POPULARITY
Welcome to our favourite episode: the yearly wrap! We're sharing our reading stats, 2024 goals and the books, TV, film and audio we loved in 2024. Make sure you're also following us on Substack. On the last day of the month, we share recommendations for two things we reckon you should read/watch/listen to – and we try to keep these separate from regular episode recommendations. The beauty of Substack is you can revisit all our old editions and comment on our episode updates to share your thoughts. Come say hi! Thank you for joining us in 2024 and supporting our wonderful authors. We love hearing your thoughts on the episodes and what books you've been inspired to pick up – even if it's an older episode. You can also connect with us on Instagram @betterwordspodWe're keeping recommendations brief. If we've featured or discussed the book before, we'll link to the episode.Any PR/review copies marked with *We kick off with a wrap-up of our reading stats for the year: how many books and pages, the moods and re-reads. Our awards category of favourite books kicks off at 2023 debut book Caitlin: I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue*Michelle: The Silence in Between by Josie Ferguson* (listen to our interview)Non-fictionCaitlin: If You Would Have Told Me by John StamosMichelle: Everything is Everything by Clive MyrieBy someone who has never been a podcast guestCaitlin: This Summer Will Be Different by Carley FortuneMichelle: Prima Facie by Suzie Miller* (listen to our book club chat)Australian/UK fictionCaitlin: Appreciation by Liam Pieper* (our interview)Michelle: The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey* (our interview)RomanceCaitlin: Sit Stay Love/Love From Scratch by Amy Hutton* (our interview)Michelle: You Belong with Me by Mhairi McFarlane (our 2021 interview)General fictionCaitlin: Tom Lake by Ann PatchettMichelle: Alone in Berlin by Hans FalladaHonourable mention: Family Politics by John O'FarrellYoung adultCaitlin: I'm Not Really Here by Gary Lonesborough* (our interview)Michelle: Dead Happy by Josh Silver (our 2023 interview)Most surprisingCaitlin: How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie* (our book club chat)Michelle: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray*Fave CoverCaitlin: Experienced by Kate Young* (
Honrámos o legado de Leslie Knope (Parks & Recreation) e celebrámos o Galentine's Day com uma lista bem recheada de recomendações sobre amizade feminina. Seja a ler estes livros ou a oferecê-los à vossa Galentine, o importante é celebrar este pilar da nossa vida. Partilhem connosco os vossos exemplos preferidos de amizade feminina na literatura! Livros mencionados: - You Have to Make Your Own Fun Around Here, Frances Macken (01:00) - O Filho de Mil Homens, Valter Hugo Mãe (03:08) - The Forty Rules of Love, Elif Shafak (04:04) - We All Want Impossible Things, Catherine Newman (10:15) - City of Girls (A Cidade das Mulheres), Elizabeth Gilbert (11:40) - This Summer Will Be Different (Este Verão Vai Ser Diferente), Carley Fortune (15:00) - A Thousand Splendid Suns (Mil Sóis Resplandecentes), Khaled Hosseini (16:13) - Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez (18:21) - Não fossem as sílabas do sábado, Mariana Salomão Carrara (19:43) - The Weekend, Charlotte Wood (22:28) - No Tempo das Cerejas, Célia Correia Loureiro (23:33) - Everything I Know About Love (Tudo o Que Sei Sobre o Amor), Dolly Alderton (26:03) - Best of Friends, Kamila Shamsie (26:58) - Beautiful World, Where Are you (Mundo Belo, Onde Estás), Sally Rooney (29:29) - Klara and the Sun (Klara e o Sol), Kazuo Ishiguro (31:08) - Mad About You, Mhairi McFarlane (32:36) - Primeiro Eu Tive De Morrer, Lorena Portela (34:13) - The Dictionary of Lost Words (O Dicionário das Palavras Perdidas), Pip Williams (36:41) - Yellowface (Impostora), R. F. Kuang (38:12) - The Favorites, Layne Fargo (39:50) - Conversations With Friends (Conversas Entre Amigos), Sally Rooney (42:10) - Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict (Friendaholic: Viciada em Amizade), Elizabeth Day (44:07) - Viradas do Avesso, Joana Kabuki (46:33) - O Terceiro País, Karina Sainz Borgo (48:10) - Vertigens, Valentina Silva Ferreira (50:16) - The Wolf Den (O Covil de Pompeia), Elodie Harper (51:47) ________________ Falem connosco: livratepodcast@gmail.com. Encontrem-nos em: www.instagram.com/julesdsilva // www.instagram.com/ritadanova Identidade visual: Mariana Cardoso (marianarfpcardoso@hotmail.com) Genérico: Vitor Carraca Teixeira (www.instagram.com/oputovitor)
Fiona and Marlene share their highlights from the Big Land Question conference. In November the Revive Coalition held their biggest conference yet bringing together organisations and individuals with a shared interest in Scotland's land. Who owns it? What do they do with it? Is there a better way? These, and many more questions were covered on the day and you can watch the full day's event on @IndependenceLive 's channel. This podcast covers our favourite bits from the following speakers: 00:01:43 - Lesley Riddoch introduces the event 00:07:42 - Kevin Cumming, Scottish Rewilding Alliance 00:16:07 - Josh Doble, Community Land Scotland 00:28:19 - Kirsty Jenkins. Onekind 00:30:32 - River Roding Interspecies Council 00:36:22- Jenny Barlow, Tarras Valley Nature Reserve 00:44:27 - Mhairi McFarlane, Diffley Partnership 00:51:09 - Donna Smith, Scottish Crofting Association 00:57:03 - Lesley Riddoch, Intro to part 2 01:02:03 - Robin McAlpine, Commonweal 01:09:41 - Mike Russell, Scottish Land Commission 01:14:05 - Max Wiesnowski, Revive Coalition Further info: Community Land Scotland https://www.communitylandscotland.org.uk/ Scottish Rewilding Nation Charter https://www.rewild.scot/charter The Scottish Independence Podcasts team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. Remember to like and subscribe! Contact Us: indypodcasters@gmail.com Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe for free to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips. video premieres most Tuesdays at 8pm If you've enjoyed this podcast you might like to buy us a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/scottishindependencepodcasts or choose us as your Easyfundraising good cause. Music: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod
Vamos às reviews relâmpago do que lemos de setembro a dezembro de 2024, na nossa escala habitual de Comprar, Kobo, e Cagar? Livros mencionados: - Os Detalhes, Ia Genberg (02:04) - All the Water in the World, Eiren Caffall (02:38) - A Novel Love Story, Ashley Poston (07:34) - A Malnascida, Beatrice Salvioni (08:16) - Just Last Night, Mhairi McFarlane (08:50) - Vista Chinesa, Tatiana Salem Levy (09:16) - Solitária, Eliana Alves Cruz (09:46) - Good Material (Bom Partido), Dolly Alderton (10:07) - I Love Dick, Chris Kraus (10:40) - And How Does That Make You Feel?: Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Therapy, Joshua Fletcher (11:05) - No Tempo das Cerejas, Célia Correia Loureiro (11:48) - The Weekend, Charlotte Wood (12:38) - Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman (13:43) - This Summer Will Be Different (Este Verão Vai ser Diferente), Carley Fortune (14:40) - Triste Tigre, Neige Sinno (15:22) - Ariadne, Jennifer Saint (16:40) - Freckles, Cecelia Ahern (17:22) - Ruthless Vows (Promessas Cruéis), Rebecca Ross (18:11) - Um Lobo no Quarto, Valentina Silva Ferreira (19:02) - A Cicatriz, Maria Francisca Gama (19:52) - Deus Pátria Família, Hugo Gonçalves (20:02) - Elena Knows, Claudia Piñeiro (21:27) - Stay True (Lealdade), Hua Hsu (22:44) - Um Dedo Borrado de Tinta, Histórias de Quem Não Pôde Aprender a Ler, Catarina Gomes (23:50) - Intermezzo, Sally Rooney (25:15) - Hidden Pictures (Desenhos Ocultos), Jason Rekulak (25:51) - Brutes, Dizz Tate (26:48) - Savor It (Quando o Verão Terminar…), Tarah DeWitt (27:28) - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Conduz o Teu Arado sobre os Ossos dos Mortos), Olga Tokarczuk (28:32) - The Bee Sting (A Picada de Abelha), Paul Murray (29:25) - Notes on Heartbreak (Notas sobre Corações Partidos), Annie Lord (29:49) - The Burnout, Sophie Kinsella (31:37) - Descansos, Susana Amaro Velho (31:53) - The Happy Couple (O Casal Feliz), Naoise Dolan (32:34) - The List, Yomi Adegoke (33:03) - Pequena Coreografia do Adeus & O Peso do Pássaro Morto, Aline Bei (34:32) - Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher (34:41) - The Third Gilmore Girl, Kelly Bishop (35:14) - The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (O Estranho Desaparecimento de Esme Lennox), Maggie O'Farrell (35:50) - Orbital, Samantha Harvey (36:29) - Diálogos Para o Fim do Mundo, Joana Bértholo (37:31) - The Ministry of Time (O Ministério do Tempo), Kaliane Bradley (37:57) - White Nights (Noites Brancas), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (38:21) - One Day in December (Um Dia em Dezembro), Josie Silver (38:53) - Graveyard Shift, M. L. Rio (39:27) - Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver (40:26) - We Used to Live Here, Marcus Kliewer (41:11) - Holiday Romance (Romance de Férias), Catherine Walsh (41:59) - A Origem dos Dias, Miguel D'Alte (42:38) - Snowed In, Catherine Walsh (43:02) - Ruído, Lisboa, uma cidade que não se cala, João Pedro Pincha (43:41) - Kiss Her Once for Me, Alison Cochrun (44:37) - Também os Brancos Sabem Dançar, Kalaf Epalanga (45:16) - The Fall of the House of Usher (A Queda da Casa de Usher), Edgar Allan Poe (45:56) - What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher (46:15) - A Sunny Place for Shady People (Um Lugar Luminoso para Gente Sombria), Mariana Enríquez (46:59) - There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak (47:43) - Family Meal, Bryan Washington (48:07) - Querida Tia, Valérie Perrin (48:33) - The Wood at Midwinter, Susanna Clarke (49:07) - O Amor e Sua Fome, Lorena Portela (49:46) - Para Onde Vão os Guarda-Chuvas, Afonso Cruz (50:19) - Não Fossem as Sílabas do Sábado, Mariana Salomão Carrara (50:36) - Earth, John Boyne (51:06) - Melhor Não Contar, Tatiana Salem Levy (51:25) - Rodham, Curtis Sittenfeld (52:05) - A Educação Física, Joana Mosi (53:43) - Marigold e Rose, Louise Glück (54:23) ________________ Falem connosco: livratepodcast@gmail.com. Encontrem-nos em: www.instagram.com/julesdsilva // www.instagram.com/ritadanova Identidade visual: Mariana Cardoso (marianarfpcardoso@hotmail.com) Genérico: Vitor Carraca Teixeira (www.instagram.com/oputovitor)
O ano começou oficialmente para nós esta semana, mas ainda trazemos as escolhas de dezembro de 2024 para discutir aqui no nosso espaço. Falámos também dos livros escolhidos para inaugurar o novo ano no Clube e o que antecipamos para essas leituras. Já sabem, há sempre spoilers nestes episódios, mas podem consultar as marcas temporais abaixo. O que acharam destes livros? Livros mencionados neste episódio: - Mad About You, Mhairi McFarlane (02:31) - Five Tuesdays in Winter, Lily King (04:50) - O Retorno, Dulce Maria Cardoso (10:38) - O Peso do Pássaro Morto, Aline Bei (30:07) - Transcendent Kingdom (Reino Transcendente), Yaa Gyasi (30:21) - Young Mungo (Um Lugar Para Mungo), Douglas Stuart (30:45) - Boys Don't Cry, Fíona Scarlett (30:49) - The Seven Year Slip (Sete Anos entre Nós), Ashley Poston (49:12) - Divine Rivals (Rivais Divinos), Rebecca Ross (49:37) - Sea of Tranquility (Mar da Tranquilidade), Emily St. John Mandel (50:20) - Orbital, Samantha Harvey (57:42) Sobre os livros de Dezembro: - Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver (08:27) - The Ministry of Time (O Ministério do Tempo), Kaliane Bradley (31:40) ✨ Livros de Janeiro do Clube do Livra-te✨ - As Long As The Lemon Tree Grows (Onde Crescem os Limoeiros), Zoulfa Katouh (02:12 & 53:37) - Os Detalhes (The Details), Ia Genberg (56:07) - A Amiga Genial, Elena Ferrante // Leitura exclusiva do Discord (58:49) ________________ Enviem as vossas questões ou sugestões para livratepodcast@gmail.com. Encontrem-nos nas redes sociais: www.instagram.com/julesdsilva www.instagram.com/ritadanova twitter.com/julesxdasilva twitter.com/ritadanova Identidade visual do podcast: da autoria da talentosa Mariana Cardoso, que podem encontrar em marianarfpcardoso@hotmail.com. Genérico do podcast: criado pelo incrível Vitor Carraca Teixeira, que podem encontrar em www.instagram.com/oputovitor.
