transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:18] Hi, everyone, and welcome to Bad On Paper Podcast. I'm Olivia Muenter.

Speaker 2:
[00:21] And I'm Becca Freeman.

Speaker 1:
[00:23] And today we are talking about Hidden Gem Book Recommendations.

Speaker 2:
[00:27] I am so excited about this. We did an episode like this back in 2021 before you were a host, and it turned me on to all sorts of books that I had never heard of before. So I'm excited to recommend books, but I'm also very excited to receive recommendations.

Speaker 1:
[00:47] Me too, always.

Speaker 2:
[00:48] Well, before we get into this, what is your high?

Speaker 1:
[00:52] My high is that for the past week or so, it's been true window slash door open season.

Speaker 2:
[01:00] Gorgeous.

Speaker 1:
[01:00] I love having our front doors open. We have a screen door. It just lets this beautiful breeze through the house, and it lets so much more light in. There's only so many weeks a year where this works. It's not too cold or too hot, and it's just been so nice to let the house breathe. So I've been really enjoying that.

Speaker 2:
[01:22] Cross breeze season is upon us for one week only. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[01:27] We haven't actually gotten around to taking any of the storm windows off, so there has been no windows open, actually. I wrote on this windows open and doors open and the outline, but just doors. But we'll take that. It's going to be cold again next week. Well, what's your high?

Speaker 2:
[01:44] I have a wealth of highs. Having a high week. Grace was in town on Monday and we got to have dinner, which was so fun. I love getting to talk to her about her process of writing her book. It's so fun for me to hear how she's feeling about it and where she is and what she's thinking about. I just love it. We had dinner on Monday night and it was just a really fun dinner, and I was extra excited to get to hear all of her book updates. Then I am going to Maine next week for a, we're going to call it a DIY writing retreat. Maine has historically been, not always, but it can be a really productive place for me. It's really funny. I remember specific chapters and scenes that I wrote in Maine from both books. So, I'm hoping that I have a really productive writing week. And if nothing else, I'm excited to eat lobster and take Ruby on hikes and go on some Maine ventures.

Speaker 1:
[02:51] That sounds great. Do you think that they are some of your best scenes that you've written there, or do you just have a vivid memory of writing them?

Speaker 2:
[02:57] Well, in Back Where We Started, there is this scene that takes place in a grocery store, which is one of my favorite scenes in the book. And it's one of the scenes that, for all that book changed, it changed very little. It got sharpened, for sure, but the scene didn't change very much. And that got written in Maine. I remember on the first draft. And so I'm hoping to capture some of that. There's a lot of other stuff that's not specifically memorable that I've written in Maine. So it's not all gold, but...

Speaker 1:
[03:28] Still good energy.

Speaker 2:
[03:29] Good energy. Yeah, yeah. I remember doing a lot of editing on the Christmas Orphans Club up there. I remember the specific pass I was doing before we took it out to sell that I worked on a lot in Maine.

Speaker 1:
[03:42] I was just thinking the other day how cool it is when you're writing, and of course, so much of it gets thrown out. But then the fact that you can go to your laptop one day, and it can be a bad day or a good day or whatever, and you can write something that will end up in the book. The thing that sticks, and it could just come from nowhere. That's such a magical thing. So here's to a lot of that for you during this trip.

Speaker 2:
[04:07] I hope so. What about on the low side? What's getting you down?

Speaker 1:
[04:12] I don't have a lot of lows. Don't have a ton. So no lows this week.

Speaker 2:
[04:17] They blew out the door in the cross breeze.

Speaker 1:
[04:20] Yes. They went right out the door with the dust. Great. What's your low?

Speaker 2:
[04:27] I am feeling overwhelmed with project managing apartment stuff this week. I feel like I've been very chill about moving so far, about the unpacking, about not quite having everything together, not having a lot of furniture. I've been chill. This week, I am decidedly not chill. I've reached my ceiling. I'm trying to sell a bunch of stuff on Facebook Marketplace that I'd brought over from the old apartment and I'm either not going to use or was temporary because I was waiting for new stuff to be delivered. I'm trying to coordinate all of these deliveries. I'm having all these work people over to assemble furniture, replace lighting. I had to go to Long Island City today to pick up a rug that I had two rugs combined. It's all good. I'm excited about all of it, but I just feel so scattered this week and just overwhelmed.

Speaker 1:
[05:28] It's a lot. You're just saying this. We are living parallel lives in a weird way. We've been selling stuff on Facebook Marketplace. We've been making decisions through the house. It's just a lot to have constantly going on in the background of your head when you're trying to get other stuff done and also just settle into life. So I can totally relate to this. I'm currently in a cycle of paint colors in my mind, just going through them.

Speaker 2:
[05:55] It feels so high stakes.

Speaker 1:
[05:57] It is so overwhelming.

Speaker 2:
[06:00] Can you tell us what color family we're in?

Speaker 1:
[06:04] I really haven't made any decisions until this week and I don't even know if those are solid decisions. But the kitchen is going to be mostly neutrals, which is confusing in its own type of way. Then the adjoining dining room and then butler's pantry are going to be shades of mustard or ochre. Is that how you say that?

Speaker 2:
[06:26] Ochre, I think.

