Currently Reading Meredith Monday Schwartz and Kaytee Cobb

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Mary are discussing:
Bookish Moments: fun new hobbies and maybe not having a bookish moment
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately
Deep Dive: our love for all things memoir
The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives
Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site)
. 
. 
. 
. 
. 
1:39 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week
8:06 - Our Current Reads
8:14 - Bride by Ali Hazelwood (Mary)
10:29 - Wolfsong by T.J. Klune
11:58 - Unhinged by Vera Valentine
12:29 - Renegades by Marissa Meyer (Kaytee)
12:40 - Cinder by Marissa Meyer
15:47 - The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune
16:47 - Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Mary)
19:55 - An Inconvenient Cop by Edwin Raymond (Kaytee)
20:03 - Booktenders
24:51 - A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall (Mary)
28:26 - @ginnyreadsandwrites on Instagram
28:44 - Fairyloot
29:07 - Pango Books
30:16 - Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
30:34 - Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
31:53 - A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (Kaytee)
32:10 - Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
35:29 - Deep Dive: Our Love For Memoirs
36:10 - Sarah’s Bookshelves
39:49 - The Black Count by Tom Reiss
41:43 - My Life in France by Julia Child
42:30 - Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling
42:32 - Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
42:46 - Bossypants by Tina Fey
42:51 - Spare by Prince Harry
43:12 - Becoming by Michelle Obama
43:42 - Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
43:47 - I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg
44:04 - I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg (young readers’ edition)
44:59 - Waypoints by Sam Heughan
45:31 - Finding Me by Viola Davis
46:20 - As You Wish by Cary Elwes
46:58 - Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
47:50 - Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother by Beth Ann Fennelly
47:55 - Heating and Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly
48:06 - Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan
48:10 - These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
49:04 - Soil by Camille T. Dungy
49:15 - An Exact Replica of A Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
50:29 - Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder
50:37 - What Looks Like Bravery by Laurel Braitman
50:43 - After This by Claire Bidwell Smith (amazon link)
50:58 - Tragedy Plus Time by Adam Cayton-Holland
51:15 - Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottleib
51:30 - When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
51:53 - A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter
52:02 - At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider
52:52 - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
53:05 - The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
53:12 - A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg
53:43 - The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
53:45 - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
53:48 - The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
54:03 - Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
54:15 - I Take My Coffee Black by Tyler Merritt
55:17 - Meet Us At The Fountain
55:21 - I wish to press the Ember Quartet series, starting with Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. (Mary)
55:30 - Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
56:52 - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
56:53 - Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
57:22 - Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
58:38 - My wish is for more bookish board games. (Kaytee)
58:47 - By the Book game
Support Us:
Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch
Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon
Bookish Friends Receive:
The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. April’s IPL comes to us from A Room Of One’s Own in Madison Wisconsin!
Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry
All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing:
Bookish Moments: learning of new kinds of books and creating outdoor reading spaces
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately
Deep Dive: how we manage our massive TBRs and how we choose our next read
The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives
Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site)
. 
. 
. 
. 
. 
**We are aware of a sound quality issue with Kaytee’s audio. We are in the works to hopefully get that fixed soon! Thanks for hanging with us through it!
2:55 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week
5:56 - Breathless by Amy McCulloch
7:54 - Our Current Reads
8:18 - Confessions by Kanae Minato (Meredith)
11:21 - @bookishbetsie on Instagram
11:22 - @readlexyread on Instagram
11:36 - The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
12:34 - Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum (Kaytee)
14:57 - 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
15:48 - There’s Something I Have To Tell You by Michelle McDonagh (Meredith)
18:25 - The Mother-In-Law by Sally Hepworth
19:40 - Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin (Kaytee)
20:08 - The Happier Podcast
23:48 - Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie (Meredith)
27:55 - A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams (Kaytee)
28:10 - Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
32:01 - Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
32:29 - Deep Dive: Managing Our Massive TBRs
33:09 - Hearts and Daggers Pod
33:43 - Currently Reading Patreon
44:00 - 3 tier rolling cart on Amazon
47:16 - NetGalley
47:51 - Middle of the Night by Riley Sager 
50:53 - Half Price Books
51:55 - Meet Us At The Fountain
52:14 - I wish people would read The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. (Meredith)
54:31 - My wish is to share a collaboration between Mychal Threets and PBS. (Kaytee)
55:00 - Mychal Threets on Instagram
Support Us:
Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch
Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon
Bookish Friends Receive:
The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. April’s IPL comes to us from A Room Of One’s Own in Madison Wisconsin!
Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry
All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the special insights of an independent bookseller
The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts
Connect With Us:
The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads
The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna
Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing:
Bookish Moments: changing up book subscriptions and implementing new technology into our reading
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately
Deep Dive: what would we ask the book fairy to change in our books
The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives
Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site)
. 
. 
. 
. 
. 
**We are aware of a sound quality issue with Kaytee’s audio. We are in the works to hopefully get that fixed soon! Thanks for hanging with us through it!
1:35 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week
1:51 - Satisfiction Book Subscription
2:18 - Fairyloot
2:19 - Illumicrate
2:20 - OwlCrate
3:00 - @Meredithmondayschwartz on Instagram
7:33 - Our Current Reads
7:42 - Betty by Tiffany McDaniel (Kaytee)
7:48 - Booktenders
10:57 - @authortiffanymcdaniel on Instagram
12:02 - An Unlikely Story
12:04 - The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Meredith)
17:58 - Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones (Kaytee)
20:14 - I Take My Coffee Black by Tyler Merritt
20:49 - Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
21:49 - Born A Crime by Trevor Noah (young readers version)
22:21 - Rabbit by Patricia Williams
22:46 - The Gathering by C.J. Tudor (Meredith)
24:18 - The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
24:20 - The Drift by C.J. Tudor
26:49 - Wolfsong by T.J. Klune (Kaytee)
28:48 - The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune
28:52 - The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
28:54 - Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
31:35 - The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland (Meredith)
36:14 - Deep Dive: Book Wishes To The Book Fairy
40:01 - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
56:38 - First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
49:09 - Meet Us At The Fountain
49:21 - I wish everyone would follow @weeklyhomecheck on Instagram. (Kaytee)
50:36 - I wish everyone would listen to the podcast The Canada Reads Podcast (Meredith)
Support Us:
Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch
Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon
Bookish Friends Receive:
The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. April’s IPL comes to us from A Room Of One’s Own in Madison Wisconsin!
Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry
All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the special insights of an independent bookseller
The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts
Connect With Us:
The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads
The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna
Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing:
Bookish Moments: more efficient book signings and reading when we need to recharge
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately
Deep Dive: an unofficial deep dive into no prep episodes
The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives
Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site)
. 
. 
. 
. 
. 
:10 Bite Size Intro
1:49 - Currently Reading Patreon
5:10 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week
9:43 - Our Current Reads
12:19 - Cold by Drew Hayden Taylor (Meredith)
12:54 - From the Front Porch podcast
18:12 - Better the Blood by Michael Bennett
19:21 - Family Family by Laurie Frankel (Kaytee)
19:56 - This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
25:00 - One Two Three by Laurie Frankel
25:42 - Everyone Is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf (Meredith)
27:15 - The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
30:53 - CR Season 4: Episode 30 (about one-night stand books)
31:29 - Come and Get It by Kiley Reid (Kaytee)
31:54 - Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
35:13 - libro.fm
37:38 - First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (Meredith)
44:02 - Evil Eye by Etaf Rum (Kaytee)
44:14 - A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
51:58 - Deep Dive: Talking Through Our Off The Cuff Episode
56:37 - Everyone Is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf
56:38 - First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
59:15 - Meet Us At The Fountain
1:01:26 - I wish everyone would try doing summarizing thoughts immediately after reading a book in some way shape or form. (Meredith)
1:01:58 - I wish for a book recommendation on call service. (Kaytee)
Support Us:
Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch
Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon
Bookish Friends Receive:
The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. April’s IPL comes to us from A Room Of One’s Own in Madison Wisconsin!
Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry
All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the special insights of an independent bookseller
The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts
Connect With Us:
The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads
The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna
Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Roxanna are discussing:
Bookish Moments: pastries while reading and huge bookish hangovers
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately
Deep Dive: the ways our reading lives and changed and expanded over time
The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives
Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site)
. 