E mais uma vez nos reunimos aqui para apresentar as nossas melhores e piores leituras de 2024, onde houve espaço para livros memoráveis e outros que nos fizeram questionar muita coisa. Partilhem connosco as vossas listas, também! Livros mencionados neste episódio: - Holiday Romance (Romance de Férias), Catherine Walsh (05:31) - Não Fossem as Sílabas do Sábado, Mariana Salomão Carrara (06:33) - A Cicatriz, Maria Francisca Gama (09:02) - Stoner, John Williams (09:21) - Revolução, Hugo Gonçalves (09:45) - Clytemnestra, Costanza Casati (10:01) - Dear Edward (Querido Edward), Ann Napolitano (10:38) - Torto Arado, Itamar Vieira Júnior (10:52) - Corte & Costura: As Maiores Fofocas da Nossa Realeza, Márcia Gil Pedroso (11:06) - Coisas de Loucos, Catarina Gomes (12:21) - Blue Sisters (Irmãs Blue), Coco Mellors (13:22) - In Memoriam, Alice Winn (14:55) - The Dutch House (A Casa Holandesa), Ann Patchett (16:06) - Funny Story (Uma Boa História), Emily Henry (17:40) - True Biz, Sara Nović (18:38) - The Seven Year Slip, Ashley Boston (21:11) - Boys Don't Cry, Fíona Scarlett (22:44) - How to End a Love Story (Como Acabar uma História de Amor), Yulin Kuang (25:12) - For the Love of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity, Liz Plank (29:27) - Grief is for People, Sloane Crowley (32:06) - Soldier Sailor, Claire Kilroy (34:44) - The Bee Sting (A Picada de Abelha), Paul Murray (37:22) - Small Worlds (Pequenos Mundos), Caleb Azumah Nelson (39:33) - Just Last Night, Mhairi McFarlane (42:08) - A Malnascida, Beatrice Salvioni (44:22) - Intermezzo, Sally Rooney (46:20) - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Conduz o Teu Arado Sobre os Ossos dos Mortos), Olga Tokarczuk (47:16 & 01:09:11) - There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak (49:08) - Stay True (Lealdade), Hua Hsu (53:55) - The List, Yomi Adegoke (54:52) - White Nights (Noites Brancas), Fyodor Dostoevsky (56:02) - Britt-Marie was Here (Britt-Marie Esteve Aqui), Fredrik Backman (57:48) - The Perfect Find (O Achado Perfeito), Tia Williams(58:36) - Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (59:50) - The End of the Moment We Had, Toshiba Okada (01:00:41) - Mile High, Liz Tomforde (01:02:06) - Savor it (Quando o Verão Terminar), Tarah DeWitt (01:02:48) - Night Shift, Annie Crown (01:03:53) - Argyle, Elly Conway (01:04:31) - I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai (01:06:46) - By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, Elizabeth Smart (01:08:20) - Must I Go, Yiyun Li (01:09:58) - The Burnout (O Burnout), Sophie Kinsella (01:11:07) - The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin (01:11:44) - Western Lane, Chetna Maroo (01:13:48) - Lear Wife, J. R. Thorp (01:15:08) - The Co-Op, Tarah DeWitt (01:16:35) - A Maldição de Rosas, Diana Pinguicha (01:17:11) ________________ Enviem as vossas questões ou sugestões para livratepodcast@gmail.com. Encontrem-nos nas redes sociais: www.instagram.com/julesdsilva www.instagram.com/ritadanova twitter.com/julesxdasilva twitter.com/ritadanova Identidade visual do podcast: da autoria da talentosa Mariana Cardoso, que podem encontrar em marianarfpcardoso@hotmail.com. Genérico do podcast: criado pelo incrível Vitor Carraca Teixeira, que podem encontrar em www.instagram.com/oputovitor.
In celebration of our backlist fall, we're dedicating this episode to sharing our recommendations for what to read if you want to capture the energy of a popular book! Romance If you liked The Idea of You by Robinne Lee, you may like Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff and Seven Days in June by Tia Williams If you like Emily Henry's books, you may like You Again by Kate Goldbeck and books by Mhairi McFarlane! If you like Talking at Night by Claire Daverley, you may like Shark Heart by Emily Habeck and Normal People by Sally Rooney If you liked The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan, you may like Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman, How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilde, Prince Charming by Rachel Hawkins, and Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings Thriller/Mystery If you liked The Push by Ashley Audrain, you may like Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra, Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker, and My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Rusell If you liked The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon, you may like Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka If you liked Yellowface by R. F. Kuang, you may like The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz If you liked The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, you may like Happiness Falls by Angie Kim Book Club If you liked Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, you may like All The Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, you may like The Measure by Nikki Erlick, The Husbands by Holly Gramazio, and This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub If you like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, and The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer Fantasy If you liked The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, you may like Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow, The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg, and Caraval by Stephanie Garber If you like Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros or A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, you may like From Blood and Ash by Jennifer Lynn Armentrout, and Zodiac Academy by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti Lit Fic If you liked The Wedding People by Alison Espach, you may like We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman and I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue If you liked Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, you may like The Husbands by Holly Gramazio If you liked All Fours by Miranda July, you may like We Were The Universe by Kimberly King Parsons If you liked Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, you may like Fellowship Point by Alice Elliot Dark Obsessions Becca: Microstitch tool Olivia: The Burnt Toast Substack by Virginia Sole-Smith What we read this week Olivia: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall, You Know What You Did by KT Nguyen Becca: Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London This Month's Book Club Pick - Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (have thoughts about this book you want to share? Call in at 843-405-3157 or email us a voice memo at badonpaperpodcast@gmail.com) Sponsors Prose - Take your free consultation with 50% off at prose.com/bop. Better Help - Visit BetterHelp.com/BADONPAPER to get 10% off your first month Join our Facebook group for amazing book recs & more! Buy our Merch! Join our Geneva! Order Olivia's Book, Such a Bad Influence! Subscribe to Olivia's Newsletter! Order Becca's Book, The Christmas Orphans Club! Subscribe to Becca's Newsletter! Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Olivia on Instagram @oliviamuenter and Becca @beccamfreeman.
Sonham constantemente em largar tudo e abrir uma livraria com café? Pois, nós também, e esta semana pudemos imaginar como seria esta Livraria do Livra-te. Como estaria decorada? A que livros daríamos destaque? Que eventos teríamos? O que serviríamos no café? Só nos faltou mesmo dizer que teríamos um gatinho na livraria chamado Zafón.
Bruno Leão é uma das novas vozes da literatura Young Adult em Portugal e nós não podíamos perder a oportunidade de o ter connosco para falar de um género tão importante para formar novos leitores. E oiçam com atenção, que o Bruno acabou por revelar algumas novidades sobre o seu livro “Por Fim em Silêncio”. Livros mencionados neste episódio: - Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman (1:50) - Just Last Night, Mhairi McFarlane (4:40) - O Segredo das Larvas, Stefano Volp (7:38) - Por Fim em Silêncio, Bruno Leão (9:16) - Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin (12:23) - Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (21:25) - Girl in Pieces, Kathleen Glasgow (24:45) - The Sun is Also a Star, Nicola Yoon (25:03) - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz (25:26) - Breathless, Jeniffer Niven (26:07) - Dark Rise, C.S. Pacat (28:44) - True Biz, Sara Nović (30:17) - Yes No Maybe So, Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed (34:13) - Every Day, David Levithan (35:56) - Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell (37:14) - Our Infinite Fates, Laura Steven (38:24) - Saga O Povo do Ar, Holly Black (38:59) - Rivais Divinos, Rebecca Ross (39:08) - Um Namorado para Levar, Please!, Sher Lee (39:32) - Aquorea - Inspira, M. G. Ferrey (42:12) - The Taking Of Jake Livingston, Ryan Douglass (43:27) - Enquanto Eu Não Te Encontro, Pedro Rhuas (45:19) - Felix Ever After, Kacen Callender (45:58) - The Do-Over, Lynn Painter (47:42) Enviem as vossas questões ou sugestões para livratepodcast@gmail.com. Encontrem-nos nas redes sociais: www.instagram.com/julesdsilva www.instagram.com/ritadanova twitter.com/julesxdasilva twitter.com/ritadanova Identidade visual do podcast: da autoria da talentosa Mariana Cardoso, que podem encontrar em marianarfpcardoso@hotmail.com. Genérico do podcast: criado pelo incrível Vitor Carraca Teixeira, que podem encontrar em www.instagram.com/oputovitor.
Mhairi McFarlane has done it again with a hilarious, sharp, witty and emotional read that had as laughing (out loud) and crying (also out loud). Oh and as far as book boyfriends go, Lucas McCarthy and his jet black hair and broody stare (and hidden wealth...ca-ching!!!) is up there.I'm joined once again by the super smart and generally fantastic Natasha Stamos, who you can get around here.As always we LOVE your contribution to this poddy - leave us a text or a voicemail on the Hopeless Hotline which is open 24/7 on 0483 966 500Love you guys x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Anyone else feel in serious need a romcom right now? I know I do. And my guest today has your back. Lindsey Kelk's unashamedly feel good fiction has won her a legion of fans from the queen Marian Keyes and Jane Fallon to Emily Henry and Mhairi McFarlane.Born in Doncaster and now living in LA by way of New York, Lindsey has written 19 novels and sold 2.5million copies. The most recent of which are Love Me Do - a fun gender-flipped Cyrano de Bergerac meets The Holiday - and The Christmas Wish, which turns Christmas Day into Groundhog Day. Sounds more like a horror story than a romcom to me!Self-confessed oversharer and cat lover, Lindsey hung out in my kitchen with Sausage the cat (but of course) to tell me about losing both her mother and grandmother in the space of the year, how she learnt that often what looks like a wall is actually a door and how a Northern girl who grew up in a diet-y household, maintains a semblance of self-esteem in the city of beautiful people.We also discussed Lindsey's gynaecological history FROM HELL (and as regular listeners will know, it takes one to know one), finally finding a partner who's all about a green flag and how she's fully sick of ageism in romcoms. If you loved this episode, you might also like my conversations with Jane Fallon and Marian Keyes.* You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org, including Love Me Do by Lindsey Kelk and the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me.* And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com• The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls @ Pineapple Audio Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/review/follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Gillian and Holly chat to Mhairi McFarlane about getting started, coming up with fresh ideas, bad reviews and Archilles heals.
Never Ever Forever Karina May; Happy Place, Emily Henry; Every Summer After, Carley Fortune; Love and Other Words, Christina Lauren; Star Crossed, Minnie Darke; Minnie Darke on Writes4Women; Once More With Feeling, Alyssa Sussman; Who's That Girl, Mhairi McFarlane; Spring Clean For The Peach Queen, Sasha Wasley; Second Chance Love in Point Perry, Joanne Speirs | MOVIES: 13 Going On 30 (Binge); Ticket To Paradise (Binge); Sweet Home Alabama (Disney Plus); Before Sunrise (Binge) | SHELF LOVE: Lonely Harts Radio, Adeline Knight; Love For Life, Saman Shad; The Rachel Incident, Caroline O'Donoghue | Liked Yellowface, Rebecca F Kuang? Try Burnt Out by Victoria Brookman. Recorded on Gadigal land. Editing: Joshua Broadbent, Marker Creative Co. @thatromcompod / https://thatromcompod.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome back to the Mhairi fan club! Join us for this very personal episode as we discuss average men and the loves of your life. Thanks for joining us! Say hi on Insta: @soulmatesandsmut
For the full list of books, articles and films mentioned, with links, see our Substack.Funny Story, Emily Henry, (2024)Good Material, Dolly Alderton (Nov 2023)Never Ever Forever, Karina May (Nov 2023)While You Were Sleeping (1995, Disney Plus)The Proposal (2009, Disney Plus)The Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang (2019)Written In The Stars, Alexandria Bellefleur (2021)If I Never Met You, Mhairi McFarlane (2020)The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood (2021) The Love Contract, Steph Vizard (2023)Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1996)Jemima J, Jane Green (2006)Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get A Life, Maureen McCarthy (1995)West Side Honey, Claire Christian (2023)The Matchmaker, Saman Shad (2023)Sorrow And Bliss, Meg Mason (2020)Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld (2023) It's Been A Pleasure, Noni Blake, Claire Christian (2020).That Rom Com Pod is recorded on Gadigal land and edited by Joshua Broadbent at Marker Creative Co.Instagram @thatromcompod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I interviewed Ruth Ware about her latest book “Zero Days” and Sam Ripley “Rule of Three” plus I review 3 books: “Drowning” by T J Newman, “The Book Of Lost Names” by Kristin Carmel and “Between Us” by Mhairi McFarlane. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A fun chat with Mhairi McFarlane all about her new rom-com Between Us, writing about writers, David Simon, her notes & jokes file, fake clairvoyants, sealioning, and how she's always in harvesting mode. Plus- Dave goes running in Nashville and is most displeased, Laura is taken aback at Sylvia's new school uniform, and Andrew's kids … Continue reading Ep. 220 Notes & Jokes With Mhairi McFarlane
It's time to discuss our May Book Club Pick: Happy Place by Emily Henry! We had so much listener participation for this book (and some unexpected mixed reviews!) and we can't wait to dive in. In addition to discussing Happy Place, we cover the Emily Henry cannon, play listener questions and comments, do some fan casting, and rank our favorite Emily Henry Books! Obsessions Olivia: Jewish Matchmaking on Netflix Becca: Joe & The Juice Joe's Green Mile What we read this week! Becca: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros Olivia: Enchantment by Katherine May Love Emily Henry? You may enjoy books by Mhairi McFarlane, Carly Fortune, and Dolly Alderton! June's Month's Book Club Pick - Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (have thoughts about this book you want to share? Call in at 843-405-3157 or email us a voice memo at badonpaperpodcast@gmail.com) Sponsors Better Help - Visit BetterHelp.com/BADONPAPER today to get 10% off your first month. Join our Facebook group for amazing book recs & more! Subscribe to Olivia's Newsletter! Like and subscribe to RomComPods and Bone Marry Bury! Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Olivia on Instagram @oliviamuenter and Becca @beccamfreeman.
A copywriter on the run from online bullies, the famous actor she's writing a biography for, and pages of clever British fun! Steph's favourite rom-com has laughs and lows, and there is NO book boyfriend like Elliot Owen. It's Who's That Girl by Mhairi McFarlane!Follow us on Instagram and show us some love with a five star review on Apple Podcasts !Preorder Steph's new book HERE.Check out Steph's website HERE and Helen's random shenanigans HERE.We love you very much!
