Elizabeth: The one that I had before that had fewer bookstores in it did have a QR code to take you to the website to sign up for some sort of giveaway. I think when I looked at it, the giveaway was happening very soon.
Elizabeth: And so I went to the two bookstores that were at the time in the passport book that are in Helena. So I went to those two bookstores and I was like I have two stamps. I don't have them all, but I have two stamps, so I'm gonna sign up for this giveaway. So I did and I won.
Andrea: Oh wow.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: So randomly I just like showed up at my house after work one day and there was a package waiting for me on my doorstep. It was from the Montana Book Co, actually, in Helena. It had a couple of like advanced reader copies of two books one of which I have read. The other advanced reader copy, I just haven't read yet. There was a blank notebook a pen and a pencil, and a couple of magnets. And the pigeon notes.
Andrea: Oh, postcards or something?
Elizabeth: But it’s not a postcard. It’s like a piece of paper that there are specific instructions for you to fold it up and then put a sticker on it or something. Or it folds itself up and then you just have to put a stamp on it. But it's blank on the inside. So you're write on it and then you fold it up and then you put a stamp on it and you send it through the mail.
Elizabeth: So it's not a postcard, but somewhere between a postcard and a letter. Those were in it too. Yeah, so there are things that they give away.
Andrea: Are there any kinda instructions on it?
Elizabeth: Oh, actually yeah! It says the Montana Bookstore Trail is open all year when you've finished your journey scan this QR code to be entered into a drawing for a bookstore trail tote bag full of books and goodies. Oh cuz there was also a tote bag in it.
Elizabeth: So I have won that. I suppose I could try again.
Andrea: Does everybody get it?
Elizabeth: Or not a lot of people signed up for it?
Elizabeth: And so if I was one out of a small handful of people that actually signed up, so I won.
Elizabeth: Not to toot my own horn here, but I have a tendency to win things.
Andrea: Like bicycles?
Elizabeth: Yeah! Oh yeah!
Elizabeth: I forgot about that one. Yeah! A brand new bicycle! For riding in the rain in Seattle, log your commutes in the month of November, which is the rainiest month in Seattle.
Elizabeth: And so I was regularly riding my bike anyway to and from campus. So I was like, okay, I’ll log my commute. Sure. And then I won a bike!
Elizabeth: Yeah, have a tendency to win things.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Is that like truly no one else really signed up and I did, and so it was, very high chance of winning anyway? Or was it just, once again…
Andrea: Luck of the draw?
Elizabeth: Just luck of the draw.
Elizabeth: Just was lucky again. anyway, maybe I should look into that and see if I could do it again.
Andrea: That's cool.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: I think it'd be fun to do it again next year somewhere else.
Andrea: We'll have to research if there are other state or city book passports we can sign up for.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
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, that's part of the fun. If you loved today's episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share the magic.
Andrea: Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll be chatting about Foundation by Isaac Asimov.
Elizabeth: And in the meantime, keep your mind fueled by the magic of stories.
Andrea: And never stop chasing the worlds waiting for you between the pages. Thanks everyone.