Speaker 1:
[06:27] Ochre. Then a really pale, pale pink. I know, which sounds crazy. I love things that are painted pink. It spoke to me. I've just been ordering a ton of samples and I just find myself in these Pinterest spirals. All good problems to have, I guess, but it is just a lot to have on the back burner constantly. Yeah, so I can understand and relate very much.

Speaker 2:
[06:56] It sounds silly, but that's one of the reasons I'm most excited to go to Maine next week because I won't have any admin. I don't have to make any returns. I don't have to do any house projects. I don't have a whole section of my to-do list.

Speaker 1:
[07:09] That does sound really, really quite nice. I'm thinking about trying to book some sort of a writing retreat vacation myself. Actually, if listeners, if you have any advice about this, I've been told various things about when you have a major project underway, like should you leave for a week or should you be there to manage the whole thing? I don't know.

Speaker 2:
[07:30] Oh, meaning the house project.

Speaker 1:
[07:33] Yes. When the kitchen is, because we won't have a kitchen for quite a while, so I'm like, should I go then or should I be here to manage things? I don't know. I'm not sure.

Speaker 2:
[07:42] I certainly don't know.

Speaker 1:
[07:43] I have no idea. I've never been through this before. But I'm happy for you and it's going to be such a beautiful time of year there in Maine. I'm sure just so fresh and springy and still cool at night.

Speaker 2:
[07:56] I'm excited. Well, I'm also excited to get into this episode, so let's take an ad break and get to it.

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[09:48] Okay, so I set up top that we did a similar episode in 2021, and I was looking back at it, and I realized that that episode is how both Grace and I found out about the book Delicious by Ruth Reichle. And then in that episode, I recommended Kitchens of the Great Midwest, which came off of a Facebook group thread that we did with this same prompt. So I feel like we need to make this a little bit more of a regular occurrence, because I feel like this is so fun to mine the books that maybe didn't get as much hype, flew under the radar, but people think deserve more love. So I'm going to kick it to you to start off. What books did you bring?

Speaker 1:
[10:32] The first one I thought of is Fellowship Point by Alice Elliot Dark. And I read this some years ago now, maybe four or five, to the point where I had to look up the summary because I couldn't exactly remember. But the basic pitch of this is that it's about two 80-year-old Quaker women in the year 2000 as they faced a crisis in their long friendship and a quest to protect their beloved Maine Peninsula from development. And I stole this from the internet clearly. But this is just such a sprawling, gorgeous story about lifelong friendship and secrets and nature and it's set in Maine. So there's so much gorgeous nature writing, of course. But it's just the book that I get the most messages from people still. Like I would have never read this book. And I read it because you shared it. Not to toot my own horn, but it just stands out to me because I get messages about it quite frequently. I think I got one this week. I think someone who messaged me actually compared it to the correspondent. And I can see some of the parallels in terms of a long life and all the ups and downs and how we share that with people. It's just a gorgeously written, slow burn book that has such a beautiful cover as well.

Speaker 2:
[11:52] It sounds like you maybe weren't thinking of the correspondent. Is there anything that you were thinking of as a read-alike where you could say, if you liked this, you would probably also like Fellowship Point?

Speaker 1:
[12:03] Nothing comes to mind right away. I want to say there was something about it that reminded me a bit of Barbara Kingsolver just in terms of how deep of a story it is, and following these characters through their entire lives, and all these different twists and turns, and how layered it is, and how many different themes are touched upon so well. I want to say it did remind me of Barbara Kingsolver, but it really is just a gem all its own, I think.

Speaker 2:
[12:30] Okay, no, that's helpful to understand like what type of reader might want to check it out. What did you bring for us next?

Speaker 1:
[12:37] My next book is one that came out recently, I think in the last year, and that is Vantage Point by Sara Sligar.

Speaker 2:
[12:44] Is this the Kennedy one?

Speaker 1:
[12:46] Yes.

Speaker 2:
[12:47] Oh my gosh, I needed a reminder of this because I keep meaning to ask you, because I couldn't remember the title, and I keep thinking, oh, that like Kennedy-esque book that Olivia recommended, I want to read that.

Speaker 1:
[12:58] It's so well done. This is a literary thriller about a Kennedy-esque family who owns a sprawling manor house in Maine, and one of the sons ends up running for public office. Another one of the daughters has a video of her in a sort of intimate scenario leaked to the Internet, and this is all happening at the same time. But what's really cool about this book is that in between the actual plot and the character points of view, there are these interstitials of Wikipedia pages of stories about different members of the family dying in these kind of absurd ways, not dissimilar to the Kennedy curse, and it just felt so smart. The writing is so good. It's really, really, really dark, but it's just such a well-written, beautifully executed, juicy page-turner of a book, and I think it deserves way more hype than it's gotten. And I'm sure it did get its own level of hype, but in terms of like, everyone should be talking about this. Who loves thrillers?

Speaker 2:
[14:04] I got to read this. No promises because I do have to read our book club pick, and I have a couple of other things that I have to read. I want to try to read this while I'm in Maine because it's set in Maine.

Speaker 1:
[14:15] Oh, yeah. Yes. Very strange. My first two books, both set in Maine and both have the word point. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[14:23] This one, I feel like it already, when you originally pitched it, it already sparked my interest. But now after watching Love Story, I feel very steeped in Kennedy curiosity.

Speaker 1:
[14:38] Yes. I don't know how you feel about it, but I think it's worth reading just for the Kennedy parallels for sure. Okay.

Speaker 2:
[14:46] What's next?