Här kommer den sjätte luckan i årets adventskalender, LisaMarias jultankar, som jag i år gör i samarbete med min vän, kollega och återkommande poddgäst Lisa Moraeus. I vårt samtal nämns boken ”Mythos: de grekiska myterna” (”Mythos”) av Stephen Fry, min bok ”Anhörig i ett hav av känslor”, ”The Power of Ritual” av Casper Ter Kuile, ”Skriv för att läka” av Emelie Hill Dittmer, ”Sanningen kommer om natten” (”Last Night”) av Mhairi McFarlane och ungdomsböckerna ”Järvhögatrilogin” av Camilla Sten.
Oh people, this episode of CL4L was supposed to be all sunshine and rainbows, discussing Mhairi McFarlane's sparkling "Mad About You", but somehow it ended up with Katie getting super upset about something her bloke Dave said, but it all getting twisted and her thinking Chloe and the girls think she's dumb or something for being with him in the first place? It was super weird, but luckily, that was only one small, weird-ass part of the show We did get to talk about lovely book related things, including but not limited to: The energy Harriet puts into not allowing her past to define her being equal parts inspiring and sad-making How everyone in this novel gets the wrong end of the stick about something or someone and we are HERE for that type of content (and no the irony is not lost on us) Misreading your place in a relationship vs being possessive vs actual emotional abuse. And hell do we get into it you guys Cal essentially being Ryan Gosling but in the North of England, also his shirts be real nice And we even had time for some non-Dave related sadness tangents! We got into: How Chloe can still broadcast effectively while ugly-crying Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer (Thicc Boy Nation Represent) having an unexpectedly strong influence on Clee Chloe's improved Korean How we all have very different opinions on the whole incoming winter situation (Clee, for one, can't wait to get back into her standard issue ginger girl knitwear) It's all here in this month's Chick Lit 4 Life!! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message
Hi Readers! Welcome to Literary Lineup: August Edition! On this mini-episode, we'll each share three books that we are hoping to pick-up this month. Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood Stay Awake by Megan Goldin Mad About You by Mhairi McFarlane Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean
This week on Typecast our hosts sit down to discuss Mhairi McFarlane's brilliant romcom-ish Last Night. We discuss whether or not we'd read each other's diaries if we died and Rachel reveals she didn't realise Henry Cavill was in Stardust. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
EMILY HAS SWORN OFF LOVE. BUT MAYBE IT'S TIME TO GET BACK IN THE SADDLE.... Emily Wilkinson has lost everything. Literally. In a hair-straightener fire. Oh, and her boyfriend (and boss) has announced he's going back to his wife. So, she needs a new job, a new plan, and somewhere to live that isn't her childhood bedroom. Charles Hunter is looking for a live-in PA to help run Bowford Manor and Emily thinks she's the perfect fit. Well, she's spent ten years propping up demanding men, so she can definitely handle some tricky characters—like Charles's eldest son and heir, who's got plans for the estate that might raise a few eyebrows. No one's mentioned Jamie though. The stable hand—and youngest Hunter. Dashing, of course, but totally unsuitable. And Emily's not about to make that mistake again. Definitely not. No, really. A hugely uplifting and totally irresistible romantic comedy that will make you snort with laughter. If you love Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Ranald, you don't want to miss this.
Here's Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane
EMILY HAS SWORN OFF LOVE. BUT MAYBE IT'S TIME TO GET BACK IN THE SADDLE . . . ? __________________________ Emily Wilkinson has lost everything. Literally. In a hair-straightener fire. Oh, and her boyfriend (and boss) has announced he's going back to his wife. So, she needs a new job, a new plan, and somewhere to live that isn't her childhood bedroom. Charles Hunter is looking for a live-in PA to help run Bowford Manor and Emily thinks she's the perfect fit. Well, she's spent ten years propping up demanding men, so she can definitely handle some tricky characters - like Charles's eldest son and heir, who's got plans for the estate that might raise a few eyebrows. No one's mentioned Jamie though. The stable hand - and youngest Hunter. Dashing, of course, but totally unsuitable. And Emily's not about to make that mistake again. Definitely not. No, really. A hugely uplifting and totally irresistible romantic comedy that will make you snort with laughter. If you love Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Ranald, you don't want to miss this unforgettable page-turner. ___________________________ DISCOVER WHY EVERYONE LOVES HEIDI STEPHENS! 'Witty, wise and romantic. Escapist fiction at it's absolute best' KATIE FFORDE 'Fun, sexy, and wonderfully escapist' EMILY STONE 'Gorgeously fun . . . the blast of escapism we all need right now!' FIONA GIBSON 'The perfect escape for anybody who loves a swoon-worthy hero and a fabulous setting!' ZARA STONELEY
EMILY HAS SWORN OFF LOVE. BUT MAYBE IT'S TIME TO GET BACK IN THE SADDLE . . . ? __________________________ Emily Wilkinson has lost everything. Literally. In a hair-straightener fire. Oh, and her boyfriend (and boss) has announced he's going back to his wife. So, she needs a new job, a new plan, and somewhere to live that isn't her childhood bedroom. Charles Hunter is looking for a live-in PA to help run Bowford Manor and Emily thinks she's the perfect fit. Well, she's spent ten years propping up demanding men, so she can definitely handle some tricky characters - like Charles's eldest son and heir, who's got plans for the estate that might raise a few eyebrows. No one's mentioned Jamie though. The stable hand - and youngest Hunter. Dashing, of course, but totally unsuitable. And Emily's not about to make that mistake again. Definitely not. No, really. A hugely uplifting and totally irresistible romantic comedy that will make you snort with laughter. If you love Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Ranald, you don't want to miss this unforgettable page-turner. ___________________________ DISCOVER WHY EVERYONE LOVES HEIDI STEPHENS! 'Witty, wise and romantic. Escapist fiction at it's absolute best' KATIE FFORDE 'Fun, sexy, and wonderfully escapist' EMILY STONE 'Gorgeously fun . . . the blast of escapism we all need right now!' FIONA GIBSON 'The perfect escape for anybody who loves a swoon-worthy hero and a fabulous setting!' ZARA STONELEY
EMILY HAS SWORN OFF LOVE. BUT MAYBE IT'S TIME TO GET BACK IN THE SADDLE . . . ? __________________________ Emily Wilkinson has lost everything. Literally. In a hair-straightener fire. Oh, and her boyfriend (and boss) has announced he's going back to his wife. So, she needs a new job, a new plan, and somewhere to live that isn't her childhood bedroom. Charles Hunter is looking for a live-in PA to help run Bowford Manor and Emily thinks she's the perfect fit. Well, she's spent ten years propping up demanding men, so she can definitely handle some tricky characters - like Charles's eldest son and heir, who's got plans for the estate that might raise a few eyebrows. No one's mentioned Jamie though. The stable hand - and youngest Hunter. Dashing, of course, but totally unsuitable. And Emily's not about to make that mistake again. Definitely not. No, really. A hugely uplifting and totally irresistible romantic comedy that will make you snort with laughter. If you love Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Ranald, you don't want to miss this unforgettable page-turner. ___________________________ DISCOVER WHY EVERYONE LOVES HEIDI STEPHENS! 'Witty, wise and romantic. Escapist fiction at it's absolute best' KATIE FFORDE 'Fun, sexy, and wonderfully escapist' EMILY STONE 'Gorgeously fun . . . the blast of escapism we all need right now!' FIONA GIBSON 'The perfect escape for anybody who loves a swoon-worthy hero and a fabulous setting!' ZARA STONELEY
EMILY HAS SWORN OFF LOVE. BUT MAYBE IT'S TIME TO GET BACK IN THE SADDLE . . . ? __________________________ Emily Wilkinson has lost everything. Literally. In a hair-straightener fire. Oh, and her boyfriend (and boss) has announced he's going back to his wife. So, she needs a new job, a new plan, and somewhere to live that isn't her childhood bedroom. Charles Hunter is looking for a live-in PA to help run Bowford Manor and Emily thinks she's the perfect fit. Well, she's spent ten years propping up demanding men, so she can definitely handle some tricky characters - like Charles's eldest son and heir, who's got plans for the estate that might raise a few eyebrows. No one's mentioned Jamie though. The stable hand - and youngest Hunter. Dashing, of course, but totally unsuitable. And Emily's not about to make that mistake again. Definitely not. No, really. A hugely uplifting and totally irresistible romantic comedy that will make you snort with laughter. If you love Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Ranald, you don't want to miss this unforgettable page-turner. ___________________________ DISCOVER WHY EVERYONE LOVES HEIDI STEPHENS! 'Witty, wise and romantic. Escapist fiction at it's absolute best' KATIE FFORDE 'Fun, sexy, and wonderfully escapist' EMILY STONE 'Gorgeously fun . . . the blast of escapism we all need right now!' FIONA GIBSON 'The perfect escape for anybody who loves a swoon-worthy hero and a fabulous setting!' ZARA STONELEY
EMILY HAS SWORN OFF LOVE. BUT MAYBE IT'S TIME TO GET BACK IN THE SADDLE . . . ? __________________________ Emily Wilkinson has lost everything. Literally. In a hair-straightener fire. Oh, and her boyfriend (and boss) has announced he's going back to his wife. So, she needs a new job, a new plan, and somewhere to live that isn't her childhood bedroom. Charles Hunter is looking for a live-in PA to help run Bowford Manor and Emily thinks she's the perfect fit. Well, she's spent ten years propping up demanding men, so she can definitely handle some tricky characters - like Charles's eldest son and heir, who's got plans for the estate that might raise a few eyebrows. No one's mentioned Jamie though. The stable hand - and youngest Hunter. Dashing, of course, but totally unsuitable. And Emily's not about to make that mistake again. Definitely not. No, really. A hugely uplifting and totally irresistible romantic comedy that will make you snort with laughter. If you love Sophie Kinsella, Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Ranald, you don't want to miss this unforgettable page-turner. ___________________________ DISCOVER WHY EVERYONE LOVES HEIDI STEPHENS! 'Witty, wise and romantic. Escapist fiction at it's absolute best' KATIE FFORDE 'Fun, sexy, and wonderfully escapist' EMILY STONE 'Gorgeously fun . . . the blast of escapism we all need right now!' FIONA GIBSON 'The perfect escape for anybody who loves a swoon-worthy hero and a fabulous setting!' ZARA STONELEY
Mhairi McFarlane was born in Scotland (which is why her unnecessarily confusing name is pronounced Vah-Ree). After working as a journalist, Mhairi started writing novels. She lives in Nottingham with a man and a cat. Today, we're discussing her (totally bloody wonderful) eighth novel Mad About You. Our interview begins at 00:22:00 Mini book club: This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch by Tabitha Carvan* When was the last time you felt unapologetic and obsessive joy for something? We loved the way this book explored joy and passions and encouraged us to pursue that – however strange it may seem to some. Fun facts: We learn Michelle went through an Elvis phase after watching Lilo and Stitch as a child and Caitlin has added to IMBD trivia about Friends. And they both make themselves lists of things to read while on holidays because they can't not be productive. *Thank you to Harper Collins Publishers for providing a copy for Michelle for review. Caitlin's position at HCP did not influence our discussion. In this interview, we chat about: Weddings and the wedding industry: why Mhairi wanted to explore this in Mad About You How Mhairi manages to tackle tricky subjects (like emotionally abusive relationships) while keeping the humour and lighthearted rom-com feel of her work How Mhairi approaches plotting out her stories Mhairi's advice for her past self (and aspiring writers) How it feels to get endorsements from iconic writers like Marian Keyes Mhairi's work as a journalist and her journey to publishing Why Mhairi still finds it hard to call herself a writer Why Mhairi sets her books in the north of England Books and other things mentioned: Sunderland 'Til I Die (TV series) https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a38253188/adele-helped-a-fan-propose-to-his-girlfriend/ (The public proposal at the Adele concert) To All the Boys I've Loved Before (Film) One Day by David Nicholls On Writing by Stephen King Follow Mhairi on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mhairimcf/ (@mhairimcf) Connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betterwordspod/ (@betterwordspod) Mad About You is available now in Australia and the UK. Please note that we choose podcast guests independently of Caitlin's job at HarperCollins Publishers. Although her job does help put us in touch with authors, we choose our guests based on what we've enjoyed reading and think you'd find interesting.
Welcome to the Mhairi McFarlane fan club! Join us on this love-fest as we discuss our new favourite, Last Night.