. 
. 
. 
. 
1:32 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week
3:11 - Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
4:45 - All The Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (Releases June 25, 2024)
7:30 - Our Current Reads
7:36 - The Night Raven by Johan Rundberg (Roxanna)
14:09 - The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson (Meredith)
18:09 - The Fact of a Body by Alexandra Marzano-Lesnevich
21:54 - Burning Roses by S.L. Huang (Roxanna)
22:51 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
26:06 - Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber (Meredith)
27:14 - Caraval by Stephanie Garber
31:22 - In the Shadow of the Mountain by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado (Roxanna)
31:51 - Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
31:54 - Finding Me by Viola Davis
36:23 - Better the Blood by Michael Bennett (Meredith)
41:24 - Deep Dive: Changes In Our Reading Lives Over Time
47:27 - The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
48:07 - City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
49:55 - The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
50:39 - 10 Things To Tell You podcast w/ Sara Hildreth
50:42 - @fictionmatters on Instagram
53:36 - Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
53:45 - Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
55:48 - Burning Roses by S.L. Huang
58:55 - A Dead Djinn In Cairo by P. Djeli Clark
1:00:32 - Meet Us At The Fountain
1:00:45- I wish everyone knows about shepherd.com (Roxanna)
1:00:52 - Strong Sense of Place podcast
1:01:17 - The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
1:03:19 - Shogun by James Clavell
1:03:28 - CR Season 1: Episode 14
1:04:45 - I wish more people would read Shogun. (Meredith)
1:05:18 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Support Us:
Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch
Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon
Bookish Friends Receive:
The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. March’s IPL comes to us from our Anchor store An Unlikely Story!
Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry
All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the special insights of an independent bookseller
The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts
Connect With Us:
The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads
The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna
Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

We are so excited to journey with you to Three Pines, the fictional French-Canadian village created by Louise Penny for her Three Pines series, featuring Armand Gamache. This spin-off podcast series will tackle each of the books in the series in turn, in a spoiler-FILLED format. Be sure you’ve read the book before listening to the episode.
As you’ve come to expect with all Currently Reading content, Meredith and Roxanna will follow a regular episode format, with regular segments, so you know what to expect each and every time. We love staying focused on the book, rather than conversational rabbit holes. 
Show notes for this series will not be time-stamped except for broad sections, but will include links to Bookshop dot org or Amazon for any books or resources referenced in the episode.


3:45 - Putting the Book Into Context
The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
Published Sept. 29, 2009 by Minotaur Books
4.20 rating on Goodreads
Seasonal setting - Autum
Book Awards: Anthony Award for Best Novel in 2010
Critic Reviews
Meredith’s and Roxanna’s encounters with the book
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
10:50 - The Setup
16:22 - A Deeper Exploration
Setup and first paragraph
First paragraph hooks the reader so completely 
Reminds Meredith of the Vera series by Ann Cleeves
The pacing of the novel
The deliberate pulling away from the “quaint village mystery”
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree
Quality of writing itself - if it could be written as a whole series in today’s publishing
Themes: human behavior, conscience, Thoreau’s Walden, contentment, fathers
p.172 quote about conscience
p. 298 quote about happiness
p.175 quote about Walden
P. 495 quote about fear and contentment
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Side plot with Jean-Guy and the notes left by Ruth Zardo
The Oddness Factor (is usually in superlatives but gets talked about early in this episode!)
The Ending
1:15:31 - Superlatives
Biggest Flaw
Character MVP
p. 403
Favorite Character
Biggest loser
Best food description
Fear Factor
1:29:47 - Within the Series
Is this book skippable?
Favorite Quote (gets asked after the skippable portion so I added it here for time stamp sake)
1:34:08 - SPOILERS AHEAD HERE
Next episode’s read: Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
Support Us:
Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch
Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon
Bookish Friends Receive:
The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. March’s IPL is brought to you by our anchor store, An Unlikely Story.
Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry
All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the special insights of an independent bookseller
The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts
Connect With Us:
The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads
The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Roxanna | Kaytee
Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!