Speaker 1:
[14:47] My next book I talked about recently, but I again haven't seen that many people talk about it, and that is Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor, which is this really slim piece of literary fiction about this young woman growing up on a very, very, very remote Welsh island. It's about how separated from the world she is, and she doesn't really know much about the outside world. They get news super late, and one day this man and woman research team land on the island and sort of open her eyes to different ways life could be, maybe. The setting is so beautiful. I love an island story, and it was just really surprised me. So if you want something totally different, there you go.

Speaker 2:
[15:33] Okay.

Speaker 1:
[15:35] And then it feels weird to suggest an Allegra Goodman book as a Hidden Gem because she's quite prolific and famous.

Speaker 2:
[15:42] Yeah, but a backlist, a backlist pick. That's true.

Speaker 1:
[15:45] Yes. I think this book was one of the first Jenna's Book Club picks, maybe. So it certainly got praised, but most people I know haven't read this book.

Speaker 2:
[15:54] No, you know what? It only has 15,000 ratings on Goodreads.

Speaker 1:
[15:59] And it's been out for a few years now.

Speaker 2:
[16:01] Since 2023. Yeah. I will give this to you. This is definitely under the radar.

Speaker 1:
[16:06] I did see Ellen Hildebrand posted about this recently, about how good this is. And I was like, yes, it is so good. This is a coming of age story about a girl named Sam. And it follows her from ages 7 to 19 as she grows up in this family in Massachusetts. And she's very into rock climbing. And you're probably like, well, okay, where's the plot? What happens? But it's just, it's so good. I didn't know what to make of this. I owned this book for probably two and a half years before I ended up opening it and reading it. And I did because I read Isla and I loved it so much that I was like, well, I have to read everything this woman has written. And though Sam is like, it could not be more different than that book. It is so wonderful. I think could be like a crowd pleaser book for a lot of different readers and people who love different genres.

Speaker 2:
[16:59] I love it when an author has a really surprising or varied backlist.

Speaker 1:
[17:06] Yeah, she's, I mean, she just had another book come out.

Speaker 2:
[17:09] It was a short story collection, right?

Speaker 1:
[17:11] Yeah, I bought it and I'm so excited to read it. It's incredible. And she has maybe 10, 12 other books that she's written.

Speaker 2:
[17:18] I had no idea.

Speaker 1:
[17:19] Yeah, it's unreal. She's super talented, obviously, inspiring. Wow.

Speaker 2:
[17:26] How old is she, would you say?

Speaker 1:
[17:27] 50s, 60s? Okay. Something like that. Okay.

Speaker 2:
[17:31] 10 books. And I was like, It might be more than that. I was like, was she a child prodigy? Is she older than I thought? Like, where are we?

Speaker 1:
[17:38] It's a lot.

Speaker 2:
[17:40] She's 58 according to Google.

Speaker 1:
[17:43] Okay. So I wasn't far off.

Speaker 2:
[17:44] No. You are right on the money.

Speaker 1:
[17:47] She's someone who I'd be so interested to read more of her backlist and just everything she writes in the future because I'm just super inspired by her career. Okay. So this next one, I think did get a decent amount of hype. And then I feel like when it came out, it just didn't explode, no pun intended, the way maybe it was set up to, and that's The Bombshell by Darrow Farr. You're right.

Speaker 2:
[18:12] I do remember seeing the cover everywhere before it came out. It definitely had a big influencer push. Like this was last summer, right?

Speaker 1:
[18:22] Yes, I think so. Yeah, I believe it was a Book of the Month pick as well. It's a thick book. It's a chunky one. It's long.

Speaker 2:
[18:31] It's not that crazy. I'm looking at it on Goodreads right now. It's 408 pages. I mean, maybe it's very small types at font, but that doesn't feel wild to me.

Speaker 1:
[18:39] I feel like when you get into the 400s, you weed out a lot of readers, maybe. Sure. Sure. Whereas I'm like, give me the longer books, which I feel like the trend now actually is, everything is going shorter and shorter. But anyway, this is a story about a very spoiled, pampered French-American daughter of a politician in Corsica. She thinks very highly of herself. She wants to be famous. And then one night, she is kidnapped by this militant group who is fighting for Corsican independence and held for ransom. And that's all I'll say. It takes some turns. But this is just such a, like, it feels like watching a TV show. There's so many interesting psychological things going on in this book. It's just so layered, so well done. It's such a meaty story with tons of drama and romance. And yeah, I really loved it. And I don't think this got enough praise because it was a great story.

Speaker 2:
[19:41] Well, I loved hearing about those. Let's hear some listener recommendations.

Speaker 3:
[19:47] Hi, Becca and Olivia. This is Katie with Katie Needs a Bigger Bookshelf. The book I love that has completely flown under the radar is Bloom by Robbie Couch. It's a quirky, fun, heartwarming read that left me wanting more. It's a really quick read, but the way that Robbie made the plants their own characters was absolutely delightful, and I didn't want it to end. It came out in March and I haven't seen it talked about anywhere. It's definitely something that has not gotten the praise it deserves. Thanks. Have a great day.