In this episode, Nicole and Gayle talk about their personal book-related vexations! We're sure you will relate to more than one of their pet peeves. We're reaching the final of the now traditional March Madness contest. Please, give your https://forms.gle/FKXL9rjUmEDzBiHh6 (vote) for us to know which of these two books should move forward. _ For the Human Design Readings: https://nbhumandesignreading.as.me/ (https://NBHumanDesignReading.as.me/) With the code - Readerly you can get a free reading! _ As always you can find below the whole booklist they run through during the episode: The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington | https://amzn.to/3DW58xX (Amazon) | https://bookshop.org/a/2143/9781616206802 (Bookshop) Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez | https://amzn.to/3J9NMi0 (Amazon) | https://bookshop.org/a/2143/9780593337691 (Bookshop) Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane | https://amzn.to/3K0Qs1R (Amazon) | https://bookshop.org/a/2143/9780063036857 (Bookshop) The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas | https://amzn.to/3iEoXAQ (Amazon) | https://bookshop.org/a/2143/9781984880598 (Bookshop) We by Michael Landweber | https://amzn.to/3rERr1g (Amazon) Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta | https://amzn.to/386tSYe (Amazon) | https://bookshop.org/a/2143/9781501144066 (Bookshop) The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz | https://amzn.to/3K0mAm3 (Amazon) | https://bookshop.org/a/2143/9781250790798 (Bookshop) The Caretakers by Eliza Maxwell | https://amzn.to/3MiQyDv (Amazon) | https://bookshop.org/a/2143/9781542044578 (Bookshop)
We've finally got our act together to share with you our favourite fiction, films, TV and audio of the year. Thank you for joining us in 2021 and supporting our wonderful authors. (You can blame Michelle's full-time reporting contract for why this is going live in February and not January) Season 8 will be in your ears in March! We're keeping recommendations brief. If we've featured or discussed the book before, we'll link to the episode. Listen to our Non-Fiction November wrap up to hear our fave non-fiction for 2021. We'll mark any PR/review copies with * Adult fictionCaitlin: Freckles by Cecelia Ahern* (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/finding-characters-ps-i-love-you-and-lessons-from-18-novels-with-cecelia-ahern (listen to the interview)) The Hush by Sara Foster* (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/the-future-of-dystopia-and-exploring-the-mother-daughter-bond-with-sara-foster (listen to the interview)) It's Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake by Claire Christian (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/writing-funny-and-publishing-in-a-pandemic-with-abigail-mann (original recommendation)) Michelle: Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane* (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/creating-a-music-icon-and-oral-history-narratives-with-dawnie-walton (listen to Caitlin's recommendation)) The Couple by Helly Acton (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/unlikely-friendships-dads-in-ya-and-feedback-from-your-favourite-authors-with-tobias-madden (original recommendation)) Home Stretch by Graham Norton - a touching exploration of the way one tragic event ripples out throughout so many lives. Adult fictions: honourable mentionsCaitlin: Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney Michelle: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Oseman Young AdultCaitlin: Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli Social Queue by Kay Kerr* (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/the-absurdity-of-the-human-body-with-sarah-walker (listen to our book club)) Henry Hamlet's Heart by Rhiannon Wilde* (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/teenage-male-friendships-all-boys-schools-and-peak-2000s-culture-with-rhiannon-wilde (listen to the interview)) Michelle: The Gaps by Leanne Hall* (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/violence-against-women-the-perfect-victim-myth-and-slow-writing-with-leanne-hall (listen to our interview)) The Monster of Her Age by Danielle Binks* (https://www.betterwordspodcast.com/episode/horror-films-acting-dynasties-and-the-strange-limbo-of-grief-with-danielle-binks (listen to our interview)) Margot and Me by Juno Dawson The out-of-your-comfort-zone bookCaitlin: Harry Styles: The Making of a Modern Man by Sean Smith* Michelle: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters The surprising bookCaitlin: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston Michelle: Space Hopper by Helen Fisher (listen to our book club chat) The new release we want to read Caitlin: How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur Michelle: People Person by Candice Carty-Williams The book we already own and want to actually read Caitlin: Still Life by Sarah Winman* Michelle: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart TVCaitlin: Superstore Morning Wars (aka The Morning Show) Ted Lasso Michelle: Line of Duty Motherland I'll Be Gone in the Dark MoviesCaitlin: Dear Evan Hansen Spiderman: No Way Home Tick Tick Boom Michelle: Promising Young Woman Cruella The Mitchells vs the Machines AudioCaitlin: Taylor Swift: Evermore/Fearless/Red (music) Sentimental in the City Drama Queens Michelle: RedHanded podcast You're Wrong About The Fred and Rose West Tapes Books and other things mentionedLast Christmas (film) Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams All Killa No Filla (podcast) I, Tonya (film) The Five by Hallie Rubenhold Connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betterwordspod/ (@betterwordspod)
We share quick and easy meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, what we keep in our pantry, and what is not feeling quick and easy about feeding our families.Life latelySarah is happy to have made it through January.Abby presented at a science communication conference.Reading latelySarah read the domestic thriller Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty.Abby is going through Mhairi McFarlane's older books and loved It's Not Me, It's You just as much as her newer releases.Eating latelyAbby shared the croque madame casserole her family had on Christmas Eve, while Sarah baked an everything bagel pull-apart bread.If you'd like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment on our show notes, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The agreement was to get married . . . not to fall in love. In this sweeping romantic comedy, affairs are to be expected, and falling in love is betrayal... This topsy-turvy romcom is perfect for fans of Josie Silver, Beth O'Leary and Mhairi McFarlane. For a commitment-phobe who's never taken a girl on a third date, Jack finds getting married to his old friend Maya pretty easy. He's a New Zealander in need of a visa to stay in the country, and she doesn't believe in marriage anyway. Simple. Maya and Jack live in wedded, sex-less bliss, until one day Jack starts to get serious with someone else... Suddenly Maya finds herself falling into a role she never thought she'd be: a wife - and a scorned one at that - who is falling uncontrollably, undeniably, and entirely inconveniently.... ... in love with her own husband.
The agreement was to get married . . . not to fall in love. In this sweeping romantic comedy, affairs are to be expected, and falling in love is betrayal... This topsy-turvy romcom is perfect for fans of Josie Silver, Beth O'Leary and Mhairi McFarlane. For a commitment-phobe who's never taken a girl on a third date, Jack finds getting married to his old friend Maya pretty easy. He's a New Zealander in need of a visa to stay in the country, and she doesn't believe in marriage anyway. Simple. Maya and Jack live in wedded, sex-less bliss, until one day Jack starts to get serious with someone else... Suddenly Maya finds herself falling into a role she never thought she'd be: a wife - and a scorned one at that - who is falling uncontrollably, undeniably, and entirely inconveniently.... ... in love with her own husband.
The agreement was to get married . . . not to fall in love. In this sweeping romantic comedy, affairs are to be expected, and falling in love is betrayal... This topsy-turvy romcom is perfect for fans of Josie Silver, Beth O'Leary and Mhairi McFarlane. For a commitment-phobe who's never taken a girl on a third date, Jack finds getting married to his old friend Maya pretty easy. He's a New Zealander in need of a visa to stay in the country, and she doesn't believe in marriage anyway. Simple. Maya and Jack live in wedded, sex-less bliss, until one day Jack starts to get serious with someone else... Suddenly Maya finds herself falling into a role she never thought she'd be: a wife - and a scorned one at that - who is falling uncontrollably, undeniably, and entirely inconveniently.... ... in love with her own husband.
The agreement was to get married . . . not to fall in love. In this sweeping romantic comedy, affairs are to be expected, and falling in love is betrayal... This topsy-turvy romcom is perfect for fans of Josie Silver, Beth O'Leary and Mhairi McFarlane. For a commitment-phobe who's never taken a girl on a third date, Jack finds getting married to his old friend Maya pretty easy. He's a New Zealander in need of a visa to stay in the country, and she doesn't believe in marriage anyway. Simple. Maya and Jack live in wedded, sex-less bliss, until one day Jack starts to get serious with someone else... Suddenly Maya finds herself falling into a role she never thought she'd be: a wife - and a scorned one at that - who is falling uncontrollably, undeniably, and entirely inconveniently.... ... in love with her own husband.
The agreement was to get married . . . not to fall in love. In this sweeping romantic comedy, affairs are to be expected, and falling in love is betrayal... This topsy-turvy romcom is perfect for fans of Josie Silver, Beth O'Leary and Mhairi McFarlane. For a commitment-phobe who's never taken a girl on a third date, Jack finds getting married to his old friend Maya pretty easy. He's a New Zealander in need of a visa to stay in the country, and she doesn't believe in marriage anyway. Simple. Maya and Jack live in wedded, sex-less bliss, until one day Jack starts to get serious with someone else... Suddenly Maya finds herself falling into a role she never thought she'd be: a wife - and a scorned one at that - who is falling uncontrollably, undeniably, and entirely inconveniently.... ... in love with her own husband.
In this sweeping romantic comedy, affairs are to be expected, and falling in love is betrayal... This topsy-turvy romcom is perfect for fans of Josie Silver, Beth O'Leary and Mhairi McFarlane. For a commitment-phobe who's never taken a girl on a third date, Jack finds getting married to his old friend Maya pretty easy. He's a New Zealander in need of a visa to stay in the country, and she doesn't believe in marriage anyway. Simple. Maya and Jack live in wedded, sex-less bliss, until one day Jack starts to get serious with someone else... Suddenly Maya finds herself falling into a role she never thought she'd be: a wife - and a scorned one at that - who is falling uncontrollably, undeniably, and entirely inconveniently.... ... in love with her own husband.
September? More like Booktember! We have a lot of Hallmark Fall Harvest movies to discuss and then eight books. I regret nothing. Back with another Christina Lauren SBS book club pick with Roomies this month, spoiler alert I loved it. Read two Samantha Young books (obviously) Down London Road and Before Jamaica Lane (along with not mentioned two novellas of hers). Kate Bromley is a new author alert with her hit Talk Bookish To Me and Tessa Bailey isn't new, but she's new to me. I get why I couldn't get It Happened One Summer until the end of summer now. Rounding out the reading was Farah Heron's Accidentally Engaged, Mhairi McFarlane's emotional hit Just Last Night, and last but certainly not least, the third book in Evie Dunmore's League of Extraordinary Women series, Portrait of a Scotsman. Grab your TBR list and write them down, or just head over to www.sockbunstudios.com and the September Wrap Up blog post to grab all the books to wrap up in now that fall is here! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Ellen and Mom discuss the toxic workplace, terrible exes, and trust issues in If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane. Plus, how we used our break and some truly terrible segues. Come hang out with us! Twitter/Instagram: @notyourmomsromFacebook Group: Not Your Mom's Facebook GroupEmail: notyourmomsromancebookclub@gmail.comNot Your Mom's Romance Book Club is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcast
“No hagas nada y nada pasará. La vida se trata de las decisiones. O las tomas o alguien las tomará por ti, pero no las puedes evitar.” Mhairi McFarlane
In this episode we talk with Paige Toon about the best Contemporary Romance novels, how to pick erotica out on a bookshelf, and why sometimes the hidden joys of writing include doing alpaca research. Paige is a best-selling author who has sold over 1.5 million copies of her 18 novels (and counting). In addition to romance, Paige has written YA, has a penchant for short stories, and has a habit of fainting in the presence of rock n' roll icons. Paige's contemporary romance recommendations include: Classics Watermelon by Marian Keyes Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding New The Secret Bridesmaid by Katie Birchal Best under-rated romance read The Sight of You by Holly Miller Also anything by Mhairi McFarlane for romance with both emotional depth and humour. To discover Paige's work, including her latest book Someone I Used To Know, head to PaigeToon.com, or connect with her on socials @paigetoonauthor
We are back again this month with May's rendition of Book Club. Our pick this month was Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane. As always skip passed this part of the episode to avoid any spoilers. Timestamps Just Last Night discussion: 24:00 Rest of book club Spoiler Free: 50:00 Books Mentioned this episode Just Last Night: Mhairi McFarlane The Crown Of Gilded Bones - Jennifer L. Armentrout Everything I Know About Love - Dolly Alderton
Author Stories - Author Interviews, Writing Advice, Book Reviews
It’s episode 1100 and today I welcome Mhairi McFarlane to the show to talk about her new...