Speaker 4:
[20:14] Hi, my name is Nicole from Dallas, Texas, and my Hidden Gem Book Rec is Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield. He's a Rolling Stone writer. He was a VH1 talking head, major Swiftie, all around music guru. This is his first book, a memoir about his five-year relationship with his wife who died tragically. And each chapter is a different mixtape that they had. One for washing dishes, one for walking around the city, things like that. And each chapter goes into their relationship, even some of the mundane things to their really special moments, told through the music that filled their lives. As a big music fan, it made me feel really seen for how much music can contribute to memory. And a really beautiful tribute to the love of his life, and how much music can build and add to a life and a memory. So that's my rec. I think everybody should read it. And his other books are great too.

Speaker 3:
[21:21] Have a great day. Bye.

Speaker 5:
[21:24] Hi, Becca and Olivia. This is Amy calling from Valdosta, Georgia with a Hidden Gem book recommendation. This book is called Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter. It's a YA enemies to lovers romance and it is just so adorable. I'm a high school math teacher and saw two of my students reading this book this year and somebody had gifted it to me and I found it on my bookshelf. And so I picked it up, I read it and it was just so cute. It's about a high school senior who lost her mother at a young age and a childhood crush moves back and she uses her next door neighbor, male enemy to try to get her childhood crush to ask her to prom. So it's so cute. I sped through it. It's really adorable and really a lot of heartfelt emotions just about your childhood friends. It was just so good. There's a whole series of it. Thank you all so much. I hope you read it and enjoy it. Love the podcast and love both of your books. And Becca can't wait for your upcoming novel to come out. Bye.

Speaker 6:
[22:36] My name is Andrea from New York City, huge fan of both of yours, and I'm calling to recommend the book Sunset by Jessie Cave, who is in fact Lavender Brown from the Harry Potter series. This book follows sisters in London, and after a tragedy occurs, you're following the fallout of that tragedy. It is somehow a very funny book, really emotionally resonant, and it's a book that though I read it probably five plus years ago, I think about and recommend often. I feel like no one else I know has read it, but the people I've recommended it to that have, I've also thought it was five stars. It's very character forward, and I think the emotions just feel really real. So if you are okay reading a sad book, but you enjoy laughing during it, this is for you. Maybe if you loved We All Want Impossible Things, this might be the right rec. Thanks again for all you guys do. Bye.

Speaker 5:
[23:32] Hi, Becca and Olivia. My Hidden Gem Book Recommendation is Tartufo by Kira Jane Buxton. This story is set in a small struggling village in Tuscany that has seen better times. Its residents are aging and the few businesses left in the village are struggling to make ends meet amidst the greater draws of Tuscany. But everything changes when an old man who lives in the village and his two truffle hunting dogs are out truffle hunting and they discover a massive white truffle that could bring great fortune and fame to his struggling village and to its residents. You will laugh, you will cry, you will wish it was longer. I can't recommend it enough. Bye.

Speaker 1:
[24:21] Let's take another ad break. This episode is sponsored by Retold Recycling. As I shared recently, I am deep in spring clean out mode. I am constantly adding to a donation pile and dropping things off at a thrift store at least once a week, but I'm always thinking about the stuff that I don't want anymore, but I feel like can't or shouldn't be donated. I feel kind of weird throwing away items like mismatched socks or undergarments. That's why Retold Recycling is so great. It makes it so easy to do something with those unused textiles that you would otherwise just throw in the trash and would then end up in a landfill somewhere.

Speaker 2:
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Speaker 1:
[25:37] So gather all those mismatched socks and ancient dish rags and all the other household textiles that you are definitely not going to drop off at a consignment store and recycle with Retold today. Bad On Paper listeners can try Retold recycling for 10% off with BOP10 at retoldrecycling.com. That's R-E-T-O-L-D recycling.com for 10% off with code BOP10. Becca, tell us about your Hidden Gem picks.

Speaker 2:
[26:13] Well, this was really fun because it gave me an occasion to go back and look at all of my reading history since we did the last episode like this in 2021. So that was very fun to go down memory lane.

Speaker 1:
[26:26] You were thorough.

Speaker 2:
[26:27] I was thorough. I feel like my inclination is that I want to talk about The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Borland, which is my ultimate hidden gem right now. But I feel like I've not shut up about this lately. Although I do feel like it's landing with other readers. It's not just a me thing. So if you have not heard my gospel of The Force of Such Beauty, go look it up. But I challenged myself to find other ones. Please tell us. Okay. So the most recent one is this book called Family Drama by Rebecca Fallon, which you shared a pub date with. This came out on February 3rd. And I haven't really seen it around. So the book starts with a funeral of a young mother of twin children, a boy and a girl, and the kids are maybe about six or seven when she dies. And from there, the timeline splits into two. And in one timeline, it rewinds to when she was a young adult and first meeting the man who would become her husband. And it goes all the way through their love story and up until she dies and in that she becomes a soap opera actress. And she's kind of living this like double life where her husband and kids are living in this small town in Massachusetts and then she's flying out to LA to be on a soap opera in like the late 80s, early 90s. And it was such a specific setting. And I love anything that takes place in Hollywood, but this felt so different than anything I'd read, which I adored. And then the second timeline moves forward from her death as her kids grow up. And her kids don't know that she was a soap opera actress, or they don't know how beloved she was. They don't know the scope and extent of her career. And when they find out, it like really fucks them up. And so it's just like a really interesting family story. And a lot of it thematically, at least in the past timeline, is about her struggling to have it all. Like career, kids, husband. And when those things are kind of bumping against each other, what does she do? And even though this took place in the late 80s and early 90s, it felt very timely to today as well.