We welcome internationally bestselling author, Mhairi McFarlane, who explores lifelong friendships, long-buried secrets, and unexpected love in her heartfelt, emotional new novel, Just Last Night. Sometimes complicated is too fun! ** We start by discussing Eve, her complicated heroine, and how she grew organically from the story. We loved hearing about how writing for a 30-something seems to be her sweet spot. (02:40) ** Speaking of complicated women, although this is Eve’s story, her best friend Suzie is a true force. Described as a cross between Mother Teresa and Samantha from Sex and the City, Mhairi tells us about writing Suzie as Eve’s foil. (07:00) ** Unlike her prior novels and a more typical rom com story that focuses mostly on a love story between a hero and heroine, Just Last Night is a story about friendship, so we were interested to hear why Mhairi wanted to explore the complicated ties of friendship. (08:54) ** We love a character with a good secret, but for Mhairi it isn’t about secrets so much as it is the fascinating issue of where the reality doesn’t match the image and how she uses these things as teaching tools for her characters’ growth. (13:01) ** We shared with Mhairi what themes we gravitate to in love and romance and what that says about our damage. We put Mhairi on the couch too and discuss why she keeps returning to the theme of regret. (14:52) ** Mhairi has said: “Fiction writers have a lot in common with habitual liars, we take things that sort of happened to us and what if them into something that's big enough for a novel.” We loved hearing her discuss the writer’s brain and how you never know whether you have engaged in enough “what if’s!” (17:48) ** Mhairi’s road to publication was longer than she expected, and ehe has some wise words of advice for aspiring writers! (22:22). ** We love a good rom com here at Pop Fiction Women so we were fascinated to hear what Mhairi thinks are the key elements that make a great rom com, including her views on our favorite element: the big speech/big declaration of love. (26:56). ** Of course we discuss astrology with Mhairi … a dreamy, creative, mutable Pisces who embodies all of those traits! (32:06) ** Mhairi shares what she is loving in terms of books, podcasts, movies and TV shows. (33:06) ** Mhairi ends by discussing her role in adapting her novel, Who’s That Girl, and the challenges of shifting gears from novelist to screenwriter. As part of her training, she studied the script of When Harry Met Sally, the “gold standard” of rom coms. (34:36) Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @popfictionwomen and on Twitter @pop_women. To do a full deep dive, check out our website at http://www.popfictionwomen.com/ (www.popfictionwomen.com). Stay Complicated! We’ve launched a platform at patreon.com/popfictionwomen to keep making the podcast you love -- and to make it even better. Support this podcast
Plotting and pantsing, loving your genre, voice, self-doubt… what didn’t we talk about with Mhairi McFarlane? And she has such a lovely Scottish accent to do it in, too. We know you’ll love this episode. #AmReadingMhairi: The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary (aka El Piso Para Dos in KJ’s Spanish version)Sweet Sorrow by David NichollsSarina: The Price You Pay for College by Ron Lieber (from episode Turning Data into #Narrative) Re-reading Rock Chick by Kristen AshleyKJ: Life’s Too Short by Abby JimenezFollow Mhairi on Twitter: @mhairimcfIn this episode we talked a lot about finding ideas, chasing them around and pinning them down. Jennie Nash from our sponsor, Author Accelerator, has a list of the idea process, in this case for non-fiction books: I had an idea, which came to me in the form of six words in a very specific order…and which stuck in my mind long enough to ping against a memory…which caused me to think about the connection between those two things (this new thought, this old memory)…which prompted me to land on the idea of a process…which suggests some sort of order or structure or shape…which led me to believe I had something to say…which prompted me to put a title on a blank page and start writing this blog post…which I already have a strong feeling is going to become a book.In fiction, it goes somewhat differently—at least, I can’t see where “process” fits in—but the two things pinging against one another in your brain rings true for me for sure. Sign up for their free email Writing Challenge to help you plan what your book will be about, how to structure it, where it starts and ends, and who your target readers are and what they are looking for—and you’ll also be on the list to get emails from Jennie that somehow always manage to be just what I need when they arrive. Have you checked out the Writing Class Radio podcast? Writing Class Radio is a podcast of a writing class. If you love stories and get inspired by hearing other people tell their stories and want to learn a little bit about how to write your own stories, then this podcast is for you. Check it out here or search for it in your pod-player. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe
Making decisions is all about taking action.Let this episode be your encouragement for getting that decision made!"It is not selfish to do what is best for you.""Be decisive. Make a decision. The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn't make a decision." NotSalmon.com"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." Ralph Waldo Emerson"Not making a decision is actually a decision. It's the decision to stay the same." Lysa Terkeurst"What if I fall? Oh, but my darling what if you fly? "Always trust your gut. It knows what your head hasn't figured out yet.""In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take, the relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make." Lewis Carroll"She's gonna forever say “I got this: even with tears in her eyes.”" Relationship Rules"Look closely at the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you are dreaming." Alice Walker "The more you love your decisions, the less you need others to love them.""A person who really wants something will find a way, a person who doesn't will find an excuse.""Do nothing, and nothing happens. Life is about decisions. You either make them or they're made for you, but you can't avoid them." Mhairi McFarlane"The worst thing you can do is to make life decisions while you are emotional, while your heart and mind are in disagreement." Leon Brown"Remember. The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit. Be patient. Be humble. Keep moving forward and know that all this hard work you're putting in day in and day out will produce the results you're looking for. Your time is coming. Do not give up.""I trust my decisions. I trust myself. I know there is a reason for everything." ThetaHealing"I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions." Stephen Covey"If it costs your peace it's too expensive.""It's about the tiny little decisions.""Yes there is a plan. Your soul knows what it is.""Let the adventure begin.""Choose with courage.""Her intuition was her favorite superpower"."Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late." Theviennablog.com"One day or day one. It's your decision.""When you need to make a hard decision, flip a coin. Why? Because when that coin is in the air you suddenly know what you're hoping for.""Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable.""Someone else's opinion of you is none of your business." Rachel Hollis"Don't make yourself small so others feel more comfortable." Rachel HollisOther important mentions:Join us in our free group for wedding pros on Facebook in "The Wedding Vendors Community" to further the discussionConnect with me on InstagramEmail me, I love hearing from you!Share this podcast with a wedding pro friend or two!Join us in our exclusive insiders group, The Vendors CircleJust for you, here's a code for a $5 trial for the first month in our exclusive VIP membership for wedding professionals. TRIAL5. Just enter at checkout!Do you wish you could fill your calendar faster and easier?It's always easy to do on your own, so I've created a free challenge for you, where we'll walk through it together.The challenge starts on September 21, when you sign up right now you'll get an action item that will have you starting with the right foundation!Just go to www.letsbookclients.com/referralschallenge to sign up today!
Love might be closer than you think . . . Gemma isn't sure what upsets her more. The fact she just caught her boyfriend cheating, or that he did it on her brand-new Heal's cushions. All she knows is she needs to put as many miles between her and Fraser as humanly possible. So, when her best friend suggests a restorative few days in the West Country, it seems like the perfect solution. That is, until the country enters a national lockdown that leaves her stranded. All she has for company is her dog, Mabel. And the mysterious (and handsome!) stranger living at the bottom of her garden . . . Packed full of laugh-out-loud moments, this hugely uplifting, feel-good and sparkling romantic comedy is simply unputdownable. Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Sophie Kinsella, Beth O'Leary and Laura Jane Williams.
A funny, feel-good novel about baking, relationships and babies, perfect for fans of Lucy Diamond, Laura Jane Williams and Mhairi McFarlane. For Ellie Redford, life is good...Uitgegeven door SAGA EgmontSpreker(s): Lizzie Wolford
The fun-filled novel about dating and friendship perfect for fans of Laura Jane Williams, Dolly Alderton and Mhairi McFarlane...Uitgegeven door SAGA EgmontSpreker(s): Lizzie Wolford
What makes a romance novel steamy? And do other people think some of your favorite sexy romance novels are all that steamy? This week, Mackenzie and Lily dive into creating a five-level "steam scale" for how to rank the steaminess of books. Mack also discusses what level of the steam scales she taps out at, and Lily describes the novel that made her head implode.Major episode timestamps: Introduction (0:00), Housekeeping (1:23), Introduction to Main Topic (3:46), Discussion of Taylor Jenkins Reid's Novels (13:14), Discussion of Mhairi McFarlane's Novels and Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters (14:12), Discussion of Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton and The Stationary Shop by Marjan Kamali (17:37), Discussion of Katherine Center’s Novels (19:50), Discussion of The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (20:22), Discussion of The Trouble with Hating You by Sajini Patel (22:00), Discussion of Roomies by Christina Lauren (24:04), Discussion of Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren (25:13), Discussion of Twice in a Blue Moon and Other Novels by Christina Lauren (25:51), Discussion of Talia Hibbert and the Brown Sisters Trilogy (30:37), Discussion of The Idea of You by Robinne Lee (31:54), Discussion of The Marriage Game by Sarah Desai and The Dutchess Deal by Tessa Dare (34:23), Discussion of The Roommate by Rosie Danan (40:06), Discussion of Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas (40:37), Discussion of Him by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen and Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez (43:36), Discussion of Priest by Sierra Simone (50:28), Discussion of the Beards & Bondage Series by Rebekah Weatherspoon (52:23), What Else We’re Reading (56:18), Conclusion (01:03:05).You can get full show notes and episode transcriptions on the Bad Bitch Book Club website: http://badbitchbookclub.com/podcast.Give us a five-star rating wherever you get your podcasts, and say hi to us at @F2LPodcast on Twitter and Instagram. You can also join the private F2L Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/292095932008569.If you want to support Bad Bitch Book Club's initiatives (including this podcast), become a Patreon member: https://www.patreon.com/badbitchbookclub.Buy all books mentioned on Friends to Lovers: https://bookshop.org/lists/friends-to-lovers-podcast.Friends to Lovers is a Bad Bitch Book Club podcast hosted by BBBC founder Mackenzie Newcomb and writer, editor, and bestie Lily Herman. Each week, they use books as a jumping off point to talk about sex, relationships, dating, love, romance, and more.Podcast logo by MKW Creative Co. (https://mkwcreative.co/) and music by Eliza Rose Vera (http://www.elizarosevera.com). Full episode transcription by Colleen Ward.
Wir lassen uns von Lockdown und Co nicht das Fest verderben. Heute bekommt Ihr jede Menge Lesetipps, Geschenk-Ideen und Spiele, mit denen man die Feiertage sehr kurzweilig gestalten kann. Ob mit Pandemic Legacy seine eigene Pandemie in den Griff kriegen, Serienkiller bei der Arbeit beobachten oder Chick Lit fürs Sofa, diesmal kriegt ihr den totalen Rundumschlag im Weihnachtswald. Ho-Ho-Holy Chrismas everyone! Bleibt gesund und munter...eine Flasche Glühgin und rein ins Lese- und Spielvergnügen!
Every so often, the thirst stars align, or the thirst goddesses smile down on us, or whatever you want to call it... and well, it all came together for us this week. We manifested a long held TAK desire — we got to interview Jake Johnson! ::scream:: He told us about his new adult animated show Hoops, working on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, and why he thinks the pandemic has affected the way people see Nick Miller. (Please forgive the occasional echo that comes up—we’re all tech-wrangling in a pandemic!) In Slate Plus, we spoke to a few of our very favourite writers of romance and romantic comedy novels — Rebekah Weatherspoon, Alisha Rai, Mhairi McFarlane, Jasmine Guillory, and Alyssa Cole — and asked them three burning questions about romance world building, meet-cutes, fave tropes, and how the pandemic is changing the way they write. As usual, you can follow us on Twitter @ThirstAidKit. Our music is by Tanya Morgan. You can find show notes, and more on our Tumblr at thirstaidkitpodcast.tumblr.com. Don’t forget to send us your drabbles by emailing thirstaidkit@slate.com.
Every so often, the thirst stars align, or the thirst goddesses smile down on us, or whatever you want to call it... and well, it all came together for us this week. We manifested a long held TAK desire — we got to interview Jake Johnson! ::scream:: He told us about his new adult animated show Hoops, working on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, and why he thinks the pandemic has affected the way people see Nick Miller. In Slate Plus, we spoke to a few of our very favourite writers of romance and romantic comedy novels — Rebekah Weatherspoon, Alisha Rai, Mhairi McFarlane, Jasmine Guillory, and Alyssa Cole — and asked them three burning questions about romance world building, meet-cutes, fave tropes, and how the pandemic is changing the way they write. As usual, you can follow us on Twitter @ThirstAidKit. Our music is by Tanya Morgan. You can find show notes, and more on our Tumblr at thirstaidkitpodcast.tumblr.com. Don’t forget to send us your drabbles by emailing thirstaidkit@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Every so often, the thirst stars align, or the thirst goddesses smile down on us, or whatever you want to call it... and well, it all came together for us this week. We manifested a long held TAK desire — we got to interview Jake Johnson! ::scream:: He told us about his new adult animated show Hoops, working on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, and why he thinks the pandemic has affected the way people see Nick Miller. In Slate Plus, we spoke to a few of our very favourite writers of romance and romantic comedy novels — Rebekah Weatherspoon, Alisha Rai, Mhairi McFarlane, Jasmine Guillory, and Alyssa Cole — and asked them three burning questions about romance world building, meet-cutes, fave tropes, and how the pandemic is changing the way they write. As usual, you can follow us on Twitter @ThirstAidKit. Our music is by Tanya Morgan. You can find show notes, and more on our Tumblr at thirstaidkitpodcast.tumblr.com. Don’t forget to send us your drabbles by emailing thirstaidkit@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, Jess got a message from some family members who’d read the draft of her forthcoming book, The Addiction Innoculation. They had … thoughts. Those thoughts turned out to be nothing drastic—but the emotional roller coaster Jess rode while waiting to hear more was a doozy, and got us all thinking about how much of ourselves is exposed when we write non-fiction with a memoir element, how real memoirists do it, and how often readers—especially those closest to you—read our fiction looking for hidden truths. It’s a fun conversation that also covers pool floats, parents, dream offices we probably wouldn’t use and more. Links from the PodcastYard PodsDon’t Kill the Birthday Girl by Sandra BeasleyMrs. Everything by Jen WeinerKJ and Sarina’s Pool Floats#AmReadingKJ: Rodham by Curtis SittenfeldI'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing BrownJess: Notes on a Silencing by Lacy CrawfordSarina: Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlaneThanks to everyone who supports the podcast financially. To join that team, click the button below:But it’s all good. The pod is free as it always has and always will be. This shownotes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend, and if you haven’t already, join our email list and be on top of it every time there’s a new episode.Find more about Jess here, Sarina here and about KJ here.KJ Dell'Antonia 0:00 Hey there. Before we embark on a new episode, I get to tell you about our new sponsor, Dabble. I wrote my last book in a mad combination of Word and Scrivener and it worked fine. But putting the whole thing together in the end was hard. And I accidentally left a chapter out of a draft, confusing everyone. With Dabble the whole book is always just sitting there, already compiled and together as a unit, but still easy to navigate around in using chapters or scenes. It's magical, and I can't wait to make full use of it this time around. Give it a spin at dabblewriter.com and let us know what you think. Is it recording?Jess Lahey 0:38 Now it's recording. Go ahead. KJ Dell'Antonia 0:41 This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone and try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. Jess Lahey 0:45 Alright, let's start over. KJ Dell'Antonia 0:46 Awkward pause. I'm gonna rustle some papers. Okay, now one, two, three.I'm KJ Dell'Antonia and this is #AmWriting, the podcast about writing all the things - fiction, nonfiction, memoir, essays, proposals, pitches. In short, as I say most nearly every week, this is the podcast about sitting down and getting your writing work done. I'm Jess Lahey. I'm the author of The Gift of Failure and the forthcoming Addiction Inoculation that'll be out in April 2021. And currently writing some stuff for The Washington Post and Air Mail. And yeah, I guess that's about it.Sarina Bowen 1:31 And I'm Sarina Bowen, the author of 35 romance novels. And I'm currently writing nothing and it is glorious.KJ Dell'Antonia 1:41 I'm KJ Dell'Antonia. I'm the author of How To Be a Happier Parent and the novel The Chicken Sisters, which is coming out this December look for it in bookstores near you if you can be in them and goodness knows I hope you can, but I'm not holding my breath. I am the former editor of The Motherlode Blog at the New York Times where I sometimes still contribute. And I write things for other places. But I am primarily now focused on fiction, kind of, mostly, more about that in a minute maybe. Jess Lahey 2:12 Speaking of being able to go into bookstores, I was able to go into one for the first time recently, they're limiting their customers. I went to the Phoenix Bookstore in Burlington, and I was able to browse and I had just forgotten how much I miss browsing and I found a couple of books and I was so excited to just sort of be able to look at the things and not online. It was very exciting. KJ Dell'Antonia 2:37 I have been really aching to do that and haven't done it since March, but I have a couple of possible abilities to do that in my immediate future I hope.Jess Lahey 2:50 I stayed in like the gardening section and the cooking section and just looked at all these books. I miss it. I miss it so much. Hold on, can we go back to what Sarina said about not working on anything right now like this is monumental because you're always working, Sarina, you're constantly working. Are you taking a break right now between projects?Sarina Bowen 3:15 I am. And it's partly because I'm just burnt out and need a break. And partly because I have a lot of promo and organizational stuff that could really eat an entire month. And I'm ahead for the first time in many months - ahead of publication schedule. KJ Dell'Antonia 3:34 Wow, that sounds glorious. Jess Lahey 3:36 That's really amazing. KJ, what are you doing?KJ Dell'Antonia 3:38 Well, my agent has just given me back some edits on what I hope will be my next novel. So I'm finishing those up and then we'll figure out where we are going from there. But I suspect that I will finish those edits up and then that will be sort of temporarily finished and then it is time to start something new. So I am wandering through the world thinking what's the next novel? Who's it about? And I'm spending a lot of time thinking things like well but wait the last two were about people and their mothers. I apparently can't stop with people and their mothers. And then I was like, Well, lots of authors can't stop with people and their mothers. Sarina Bowen 4:26 Well, we all had one or we missed having one, so that's a big theme. KJ Dell'Antonia 4:34 It is universal, but it's almost feels like it should be its own genre. And then I've been noodling a possible nonfiction thing. Just a little something about writing.Jess Lahey 4:57 That's really exciting. KJ Dell'Antonia 4:58 I've been having fun thinking about it.Jess Lahey 5:00 Yeah, I didn't expect to have many deadlines right now. But then stuff came up and I was asked to write some things. I'm working on two book reviews that will be due in the next couple months, two books that I never would have picked up on my own. So I'm learning a lot from both books and I can't say what they are. And then Tim and I are writing a piece together for a big national publication about going back to school in the age of COVID. And the problem with that it's going to be in print and so the word count has to be pretty on target. And the problem is this is such a big topic that even our outline at one point was longer than our final word count. Well and I just texted you guys about this before we started, but working in the same house together, Tim and I write together pretty well, but we normally do it in separate locations. And you know, no one's going to work, no one's going to school, and we just had the dumbest argument about absolutely nothing. And we just don't argue very much. And so I realized man, it is so time for someone to go work somewhere else because I can't take it anymore. KJ Dell'Antonia 6:26 I was on Instagram and a lovely writer whose name I have now forgotten, was showing her writing shed and it was as cute as anything and she was a New Englander. So it was clearly not only useful for part of the year but I just looked at it I thought that is amazing. Plus, if I had it, somebody else would have taken it over. Jess Lahey 6:46 You know who has a great one is Julie Lythcott-Haims. She does all of her interviews from there and she writes there and it's called like a yard pod. And it's absolutely beautiful. It's just stunning, it's filled with books, and it's bright and sunny, and it's behind her house, and no one goes in there really but her. It's pretty lovely.Sarina Bowen 7:05 That is living the dream.KJ Dell'Antonia 7:08 You'd think so, but I bet I wouldn't even use it. I tend to sit smack in the middle of everything. It's stupid, but I do. I don't use my office anymore because there's someone else in here. I mean I record in here, I don't know, I used to write in here.Jess Lahey 7:27 It does sound like this wonderful thing - I was at a house recently and they have a little glassed in studio overlooking Lake Champlain. And I thought about it and I'm like, it looks so beautiful, but you're right, I think I would just not spend a lot of time out there.Sarina Bowen 7:45 I would - take me!KJ Dell'Antonia 7:51 Alright, yard pod for Sarina. Jess Lahey 7:59 So we do kind of have a topic this week that we were playing around with because I read a book this week and submitted my finished-copy-edited-now-in-galley-form pages form book to some first readers and have been having some anxiety attacks this week. So we wanted to talk a little bit about when you reveal yourself through your writing. And Gift of Failure I revealed some of myself, but there's nothing embarrassing there really, there was nothing like too freaky in there. But this new book is very memoir-based, so much so that we actually talked about the possibility of coding it as a memoir as well. And it's really scary because it's about my substance abuse, my being an alcoholic, and about what I went through. And I read a book this week by Lacey Crawford called Notes On a Silencing and it's about her sexual assault at St. Paul School. And so I've just had on my brain a lot lately the idea of putting yourself out there in your books and how what a challenge that can be, and we want to come at this from a couple of different angles. And for me a lot of this came down to the fact that I handed my book The Addiction Inoculation, over to my parents. And it's right there in the flap copy that I come from a family where there's a lot of substance abuse. And I got one of those phone calls, I was very careful when I wrote it, but I got one of those phone calls from my parents saying, can we talk? And it turned out okay, but I had that like my heart in my stomach. I thought I was gonna throw up, I'm like I was so super careful about what I put in there. And I didn't tell anyone's story, but my own story. But, man, putting more of yourself in a book is extremely anxiety provoking. And we wanted to talk a little bit about that and how that happens, or doesn't happen, or what happens with fiction and that kind of stuff. So I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts on that.Sarina Bowen 10:14 I read a memoir recently-ish called Don't Kill the Birthday Girl by Sandra Beasley. And the subtitle is Tales From an Allergic Life. So she is super allergic to many things, which is not exactly like a hot button family issue. It's not tales from being beaten in a cupboard, you know? But even the first line of her acknowledgment section says, 'There's no sentence more terrifying to two family members than I'm writing a memoir.' And I loved that. I loved that as the first line of her acknowledgments and, of course, her life experience growing up with this somewhat unique, but unfortunately not unique enough, problem of having anaphylactic shock all the time from being allergic to half the world did bleed into her family a little bit. And her ex boyfriend is in there, she had to deal with it even though it wasn't like a dark topic. So I had never realized that before until I read it in her acknowledgments.Jess Lahey 11:31 I guess I also think a lot about you know, Mary Karr, who wrote Lit about substance abuse in her family. And of course, she's written a whole bunch of stuff, and it's all deeply deeply personal memoir stuff. And she talks about the fact that she lets people read all of this stuff that she writes ahead of time, and that there's some veto power. Her mother apparently, you know, was like, 'Look, you live this, go for it. This is your experience.' But that's definitely not what a lot of relatives do. A lot of relatives, mine included, were worried, really worried and I even let them see my book proposal. And in the book proposal I did say that I was going to talk a little bit about my family, but in pretty general terms. There were some ground rules (or some agreements) that we made early on about how much I reveal that isn't my story to tell. And that's also been interesting. Early on, when I was doing interviews about the fact that I was writing this book and people would ask me about my history and I had to make it really clear that I am not free to tell other people's stories, I'm free to tell my stories. But where those stories overlap and how much my experience of someone else's story am I allowed to tell? I'm always really scared that I'm going to get that wrong. KJ Dell'Antonia 12:55 Sure, I mean, just to give an example that I will intentionally make completely not about any of us. Just say that you want to write about the reason that you're a trapeze artist. And for some reason your father is super, super sensitive about his experiences as a trapeze artist because his dad was a trapeze artist and he found that really a difficult way to grow up. But the fact that he's really upset about the whole trapeze artist thing because of his dad affects how he experiences or how he responds to you being a trapeze artist. And, you know, there you are. You sort of need to include your dad's experience of trapeze artists in your memoir because otherwise his crazy reluctance to permit you to swing wildly from the trapeze just doesn't make sense. I was just, I'll call it coaching. So I had a friend come to me with a couple of essays recently, and by essays, I mean really long, literary things, 15-20 pages and such. And frequently you get a phone call like that, and you sort of opened the document with trepidation, but these were amazing. And this is a friend with a really interesting story. And I said, 'Well, you know, it's just gonna be up to you to figure out how much of this you want to tell because I think you have a memoir here as well as this other stuff.' And she said, 'Oh, both my parents are dead.' And I was like, 'Well, then you're free.' Now, I wouldn't wish this upon anyone, and I do not want that day to come, but when it comes, yeah, you write anything you want. Jess Lahey 14:42 I thought about that a lot. There are certain stories that I would love to talk about, but I do talk specifically in my book about the fact that ignoring things, and hiding truths, and pretending like everything's fine when things aren't fine, was a very big part of my story. And so it's really scary - and for me one of the big things I talk about a lot in the book is that I am very honest about my personal life and my substance abuse because in my childhood no one was allowed to talk about it, in fact, we got in trouble for talking about it. So that was the thing that I was most scared of my parents reading and so once I realized they were okay with that, we were basically on okay ground. But it was also interesting because of the conversation I had with them was very much about my parents perception of a statement I made versus my perception of a statement I made and I was making it very generally and he was reading it very specifically. And once we talked about that, he was okay with it. But when we were disagreeing I'm like, well, crap, because this is now in galley version and have I now blown up a bomb in the middle of my family. And that stuff is so scary and yet it was so important to me to be as honest as possible. Because the very thing I'm trying to say in the book is that secrets and shame are what keep us sick. And so to not go there is counter to what I'm saying - about the need to get over our secrets and our shame. So it was it was a tricky situation, but one I felt was really important to to do justice to.Sarina Bowen 16:21 That's amazing.Jess Lahey 16:23 I want to know, Sarina, one thing - so whenever people talk to fiction authors, they often say you know how much of you is in your characters? And I've always thought about you know, there are certain fiction books I would love to write and I'm always worried someone's gonna think I'm projecting like my own stuff onto my characters and do you get any of that?Sarina Bowen 16:44 Yeah, but of course you have to separate what the people close to you think versus what strangers think. So with memoir, it's really important to your family existence that everybody you know is okay with your memoir. But in fiction, some misunderstanding just doesn't have the same weight. So I have most of a manuscript somewhere for a women's fiction that I haven't finished or published yet. And my mother read an early draft of it. And she said, 'I didn't know that you hated Hanover.' (which is the town where I live) And I said, 'Mom, I don't hate Hanover at all, but my character is not a fan.' And so writing what you know, can mean just using everything you see about a place to look at it from different angles, which is what I had done, and it wasn't my first book because of course, that kind of distance is hard to capture the first time you write a novel, but this one was a very confident view of living in this small town as a 40 something single woman who sees a lot. And I just was fascinated by the fact that she thought that I didn't like my town just from some things that this character observed about it. But a stranger wouldn't grab that and have as strong feelings about it. Probably. So when you're writing fiction, in one sense, you're handing over a chunk of your brain for the analysis of others, which is always a little uncomfortable, because there will be some things that you personally feel that just bleed in there and you can't help it. Like I hate pumpkin spice lattes and none of my characters are a fan either. Jess Lahey 18:48 Or certain kinds of beer, you're very clear on your beer preferences, too. Sarina Bowen 18:57 That's right. Nobody drinks Bud Light in my book or if they do that is not a good character, like that person is going to murder somebody. So if you read all 35 of my books, you can find some things about me that are like my personal preferences and blind spots, which is, of course, important to the national discussion of how people of color are treated in fiction and seen in fiction. But of course, that's true about every author, it's hard to get fully away from all of the things you believe and don't even realize you believe. But with a romance novel, though, you have this shield. So it's like, here's a piece of my brain, but it's also filtered through the expectations of romance readers everywhere, like the genre is expected to behave in a certain way and I follow those rules and so you get parts of me but not all of me because I'm trying to give you the experience that a romance reader is looking for. And so that's just easier than with memoir. It just happens less often. Jess Lahey 20:08 Well, I don't know because KJ likes chicken. KJ is from the Midwest, I'm thinking KJ wrote a memoir and she has a sister we don't know about.KJ Dell'Antonia 20:28 So I have a novel in a drawer. I haven't looked at it in many, many, many, many, many, many years. But I that one I know has much stronger autobiographical elements than The Chicken Sisters. The Chicken Sisters - it's kind of like what Sarina said, there are things in there that I have done, like encourage my children to use the car as an amusement park so that I could have a conversation with someone, both sisters share some thoughts with me, but I'd even be hard put to tell you which one. Yeah, I probably identify with one slightly more than the other. But I could go back to How To Be a Happier Parent and it's kind of like your first book, Jess. It's got things in it that are personal, that are stories, but it took so long to write and also because it's kind of geared towards parents of kids that are younger than mine are now. So I really tried to go back in time for the best stories. And I think actually in the end, my kids were disappointed by how little they were in it. They really expected it, like they opened it thinking now we're gonna find out what mom really thinks of us and it's just not the book that I wrote. But I will say that no matter what I write anywhere under any circumstances, my parents invariably call me up and say that never happened. Jess Lahey 22:24 It's funny because I thought about this recently because I talk with Sarina about the different kinds of romance books there are - like the second chance, and the friends to lovers kind of thing, and recently an ex-boyfriend of mine got divorced and so I started spooling through my head (even though I have no interest in dating this person, I'm very happily married) how a story might go if someone that was like