Speaker 1:
[28:52] Do you think this book has suffered from having a rather nondescript cover?

Speaker 2:
[28:57] Oh, I love the cover of this book. I really like the cover. It's like a woman in a cocktail gown and she has one baby on her hip and another baby on the floor and she's like at a stove. I thought the cover was really beautiful.

Speaker 1:
[29:11] This is so funny. So I could see this cover in my mind, but I didn't see the babies. I only saw the woman in a dress. And to me, it gave very much historical fiction, which I guess it kind of is sort of, but like I kind of felt like historical fiction, woman's in a beautiful gown staring out into a scene. But I had like, my mind had erased all the background details because now that I actually look at it, I think you're right. I think it is quite unique and beautiful, but I had focused so much on the woman in the gown facing a certain way that my mind had filled in the blanks falsely.

Speaker 2:
[29:48] A woman walking away is the historical fiction cover of choice.

Speaker 1:
[29:53] Yeah, I really missed that. Huh, interesting. I'm looking at it now. Reminiscent of Anne Napolitano. Did this give Hello Beautiful at all for you or similar vibes?

Speaker 2:
[30:03] No, not quite. I wouldn't say so.

Speaker 1:
[30:06] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[30:07] I see why they use that comp because it's like a generational family novel, but I don't think I would say that, but I'm not sure I have a better comp.

Speaker 1:
[30:17] So, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[30:20] I wonder if it suffered from the title being too generic. Although I do feel like family drama, I'm like, okay, I'm in. Tell me about family drama.

Speaker 1:
[30:30] I can see that. Yeah, I would love to read this, but you're right, I haven't seen it doing the rounds yet.

Speaker 2:
[30:36] There's one plot point that I think readers could find very polarizing.

Speaker 1:
[30:41] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[30:42] But it doesn't seem like enough people have read it and that it's suffering from people don't like that plot point. I just don't think people have read it.

Speaker 1:
[30:48] Yeah. Well, hopefully now they will.

Speaker 2:
[30:50] I hope so. Okay. My next one is called This Love by Lotte Jeffs, and this is, I think I would classify it as a friendship novel, but it also has a lot more than that too. It's about these two college students who meet at a queer bar and fall totally into platonic love with each other. It goes from there as they go into their adult lives and kind of how their friendship changes, but then on the side, it goes through both of their relationship stories too, and it's very much about queer people starting families and having children and kind of what avenues are open to them and what challenges they face both through that process, but also through other people's attitudes about it. I thought this was so beautiful, and it has this great like, I think of it as British writing. I don't know if that's true, but very packed with details, and it's very voicy and sparkly. I loved this.

Speaker 1:
[31:59] I'm looking up the cover again now. What do you think of this cover?

Speaker 2:
[32:02] A little generic. A little generic. It looks very 80s, which it's not.

Speaker 1:
[32:08] Yeah. It's very contrasted colors for those of you listening and not looking up these books in real time as I am.

Speaker 2:
[32:16] It's like holding hands and it's like neon colors.

Speaker 1:
[32:19] Yeah. I like it. It is a very British cover though. I read this and I know it gives me, I don't know, something that a Dolly Alderton would in a way.

Speaker 2:
[32:31] Oh, I can see that.

Speaker 1:
[32:32] This sounds great.

Speaker 2:
[32:33] I can also see, Dolly Alderton is a good comp to this. Like this is like a queer Dolly Alderton style book.

Speaker 1:
[32:40] Okay. Interesting.

Speaker 2:
[32:42] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[32:43] Well, what's next?

Speaker 2:
[32:44] Okay. My next one is a romance. A more literary romance. It's called The Ark by Tory Henwood Hoen. Okay. This book is so interesting. And I can't believe it did not get more hype. So this is about a woman who signs up for, it's kind of like a little bit magical realism-y. So it's about this woman who signs up for this very expensive dating service. I want to say it's like $50,000, but it promises you with a 100 percent guarantee that it will find you your soulmate. And so she does it, you have to go into this center and do all these kind of like invasive activities and give them so much information. And then it matches her up with this guy who's also done the service. And it's like perfect until it's not. And it's, you know what, this reminds me of kind of different voice. But like, if you liked this, I think you might like the arc is it kind of reminds me of the husbands.

Speaker 1:
[33:46] I was just thinking about that book today and how much I liked that book. It's an intriguing comp for me.

Speaker 2:
[33:52] Yeah, it's kind of reminds me of the husbands. And it's like a very astute take on app dating fatigue and like how tough the dating landscape is. It's also set in New York and it's like a very good New Yorkie book.

Speaker 1:
[34:05] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[34:06] I loved this one and I thought it was so unique and I can't believe that it didn't get more hype.

Speaker 1:
[34:12] Well noted. I remember you talking about this. I just looked up the cover and it had stuck in my mind.

Speaker 2:
[34:17] Yeah, it's a cool cover.

Speaker 1:
[34:18] I remember it came up then and now.

Speaker 2:
[34:19] Yeah. Okay. For my next one, it is also a romance. Okay. Sometimes I have this feeling where I'm burnt out on romances. I read all the tropes, I'm like everything starts to blur together a little, things can feel very samey. If you ever feel like that, I promise you, you have not read this book. You've not read anything like The Impossible Us. Did I say the author? It's by Sarah Lotz.

Speaker 1:
[34:46] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[34:47] Okay. I don't know if I can pitch this without, because there's a really key thing that I can't figure out a way around saying it.

Speaker 1:
[34:56] I'm reading the plot.

Speaker 2:
[34:58] Yeah. Let's see how they pitch it. Tell me how they described it.

Speaker 1:
[35:00] Okay. It's an interesting little paragraph. Okay. It says, Nick, failed writer, failed husband, dog owner, B, serial dater, dressmaker, Pringles enthusiast. One day, their paths crossed over a misdirected email. The connection is instant electric. They feel like they've known each other all their lives, so they decide to meet. While Nick buys a new suit and gets his courage up, B steps away from her desk and sets off to meet him at a London train station. But they're happily ever after, nearly in hand. What happens next is incredible and threatens to separate them forever. As their once-in-a-lifetime connection is tested, Nick and B will discover whether being together is an impossible chance worth taking.

Speaker 2:
[35:43] That makes it sound like somebody gets hit by a train at the train station, which is not at all what happens.

Speaker 1:
[35:48] It's giving one day.

Speaker 2:
[35:49] It is giving one day, which is not at all what it is, but it is British.

Speaker 1:
[35:52] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[35:53] It is British.

Speaker 1:
[35:54] It says fantasy? Is it fantasy?

Speaker 2:
[35:57] It has a magical realism element to it.

Speaker 1:
[35:59] I'm intrigued. I feel like I would like this. I'm reading the reviews and it seems like something I would really be into.

Speaker 2:
[36:05] It's so good. It's so unique. Also, a lot of the beginning is over e-mail. If you like anything with e-mail banter and that type of relationship blossoming, which I know Olivia does, you'll like this.

Speaker 1:
[36:19] Yes. Okay.

Speaker 2:
[36:22] Then it goes in a zany direction, so it's fun.

Speaker 1:
[36:26] Don't like the cover.

Speaker 2:
[36:27] No, I don't either. The cover looks historical fiction. The way her hair is curled, she looks like a regency lady.

Speaker 1:
[36:34] It's not good.

Speaker 2:
[36:35] It's contemporary.

Speaker 1:
[36:35] The colors are very meh. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[36:38] This one?

Speaker 1:
[36:39] Interestingly, in the UK, it's called Just Impossible.

Speaker 2:
[36:45] That's interesting.

Speaker 1:
[36:46] Different title and different cover. Fascinating. Sorry, what were you saying?

Speaker 2:
[36:52] I said it's very long. I was just looking at the Goodreads and it's 483 pages.

Speaker 1:
[36:57] Whoa. Well, actually, that intrigues me more.

Speaker 2:
[37:02] But if you feel, you the listener, not you, Olivia, but if you feel like you are a romance lover and you're just like a little burnt out on it, you haven't read this. You haven't.

Speaker 1:
[37:13] Okay. What about your final pick? Okay.

Speaker 2:
[37:15] My final one is a love story, but not a romance, which some of you will know what that means. And if not, you'll figure it out. And that is called Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly. And this book is about a woman who is given a very harsh medical diagnosis, and she goes on this vacation with her gay best friend and his boyfriend to the island of Elba, which I guess is part of, I think it's part of Italy. And they're on this, like, very chic vacation. And she accidentally falls for this very reclusive Michelin star chef. So great travel book, great, like, food description, some deeper themes because she's dealing with this medical diagnosis too. Packed tissues.

Speaker 1:
[38:21] Gorgeous cover. I know I'm just talking about every cover, but I've never seen this cover. It is beautiful.

Speaker 2:
[38:27] It's a beautiful cover. If you want to cry on vacation, this is the book for you.

Speaker 1:
[38:34] Okay. Wow. What great picks you brought to us.

Speaker 2:
[38:37] Thank you. Let's hear from a few more listeners.

Speaker 7:
[38:43] So I hope this counts as a Hidden Gem. I want to recommend My Husband by Maude Ventura, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan. It's a really like creepy, twisty, thrillery book about a woman's obsession with her husband. And it's not really in any way like Yesteryear, which is quite popular right now, as I'm sure you know, but I think it might appeal to fans of Yesteryear. And I really enjoyed it. And that is my recommendation for you. My name is Stephanie Hussar.

Speaker 8:
[39:15] Thanks. Hi, Becca and Olivia. This is Michelle from Florida. And my Hidden Gem is Goodbye Again by Caitlin Moss. If you love a right person wrong time romance that's heartbreaking and devastating and doesn't involve a simple lack of communication, this one is for you. Hope you enjoy.

Speaker 9:
[39:35] Hi, Becca and Olivia. One book I love that did not get enough attention is Foster Date Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins. It came out in 2023. And I think I originally heard about it from Ellen Hildebrand. It's set in 2008 at a boarding school and has lots of heart as well as juicy gossip. If you love to prep, you will love this too. It also has iTunes playlists sprinkled within the story, which are all in a Spotify playlist made by the author. Think MGMT, Vampire Weekend, The Shins, AKA A Perfect Nostalgia Mix. It's being adapted for TV as a Hulu series and it seems like it's progressing quickly. So I hope more people discover the book soon. Thanks and love the show.