a first love kind of thing got divorced and what if the person was single and was still interested? How would that romance novel go. And then I simultaneously realized, well, I can never write that book because there's no way I could convince my husband that on some level, I wasn't going there just a little bit in my brain. It's what fed the initial idea for a story, but it's not something that I actually want in my life. And that line would be really hard to convince the people close to you of, I think sometimes. The way you did with your mom, Sarina.KJ Dell'Antonia 23:32 I think that it would be okay in your third or fourth book, because I think that by then, the assumption that you were writing fiction would be so established. Like, I don't open up a Jen Weiner book and think, Well, clearly she's unhappy with her husband because this person's unhappy with her husband. Whereas if it were a debut novel, I might, I really probably don't because I don't think about it that way. But I feel like even your family's expectations are probably different at that point. But I too would hesitate to write like somebody struggling in an unhappy marriage. Although one of my characters is struggling in this book, but there are two characters and my husband has read it and he still seems pretty secure. I didn't get complaints. Jess Lahey 24:31 I could see how that would be really problematic, though, for an insecure partner.Sarina Bowen 24:35 Yeah, well, first, I must say it depends on if your partner reads your books, because I could write anything.Jess Lahey 24:44 Has he read any of them?Sarina Bowen 24:45 He read one. And, you know, I guess that was enough for him.KJ Dell'Antonia 24:50 Mine didn't read Happier Parent, but he wanted to read this one.Sarina Bowen 24:53 You mentioned Jennifer Wiener and she had a book called Mrs. Everything that came out last summer that is based on her mother's journey. Jess Lahey 24:53 Oh really?Sarina Bowen 24:53 Yeah. KJ Dell'Antonia 24:53 Is her mother still with us?Sarina Bowen 24:53 Yes. Actually I read this on Twitter. KJ Dell'Antonia 24:55 So you know it's true. If she tweeted it you do, I know, I'm just sorry.Sarina Bowen 25:06 Well she is terrific on Twitter.KJ Dell'Antonia 25:23 She is terrific on Twitter. She a reason to be on Twitter.Sarina Bowen 25:28 She is - seriously, she's a force of good on Twitter. And she told this quick story. The details aren't all there for me still, but that her mother went by herself to a bookstore discussion (like a book club night, and this was the book) and she went and participated and didn't tell anyone that she was that mother.KJ Dell'Antonia 25:48 Oh, that is really funny.Sarina Bowen 25:50 It is priceless. Jess Lahey 25:52 That is a very, very cool story. If you've read (KJ and I have, I'm assuming you have Sarina) there's a nonfiction book that she wrote a couple of years ago, she talks about her story, and her mom, and what they went through with her dad, and all of that. So that would be a really interesting story to explore. Well, the Lacey Crawford book that I was talking about, so much of this story that she tells exposes a lot of other people's stories, and I haven't had a chance to talk to her about it. I was gonna ask her about it, like how many of the names were different names? Did she change all of the names? Did she change some of the names? You know, it's really easy to figure out a lot of the details around some of the people unless she changed all those details and you know what class she graduated from from St. Paul's. I think you have to be really brave to do that. And I had a lot of thoughts after reading Notes On a Silencing. It's a fantastic book. We've DM'd a few times about some of the elements of the book because I was just so blown away by what an incredible job she did with this book, it's really, really good.Sarina Bowen 27:06 Well, I'm reading it this month. Last night I talked to my book club into choosing it.Jess Lahey 27:10 Oh, you did? Oh, good. I think you'll really like it. I think you'll really like it. It's definitely her story and the events of the past couple years with St. Paul's triggered sort of her going back into that story, sort of that idea of I thought I dealt with that, I thought I was okay with it, and then it re-emerged when people started suing St. Paul school recently. So it was another perspective. And because we live near there, it's something that's been in the news a lot for us. And so it was fascinating to read it from the perspective of someone who has gone through this with the school just you know, 30 years ago, 20 years ago, whatever it was. So anyway, I think you'll really like it. She does a delightful job. And she had written a fiction book as well, the admissions book, KJ, I believe you read, right? KJ Dell'Antonia 27:58 Yes, yeah. I'd have to pull up the title of it, I don't remember. But I remember that it was very, very, very funny. And I liked it, it was about college essays. It was about someone who helped with college essays, and it was definitely a good read. So I'm not surprised this would be good. Jess Lahey 28:16 She's a delightful writer, really good writer.KJ Dell'Antonia 28:20 We've been just talking about all kinds of people who hop around genres. Writers worry that you can't, but I don't know, I think it's great. I definitely go to read the nonfiction of novelists that I like and will try the novel of a nonfiction writer that I like, so everyone else should totally do that, if you like my nonfiction. Jess Lahey 28:50 I've been doing this outline of this novel that I'm thinking about writing - a different one from the one that I thought I was going to write and I'm curious to see what my writing looks like in fiction because I just don't do it. So I don't have a sense for what my writing is going to look like when I'm telling a more creative story. It's going to be an adventure for me. And whether or not it ever ends up on a bookshelf anywhere, I'm really interested to see what my writing looks like in a different format, in a different genre, and a different sort of sense.Sarina Bowen 29:22 I can't wait. Jess Lahey 29:24 Yeah, I'm excited.KJ Dell'Antonia 29:25 So we've been talking a lot about what we've been reading. But let's get into the details of what we've really been reading this week after a small break. Listeners, you know we're about to get into what we've been reading, and we've been reading some good stuff. But have you ever thought about how those books get so good? Or maybe thought you could be a part of making an author's novel, memoir, or nonfiction as good as it could possibly be and get paid for the work. Author accelerator has a book coach training program that students describe as truly life changing. They dig into the mechanics, process, and emotion of coaching but they don't stop there. Their program also helps you turn coaching into a profitable business that fits into your life. Find out more at authoraccelerator.com.Jess Lahey 30:32 Well you guys know what I've been reading. I read the Lacey Crawford, I've been having to devour these nonfiction books for some nonfiction book reviews that I am writing. And I'm experiencing that thing when you (I haven't had this happen in a while because I don't belong to a book club) get assigned a book, I'm immediately less interested in it than something that I'm allowed to read just because I want to read it. It's sort of that like high school English class phenomenon that I'm always resisting or trying to push back against as a teacher. So I feel like a student in high school again, it's like, but I don't want to read it. I didn't pick this book. Sarina Bowen 31:26 I feel obligated to point out that you're probably getting paid for this. So you know, suck it up, Buttercup. Jess Lahey 31:31 Exactly. And it's so hard. I'm so grateful to be getting paid for any writing right now that believe me, I am thrilled as I can be about reading these delightful books.KJ Dell'Antonia 31:44 Well speaking of not wanting to read things, I have been reading I think I might have mentioned this, but it's probably in a future podcast because of the weird way that we've been recording lately. Sorry, behind the scenes glimpse everyone. Anyway, I've been reading Rodham By Curtis Sittenfeld, and I picked it up with excitement and read about the first 50 pages. Rodham is the story of what if Hillary never married Bill, basically. And I got really glommed down on is this real, how about this? How about this? Is this real? Did they really eat those donuts? And I just didn't know if I could keep going. But I went on Instagram and I was like, I'm reading this and I didn't really say that because it seemed sort of negative. But I was like, I'm getting really glommed down in the details. And everyone's like, just keep going, just keep going. So I did. And man, I'm glad I did because it is so good. And it is a tour de chutzpah that Curtis Sittenfeld managed to bring this thing off. I can't even imagine writing, I mean we were talking about sort of fictionalizing your own mother, but fictionalizing this totally famous person that we all admire and look up to. I'm just in awe of both the willingness to do that and also the way she pulled it off. Every detail. I mean, just everything drops so perfectly. It's really structured brilliantly. I just can't recommend it enough. Jess Lahey 33:22 I feel like we've gone on this journey with you. Because early on in a text, you're like, Oh, this is just not working for me, and then in another podcast you sort of hinted at the fact that it was turning and so now we're on the other side of that and I feel like we've gone on this journey with you. It's a little bit like I remember hearing Helen Mirren interviewed about playing the Queen or playing someone who's currently alive and how much more of a challenge that is than playing an imaginary person. I can't imagine having just saying yes, this is what I'm going to do next, I'm going to select a person that exists.KJ Dell'Antonia 34:07 Let me just say that if a dude had done this, and it was called McCain, he'd be winning prizes. And she should be. But I haven't seen it in a lot of places. And I think it's really well done. But I have another one, I have something else that I've been reading. I also just finished I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness from Austin Channing Brown. And that one was interesting, both because it's Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness and that is a perspective that I don't get enough of, but also because it was really about her experience in working within Christian church and within Christian centered organizations, which is also a world that I know nothing about. And I guess it also might sort of fall into that category of - I kind of hesitate, because my experience of Christian organizations is just not something I'm super interested in. So sometimes when you're reading along in a memoir and it skews off into a religion that is not something that is yours you kind of feel like, well, this isn't really for me because that stuff's not for me. But I obviously kept going with it because it had all this other great stuff in it. And I was glad, it was really interesting to experience both of those worlds that I am not a part of. If you're looking for something to read along those lines, and especially if you are a part of a lot of Christian organizations, I'll bet it would be really, really juicy from that perspective. I didn't have any real way of knowing like, Oh, is that really true? Do people really you know, behave that way or say those things or sort of pretend to be interested and then sort of step back? But anyway, I recommend. Jess Lahey 36:17 I will definitely put it on my list. I love hearing about books that you guys are loving. I get so many cool recommendations.Sarina Bowen 37:03 Well, yesterday I received via FedEx two pool floats that I bought because they're exactly like KJ's. And I plunked one of them right into the pool and I got in there with my paperback copy of Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane, which is marketed as a romance novel with a really cute illustrated cover but wow, she is terrific. The writing is fabulous. There's a little prologue section from high school that is so perfectly high school that I have chills. I read three chapters in my pool float feeling I figured out the secret to life, basically. And I can't wait to flop myself back in there later today and and keep going.Jess Lahey 37:58 When you put in Don't You Forget About Me of course Simple Minds comes up. I think I got a copy of that book in the mail. So I may just have to go downstairs and find it on my shelf. That's exciting.KJ Dell'Antonia 38:18 I have her first one. You might have her first one. This one's pretty recent. This one's just come out, right?Sarina Bowen 38:27 No, this is an earlier one.KJ Dell'Antonia 38:30 Okay. I don't think this is the one I have. Jess Lahey 38:33 It's funny because you remember when we were talking a bunch of episodes back about cover art and how a lot of you know like rom-coms/women's fiction are all with these drawings of people with ambiguous faces. I have found that I have a bunch of them in a wish list for audiobooks and I can't tell them apart. They are all just primary color people and especially the ones that have a dog, like a couple of them people have dogs and I think the trend for this sort of primary color faceless drawings of people may have gotten to the saturation point I think, because I'm starting to confuse them.Sarina Bowen 39:13 Well, it's not going away anytime soon because stock photography needed a big bad refresh before COVID and certainly hasn't improved from half a year of lockdown. So those illustrators, they have some job security right now, let me tell you.Jess Lahey 39:33 I will say that in terms of stock photography, you provide endless entertainment for some of the things that exist out there as stock photography, and moments when you say like, why would anyone ever need a picture of a man without a shirt on, and a seal holding a basket of apples? Alright, well I'm glad I got to talk about the whole feeling about the memoir stuff, because this makes me feel better. One of my favorite comments about writing memoir, and it comes from Abigail Thomas, and it's the one about you know, dig deep and be honest or don't bother. And I try to remember that as a mantra when I'm writing stuff that's highly personal, like this new book, The Addiction Inoculation. And I don't think I can do justice to that topic without being really personal, but boy it gets scary when it goes out in the world. You know that it's out there in the hands of people, not just like readers I admire, but people whose lives are part of the book as well. It's nerve racking. KJ Dell'Antonia 41:16 I've got a few things to say. If you're not in our Facebook group, come get into our Facebook group and let's have a convo about this one - who's feeling exposed and like what's going on. If you're doing memoir, if you've got fiction that makes people feel like it's about you, I will try to remember to throw up a conversation starter. If I don't somebody else do it and let's get in that #AmWriting Facebook group and do that.Jess Lahey 41:50 That's exactly what I was going to say too, because we actually put out some tax tips just recently. And that came from a question that came up in the #AmWriting Facebook group so it's a good place to be. Well, if you would like to get stuff like the tax tips, you can go ahead and sign up for our list over at Substack at the #AmWriting page.KJ Dell'Antonia 42:27 You can do that at amwritingpodcast.com. Okay, that sounds great. Go there, it'll send you to all the other stuff and I am working on getting all of our great top fives and minisodes into the regular website as opposed to the Substack website. Jess Lahey 42:46 Yep, I'm actually going to be recording as soon as we're done today. I'm going to be recording a new minisode to go out up on the website in a little bit. So there's all kinds of extra content that's up there. But until next week, everyone keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game. This episode of #AmWriting with Jess and KJ was produced by Andrew Parilla. Our music, aptly titled unemployed Monday was written and performed by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their services because everyone, even creatives should be paid. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe
Mhairi McFarlane is the author of six great novels in the genre of romantic comedy/chick lit (delete as preferred), including her most recent, If I Never Met You. This week she speaks to me from her front room – she does not have or want a study – about the process of rewriting her first book, You Had Me At Hello, and what she learned along the way, plus the essential components of a good romcom.
In today’s episode, we polled you to come up with a big grab bag of questions. We cover a wide range of topics from college life to cooking (Becca’s carbonara!). We also talk about how we maintain our privacy (spoiler alert: we’re in charge!) and all sorts of other things. Will Becca ever get a dog? Has Grace always been a cat person? Does she walk Tyrion? How did we meet? We got a ton of podcast related questions so we also give a behind the scenes look at the process of creating Bad on Paper. This is a fun episode - pour a glass of wine and come hang out with us! Products mentioned: Plush Knit Joggers Old Navy Obsessions: Outerbanks TV series Daily Harvest Never Have I Ever on Netflix Books: Feels Like Falling by Kristy Woodson Harvey The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan Untamed by Glennon Doyle The Guest List by Lucy Foley Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane You Had Me at Hello by Mhairi McFarlane May Book Club: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendricks Sponsors: Night: Go to discovernight.com and get 20% off with code BOP20 at checkout. Book of the Month: Go to bookofthemonth.com and sign up using code BOP10 and get any book for $10 Podcast to Check Out! Skimm This Podcast Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more! Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and her blog TheStripe.com and Becca @beccamfreeman.