Speaker 10:
[40:07] I'm calling on behalf of my wife's book, Have a Great Summer by Francesca Cocchi. It's coming out May 26th. It's a coming of age story, dual timelines set in the journey shore. It is full of millennial humor, angst and it's one of those books that I think anyone from our time period, the 90s kids will come to really love it. I think my wife, she's just wonderful and I hope everyone reads this book. But yeah, that's all I got. Have A Great Summer by Francesca Cocchi coming on May 26th.

Speaker 1:
[40:41] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[40:41] So I debated whether or not we should put this in because the book isn't out yet. So who knows if it's a Hidden Gem? But I thought this was very romance novel behavior that this husband called in to recommend his wife's book. I thought it was very cute.

Speaker 1:
[40:55] That's incredibly sweet. And you know what? It has incredible reviews.

Speaker 2:
[40:59] I had a real roller coaster ride when I listened to this because we have a few male listeners. Hi, John.

Speaker 1:
[41:05] We do. I think I've met them. Hi, Steven.

Speaker 2:
[41:08] Hi, Gregory. My God. Those are all that I can name off the top of my head. But I started listening to this voicemail and it was from a man and I was like, oh my God, one of our male listeners called in. And then it turned out, I think his wife must listen. But I'll allow it.

Speaker 1:
[41:25] So sweet. More of this, please.

Speaker 2:
[41:33] All right, let's get into some end matter here, Olivia.

Speaker 1:
[41:36] Tell me what you're obsessed with, because I just looked at this in the outline, and I thought, all right.

Speaker 2:
[41:42] I know.

Speaker 1:
[41:43] I have questions.

Speaker 2:
[41:44] It is among my creepiest ever obsessions. Doesn't make me sound good. I'm obsessed with the zip ties. Olivia, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a package.

Speaker 1:
[41:57] Sound clip heard around the world.

Speaker 2:
[41:58] I know. Like, lock me up. I, a few weeks ago, bought a package of small zip ties. I think they're four inches or five inches long. Like, they're small zip ties. I've been going around my apartment. Like, no cord is safe from being zip tied. It is so satisfying to not have like long, dangly, ugly cords. You want to know what's zip tied? My podcast equipment because it has like the longest cords. And they're always tangled.

Speaker 1:
[42:28] I'm looking at it now. I hate it. It just, I hate it so much.

Speaker 2:
[42:32] You want to know what would fix that? Zip ties.

Speaker 1:
[42:34] A zip tie, yeah. Yeah. Well, cheap, effective. This is actually a great reminder because if I have to look at this cord for one more day, it will break me.

Speaker 2:
[42:45] I feel like a big part of hosting this podcast is untangling cords.

Speaker 1:
[42:49] It's so many cords all the time. It really is. It's too much. It's a tough career we've chosen, really.

Speaker 2:
[42:57] I mean, brain surgeons move over. Astronauts, what's your cord situation?

Speaker 1:
[43:03] They probably have zip ties in spaceships.

Speaker 2:
[43:06] Are you recommending me for NASA?

Speaker 1:
[43:08] I've, yes, that was my next one.

Speaker 2:
[43:11] Can handle no Gs but has zip ties. I got to tell you, just this package of zip ties, it was probably 350 on Amazon. It was no money. It has been so practical in every room of my house.

Speaker 1:
[43:24] I'm so happy for you.

Speaker 2:
[43:25] I'm so happy for me. What are you obsessed with?

Speaker 1:
[43:31] Slightly disturbing pairing, but- Oh, yeah.... of obsessions. I've been watching so many documentaries on Netflix this week. I watched two over the weekend that I thought were particularly good. One was Trust Me, which is everywhere right now, but it's this docu-series, maybe four episodes about this woman who basically went undercover in the FLDS, which is like a fundamentalist Mormon group that Warren Jeffs was the head of who is now in jail for child abuse and child sexual abuse. But she goes undercover after Warren Jeffs goes to jail, infiltrates this group and ends up... well, that's all I'm going to say. It's really, really fascinating because you're getting such an inside look at this community that is traditionally very hesitant to let outsiders in. And there's so much in it about being around people who have very different sort of questionable beliefs as compared to yours, but still showing them empathy and kindness and what that can do moving forward, even if you disagree with them on so many different things. And I just thought it was, I was really inspired by it in a lot of ways.

Speaker 2:
[44:47] I feel like all of my true crime documentary watching Friends are also obsessed with this.

Speaker 1:
[44:53] It's very, very good. I would watch it again.

Speaker 2:
[44:57] What's your next one?

Speaker 1:
[44:58] And then my next one is, this started playing after we watched Trust Me, and it was the Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson, which is about the murder of cyclist Moriah Wilson. I didn't know anything about this case. I didn't know anything about this documentary. I really wasn't planning on watching it, but it kept playing and I was really sucked into it. And I just thought it was such a beautiful tribute to this woman who was killed. And her parents are and brother are featured throughout it. And the strength that they show and the way that they kind of uniquely display what kind of person Moriah was through all this different footage. And of course, the story of the crime. I just thought it was worthy of talking about. They're both just very, very good, but of course, lots of trigger warnings. So check those, but yeah, lots of documentaries lately. Well, what have you read?