In episode six of Typecast our hosts cast Mhairi McFarlane's brilliant rom com Who's That Girl. We discuss Kit Harrington's grunge vibe, whether Lizzie Caplan could pull off a Nottingham accent and why Richard Madden is the one who got away. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Here it is, a week late! Insert some joke here about burning the wick at both ends or something because Wickham is gonna Wick. No matter, though, because we're heading to Rosings, y'all, and finally going to see if the esteemed Lady Catherine de Bourg can live up to her lofty reputation. MENTIONSBryan Stevenson's Just MercyRobinne Lee's The Idea of YouCressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon series Mhairi McFarlane's If I Never Met YouCathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings: An Asian American ReckoningIf you want to join in on the conversation, join us in reading chapters 26 to 30 of Pride and PrejudiceTalk to us! We'd love to hear from you.thedailyknightley.comTwitter: @knightleypodInstagram: @thedailyknightleyEmail: thedailyknightley@gmail.comMusic from https://filmmusic.io: “Improbable” by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.comLicence: CC BY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
First of all, it’s our 2 year podcasting anniversary! In today’s ep we’re sharing all our best quarantine distractions and recommendations. Between all the family FaceTimes, Zoom happy hours, Powerpoint parties, cooking, organizing, and checking in with family and friends it’s easy to forget to keep a routine and take care of yourself too! We want to help by giving some light hearted and fun ways to lose yourself (in a book, tv show, movie, podcast, etc), even if it’s only for a little while. We hope you all stay safe and healthy… come join us in the Facebook group to talk about YOUR favorite distractions and what’s keeping you sane(ish). Currently Reading: The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley Open Book by Jessica Simpson (especially the audiobook) All the Pretty Things by Emily Arsenault The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward (Becca didn’t like) Just a Girl Standing in Front of a Boy by Lucy Ann Holmes Becca’s recs! The Idea of You by Robinne Lee Throne of Glass Series (7 books) by Sarah J. Maas A Court of Thorns and Roses (3 books) by Sarah J. Maas The Conspiracy of Us Series (3 books) by Maggie Hall The Chronos File Series (3 books) by Rysa Walker The Selection Series by Kiera Cass Who’s that Girl by Mhairi McFarlane My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams Would like to Meet by Rachel Winters Famous in Love Series by Rebecca Searle To All the Boys I loved Before by Jenny Han Anna and the French Kiss (3 books) by Stephanie Perkins Royals by Rachel Hawkins Grace’s Recs The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen You are not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen Verity by Colleen Hoover The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren The Honey Don’t List by Christina Lauren Peachtree Bluff Series (3 books) by Kristy Woodson Harvey The Thousandth Floor Series By Kathrine McGee American Royals by Kathrine McGee The Paper Princess Series by Erin Watt Listen Rec: The Financial Confessions Podcast Everything is Fine Kim France Podcast Girls Gotta Eat Podcast Gee Thanks I Bought it Podcast Grace TV Recs Gossip Girl Sex and The City The Blacklist Little Fires Everywhere Amazon’s Making the Cut with Tim Gun And Heidi Klum Becca TV recs The Morning Show on Apple TV Little Fires Everywhere Grey’s Anatomy The West Wing Virgin River Grace Movie Rec It’s Complicated Something’s Gotta Give Home Again What Women Want The Talented Mr. Ripley Catch Me if you Can Harry Potter Movies Twilight Movies Becca’s Movie Rec The Wedding Year The Wedding Date Center Stage The American President Chalet Girl Friends with Kids Products: Baby Foot Peel Elemis Milk Bath Follain Bath Elixir Susanne Kaufmann Bath Oil Dr. Bader Body Cream Phat Glow Facial Sisley Black Rose Mask Summer Friday Jet Lag Mask Clark’s Botanicals Deep Moisture Mask Tatcha Lip Mask Flamingo Wax Strips Olaplex hair mask At Home Workouts: Melissa Wood Health SkyTing TV Tracy Anderson Obsessions: Gina Julian Artist Graphic Rainbow Painting The Morning Show Jessica Simpson’s Audiobook Instagram: @nytcooking @clarkbar @gina_julian Books we are starting: Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane April Book Club: In Five Years by Rebecca Searle Sponsors: Book of the Month: Go to bookofthemonth.com and sign up using code BOP10 and get any book for $10! Sarah Flint: Go to sarahflint.com and use code BOP50 to get $50 off your first order of any shoe. Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more! Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and her blog TheStripe.com and Becca @beccamfreeman.
Kala returns and this time she just started a new book club, so we chat about that before moving on to other reads we've experienced lately. A little romance, a little comedy, a little history, a little reading in translation.Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 184: Theme Night at Book Club with KalaSubscribe to the podcast via this link: FeedburnerOr subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: SubscribeOr listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via StitcherNEW! Listen through Spotify Books discussed: If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlaneTruth or Beard by Penny ReidThese Ghosts are Family by Maisy Cardb, Book, and Me by Kim Sagwa, translated by Sunhee JeongDon't Put the Boats Away by Ames SheldonOther mentions:Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur JaswalPatsy by Nicole Dennis-BennSugar in the Blood by Andrea StuartThe Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara CollinsWashington Black by Esi EdugyanMina by Kim Sagwa The Island of Sea Women by Lisa SeeThe Vanishing Half by Brit BennettThe Mothers by Brit BennettLoving Donovan by Bernice McFaddenThe Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn JoukhadarThe Last Taxi Driver by Lee DurkeeKnitting the Fog by Claudia D. Hernandez Stalk us online:Jenny at GoodreadsKala on TwitterJenny on TwitterKala on FacebookKala's blog, Reader then Blogger Kala is @ReaderthenBlogger on InstagramJenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Alisha Ramos, Founder and CEO of Girls Night In, and self proclaimed indoor kid/introvert, joins us to share her journey to create her company and the ways her business has changed as it grows. We talk about starting and scaling a business, work/life balance, and its challenges as a female founder. We dish on our self care pet peeves (we all have them!), our definitions of self care, and what is next for GNI. We also talk of our love of a good newsletter and Alisha’s idea of the perfect night in. Favorite Newsletters: Girls’ Night In A Thing or Two from Claire & Erica What To Cook This Week from The New York Times Internet Brunch Mollie Chen’s newsletter The Broadsheet The Ann Friedman Weekly Mary Laura Phillpott’s newsletter Jasmine Guillory’s newsletter The Stripe Newsletter (Subscribe at bottom) Five Smart Reads newsletter from Hitha Palepu Chips + Dips Newsletter Obsessions: Alison Roman Dining In: Sour Cream Flatbread recipe Plush Knit Joggers for women from Old Navy Instagram: @marysummershafner // @laviestylehouse @romcompods Books: He Started It by Samantha Downing The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel Beach Read by Emily Henry Untamed by Glennon Doyle If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane March Book Club Book: I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson Podcast: Subscribe to : Otherppl Podcast with Brad Listi (@otherppl on Twitter) Sponsors: Book of the Month: Go to bookofthemonth.com and sign up using code BOP10 and get any book for $10! LOLA: Take 30% off your first month subscription - mylola.com and enter code BOP30 at checkout. Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more! Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and her blog TheStripe.com and Becca @beccamfreeman.
On this week's episode, we call the three HarperCollins authors that were selected for the March 2020 LibraryReads list! Congratulations to MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell (the #1 pick!), EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS by Peter Swanson (Now a LibraryReads Hall of Fame author!), and IF I NEVER MET YOU by Mhairi McFarlane! For more information on these titles, go to https://bit.ly/2Hygsnc. We also listen to a voicemail submitted by a librarian using our new phone number! Call 212-207-7773 and leave us a message—it might end up on the show! You can find us on Facebook (@librarylovefest), Twitter (@librarylovefest), and Instagram (@harperlibrary).
Our resident book lovers, Jacqui and Julia, discuss Mhairi McFarlane's hilarious novel, Don't You Forget About Me, the January 2020 Paper + Ink book club selection. Support the show (http://www.paperandinkbox.com)
I talk to book activist, cool content creator, and stud muffin Leena Norms about silly sex self-help books. Includes 101 tips to make your wife love you, a quiz about what to call your vagina, and erotic fan-fic involving a certain British political figure... OBVS FOLLOW, LIKE, SHARE, GIVE IT 5 STARS PLS THX. --- Get in touch if you have recommendations of funny books, quotes, or want to be a guest! You can contact me all official-like @witlitpod or @witlitpodcast, or all unofficial-like on twitter @lily_lindon or instagram @bookymcbookface. (If you leave a nice review + your wit lit book recommendation = I will read it out on the next episode + generally shower you with love?!) Follow Leena's marvellous online contentment too: twitter @leenanorms, instagram @leenanorms, youtube @justkissmyfrog, Patreon The Gumption Club, and if you want more sex book chat, the Banging Book Club Podcast. --- This episode's Wit Lit Reading List: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, by John Gray Vagina, by Naomi Wolf He's Just Not That Into You, by Greg Behrendt & Liz Tuccillo Plus Bad Sex from: Katarina by James Fray Scoundrels by Major Victor Cornwall and Major Arthur St John Trevelyan (I have since done some research into this book and turns out, reassuringly, it's a parody. SO maybe it should go in the Good Sex list?!) And Good Sex from: In At The Deep End, by Kate Davies The Cows by Dawn O'Porter Caitlin Moran, Juno Dawson, and Mhairi McFarlane. --- Stay silly, Lily
CW: Suicide. This week we're joined by author, historian and bookseller Emma Southon in the rather fitting setting of my hotel room to talk about Mhairi McFarlane's WHO'S THAT GIRL?, an extremely funny romcom about Edie, a 30-something copywriter who falls in love with Elliott, the movie star she's been sent to ghostwrite a memoir for. We talk about movie stars, Game of Thrones, terrible celebrity profiles, the role of chick-lit when trying to unpick "having it all", dating famous people and why there aren't any chick-lit books about beards. Emma Southon is the author of AGRIPPINA: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore and co-hosts the podcast HISTORY IS SEXY. Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day, produced by Caroline O'Donoghue and mixed by Hannah Varrall. If you'd like to support the podcast find us on sentimentalgarbage.substack.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Mhairi McFarlane has published 5 novels, her new first 'You Had Me At Hello' was a huge bestseller, and her new one 'Don't You Forget About Me' looks set to do the same. It tells the story of Georgina, and her new boss at work who turns out to be an old flame... only he seemingly doesn't remember her at all.We talk about the planning of rom-com novels, how she likes to embrace the contrivances that must happen and focus on ways to build surprises into stories. You can hear how she plans her years worth of writing, and works her routine around that, why 'pub-a-clock' plays a large part in her story-telling, and what she thinks of the term 'chick-lit'.Also, there's some of your writing tips, and one from an award-winning author too.@writerspodwritersroutine.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
We dive deep into romantic comedies and the key components that make a great love story. Spoiler alert: it’s sexual tension! Sally and Mhairi tells us about their latest releases 99 Percent Mine and Don’t You Forget About Me and how they fell into writing. We also have a lightening round where they tell us their favourite rom-coms. Start self-publishing today with KWL. Join the platform that’s fast, free, easy. www.kobo.com/writinglife
www.jessica-neumayer.de/schreibfischgedanken Jeden Monat ein Buch lesen - Das ist meine Buchchallenge 2018. Pünktlich zum Frühling dachte ich mir, dass ein Buch, das mit dem Satz „Wieviele Schmetterlinge passen in einen Bauch?“ beworben wird wohl passender nicht sein kann. Daher stelle ich diesen Monat Es muss wohl an dir liegen von Mhairi McFarlane vor. Der Titel passt nicht ganz zum Buch und der Klappentext scheint auch eher schnulzig, aber zum Glück ist das Buch dann ganz anders. Wer also dennoch zu lesen beginnt, erwartet ein geistreiches, witziges Buch, das sich schnell weg liest. Vor allem die Charakterentwicklung hat die Autorin gekonnt gestaltet. Dank eines tollen Plots weiß man nicht, was passieren wird und die Autorin spielt gekonnt mit Erwartungen und Überraschungsmomenten. #Buchchallenge2018
I "Sånt vi läser - boktips från Wendesgymnasiet" samtalar Marit Hammarland och Jenny Edvardsson om ungdomsromaner och serier. I detta avsnitt tipsas det om "Mitt extra liv" av Johan Unenge, "Den utvalde", "Blå tråd", "Budbäraren" och "Sonen" av Lois Lowry, "Astrid" av Kim W Andersson, "Finns det en finns det flera" av Mhairi McFarlane, "Ingenting och allting" av Nicola Yoon. Marit och Jenny talar även om Läsrörelsen och projektet Berättelser som förändrar.
Does the available vocabulary for sex leave something to be desired? Namely desire? (And also the ability to use it wthout laughing/dying of embarrassment?) Aiding in the search for a better sex lexicon – sexicon – are Kaitlin Prest of fellow Radiotopia podcast The Heart, and romance novelist Mhairi McFarlane. CONTENT NOTE: this episode contains Sexual Language from the start. For more information about this episode, visit http://theallusionist.org/covers-ii. Find the show at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow. The Allusionist is a proud member of Radiotopia.fm from PRX.org.
This week school is finally over and we’re not teachers anymore!!!! Melissa has been going commando and Whitney is already over the outdoors. We play a lovely little game you might have heard of (F@$! Marry Kill) and address a very important question; is the marriage celibate? Whitney’s deep love of Conan O’Brian comes out and Melissa’s love for gingers is reaffirmed. Then we dive deep into this month’s book club pick If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane. And of course, our tiny joys of the week. Mentioned In This EpisodeIf I Never Met you by Mhairi McFarlaneThe Great on HuluShe’s full of litFollow us on Instagram @PlatonicLifematesVisit the Facebook Page or join our Facebook GroupSend us an email at Platoniclifemate@gmail.comVisit our website platoniclifemates.com for more information about all the shows, books and podcasts mentioned on today's episode. Music: Yes She Can by Tiny Music