Speaker 2:
[45:48] Okay, I have been so off my reading game this week. Too many plans, too much home stuff. But I did read The Missed Connection by Tia Williams, who also wrote Seven Days in June. And this comes out June 15. Very different vibes than Seven Days in June. This is like a zany, rompy romance. So it's about this woman who's kind of withdrawn from life because of a traumatic thing that happened to her. And she is on a flight to Paris for work. And she sits down next to this handsome Italian stranger. And the two of them really hit it off, but they don't exchange contact information or any identifying details. And so she's like kicking herself that she met her possible soulmate, but can't find him. So she hires this guy who was the private investigator who helped her with the traumatic thing that happened to her to track down seat F is what she's calling the guy that she met on the plane. And so it's kind of like a love triangle between the three of them. And it's very capery.

Speaker 1:
[47:03] It sounds fun.

Speaker 2:
[47:04] This is like such a good beach bag read.

Speaker 1:
[47:08] Okay, good to know. I'm looking forward to at some point sitting by a body of water and reading a beach read at some point in my life, maybe.

Speaker 2:
[47:15] So I hope so.

Speaker 1:
[47:16] I will remember this.

Speaker 2:
[47:17] But tell me about what you read, because this is bad on my list. This is bad on my TBR that I just haven't made it to. Yes.

Speaker 1:
[47:24] So speaking of Zany, I read, I read this book Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein, and this came highly recommended to me by a couple people. I had the arc of it. This just came out on April 14th. This is a story about a woman who was invited to a former professor's, like kind of like a retirement party in France. The invitation sort of sends her into this spiral where she ends up, she ends up being greeted by Monica Lewinsky as kind of like the ghost of Christmas past, sort of. Naturally. Right. Then Monica Lewinsky, who is this sort of like saint-like figure in the story, guides her through looking back at her past as a college student during the summer program with this professor and her infatuation with him and their eventual relationship of sorts. It's all told with vignettes of medieval saints. So Monica Lewinsky is sort of like the saint in this story. There's a lot happening. This author just said, I'm taking some risks and it is so funny at certain parts. But it had me thinking so much about relationships when you're young with much older men.

Speaker 2:
[48:48] That seems very glamorous at the time. Then as an adult, you're like, what was wrong with them that they wanted to be with a 19-year-old girl?

Speaker 1:
[48:55] Right, exactly. Being so young and wanting things so intensely, having this hunger for a person or for food, there's some really gorgeous food writing in this book because the main character is a really talented cook. And sort of that hunger being then punished and made fun of. In a similar way to, you know, Monica Lewinsky had this passionate moment and was then taunted for it for ever. So there's like, there's just so much. There's so much in this story. It is very weird. And there were points where I was like, I don't know if this is totally for me. The writing isn't like 100% my type of writing, but I really appreciated it from a craft standpoint because this writer took some major, major swings. And I think it's going to really, really hit for some people. So if you're looking for something different and zany and that will make you think about younger you and relationships and hunger and sexuality, and you'll laugh.

Speaker 2:
[49:56] I feel like, fact check me on this, but I feel like there has been a lot of people in the Facebook group or maybe just one person commenting multiple times about looking for weird girl lit fic wrecks. And this feels like it could be that.

Speaker 1:
[50:14] It is, you know, this is actually another kind of like, what is literary fiction? I don't really know what this means. The weird girl lit fic trend necessarily.

Speaker 2:
[50:22] I feel like that's like big Swiss.

Speaker 1:
[50:24] Yes. It has big Swiss energy. I would say it has big piglet energy, which I loved piglet, but funnier maybe for sure. So yeah, I think you're right. We're on to something there with that connection.

Speaker 2:
[50:37] Okay. Well, if none of those books, nothing we unearthed in this episode sounds good to you. We also have book club next week. We are reading Good People by Patmeena Sabit. And Olivia is going to tell you about it because I'm going to read it as close as possible to the episode, so I'm fresh.

Speaker 1:
[50:56] Yes. This is a mystery about an Afghan American family. There's a tragedy that takes place and the story is told from the perspective of everyone who witnesses that tragedy from afar, so neighbors and distant family members and friends and schoolmates. And because of that, you get very short POVs that are just crushable. You just read this very, very, very fast. My mom is reading this. She texted me this morning and said it was great. So, I...

Speaker 2:
[51:29] Kim Mentor approved.

Speaker 1:
[51:31] Yes, Kim Mentor approved, but I really loved it. And there's just so many themes and timely things to discuss. So, we're going to be doing that together.

Speaker 2:
[51:42] We're going to be discussing them. If you would like to recommend a Hidden Gem, but you didn't have a chance to submit a voicemail, or you'd like to second one of these, come chat with us in the Facebook group under Bad On Paper Podcast. Come chat with us in the Geneva group, also under Bad On Paper Podcast. Oh, it's the BFF group now. It's not Geneva anymore. I'm wrong. We're on Instagram at Bad On Paper Podcast. I'm on Instagram at Becca M. Freeman, and my newsletter is at becafreeman.substack.com. Did you know that I have a book coming out in October? If you listen regularly, you're probably already sick of hearing me talk about it, but I'd love it if you considered pre-ordering it. It's called Back Where We Started. It comes out October 13. I'm really excited about it.

Speaker 1:
[52:22] Me too. I am at Olivia Muenter, all the places on the Internet, and I'll see you there.

Speaker 2:
[52:29] We'll talk to you next week for Book Club, and hopefully our cords will just be in order.

Speaker 1:
[52:34] Zip ties for all.

Speaker 5:
[52:35] For all.

Speaker 2:
[52:36] In a non-creepy way.

Speaker 1:
[52:38] Bye.