Welcome to Plans Are Booked, a podcast for every reader.
I'm Molly Gowler.
I'm Stephanie Blackburn.
And I'm Caitlin Madison.
Welcome to chapter 35.
We've done 35 big ones.
Shout out to forever 35 great podcast name.
we are talking about the seven year slip today and we're catching up.
We're in the throes of summer.
We've survived a heat wave already.
We're on a tornado watch today.
Right now as we record this, that's how dedicated we are.
We're.
We're...
I left my home, risked my life to record this podcast.
I am currently just like completely distracted because...
Kelce just came out on stage with Taylor Swift at the Heirs Tour.
Paul McCartney's in the audience.
I was watching various different things online about it.
I'm like, I'm over the moon.
It's just so delightful to watch from afar.
But who would like to...
kick off the ketchup?
Stephanie needs to update the listeners on what is going on with the product.
I think people must be on the page in there, so I'm just wondering if there's a
resolution.
or not.
Let's see, where did we leave off?
This time.
off with you messaging his wife.
yeah, okay.
So.
Monday, I can't remember.
It doesn't really matter what the day was and when things happened, but I believe it
was Tuesday after I was leaving the barn on our first almost 100 degree day.
I think I was probably a little bit irritable because I had been outside and
it was already 90 something degrees and I was sweaty.
And I drove after the barn to the house to check just to see.
if I was coming here.
be able to get down from the ceiling without any problems.
So I tested my...
Actually, did I not text him?
In my mind, I asked for permission, but I'm pretty sure I actually didn't ask for
permission before I sent the text.
I think I just sent it to you guys to see if you guys thought it was okay.
Is that what happened?
Did I do that?
feel like I've now become like the editor of of tone of texts and emails.
So I think I had just gotten to the point where I was like, I need to start
threatening.
Like there's, there's no point being nice because I've been nice for months.
Got me nowhere.
and so I texted him, this is what I texted him on.
yeah.
Tuesday at 1203.
Name redacted.
It's Tuesday now.
You said you'd finish on Saturday, like you said the week before and the week
before that.
Back over a month now.
And that's actually as a side note under undervaluing.
It was, I think, at two months at this point.
I'm done playing this game.
You're affecting my livelihood.
If it's not completed by this Friday, June 21st, I will be filing a complaint with
the attorney general.
So then didn't hear from him for 24 hours.
Son screenshot it and sent it away.
And I said, can you see a picture of it?
Sorry to talk to you, but it's because this will look like your picture, but I
have to ask you, do I feel like you're for that he has seen us so he's not surprised
when this happens?
She didn't reply, but she definitely must call the police to come to the house of a
woman who was a crazy person because then...
was like, I'm so sorry, I'm not ready.
Well, today's not ready.
He didn't want to be ready.
Yes, he was.
No, it was ready.
Last time he had it, he asked the leader of the conference, he said, excuses, that
he had left for business.
Although, he could have been free.
He said he would.
And he asked if he could get into the house just right.
to it.
yup.
And then I believe I said that he can't hear my phone request.
So he can't hear me, and he said, could he go today?
And I said, yup.
And that's the real life thing.
But I don't think he's here to hear my voice.
I think that's it.
like just to like bring the listeners up to pace like if they're having a hard time
visualizing this as we've talked about how we look at months and weeks and time for
me I can't I can't
I can't properly explain why this is working for me this way, but I can't do
like a lot of things.
And everything is supposed to be done by the first week of April when we were going
to put the house on the market.
And it's now June 23rd.
So if you think of it like a clock, he was supposed to be ready at 12 and we're
already at, like he is a quarter of a week here.
which is also how I think of a clock.
Three months is a lot of fun.
Two, I mean, like, I don't think we have an absolute way to say that yet.
Like, I think these are, this is really insane.
That didn't even occur to me.
Yeah.
no, I think at some point you're going to be like, so you're three months overdue on
this.
We paid for this to be done by the first week of April.
Like.
I also need the listeners to know that if you were gonna drive there every day to
like potentially meet him you would be driving two hours round -trip every single
time.
it's 35 minutes actually from here to there because I'm going opposite of the
traffic.
Okay, but even so, the fact that like, if you if every time he said he was going to
come, you got in the car and went.
actually that just made me remember.
Nemo and I were going to go yesterday and I talked to my dad and he was like, maybe
you should check and see if he did actually go instead of wasting time by
driving out there.
And sure enough, I would have wasted time if I had just gotten in the car to check.
Right, and I think the fact that when he asks like, is it okay if I go today, when
you are like, we are literally waiting only for you.
Like there is no one else we would rather have inside the house except you finishing
this job.
other thing that's important to note is that the house has been for sale this
whole time that he hasn't done it.
And the photos have radiators that like look unfin...
like the house, this beautiful house that Steph worked her tail off on, some of the
pictures...
not look half as good as they could because he is a...
He's a...
an unprofessional, he's a dark person, which is a very true word, may make more
sense.
And he just has no respect for you guys.
He...
the fact that I just...
the fact...
that he has spent the time making excuses for three months...
and ignoring your texts and what not to have, I used to say to my students all the
time, like, who could have had that kind of...
by now.
You could have been done.
have been done in March, but he kept pushing off things and things didn't
arrive to the warehouse supposedly, or they went to the wrong warehouse.
I mean, it's just one excuse after another.
But I'm at the point where I'm like threatening to file a complaint with the
attorney general is not working.
I know what I wanted to tell you, gals.
My mother does not like any sort of negative news or murdery type stuff, any
of that stuff.
So when I handed her the last time she was here, my copy of Jessica Knoll's prom...
Thank you.
Why can I never get the title of that correct?
know.
I think that's where I think we should start it.
and not continue.
And she has been texting me.
She's a little bit slower than the three of us consume books.
She has been loving it to the point where she sent me screenshots of her own
sorority house, which what a hoot that is to see their hairdos back in the 70s.
But she was at, not at that college, but she was in college at the time that that
happened.
So it's like, anyways.
if you don't love murdering stuff, you could still love writing on it because
it's so easy.
My update the last week or so...
I can play it off.
golf.
even in the heat wave, I was in a member guest at Andover country club.
We had planned this months ago.
it was one of those things where my friend Mike, who was hosting us for this member
guest had emailed the club and was like, are you guys still having it?
It's going to be 97 degrees.
The humidity is crazy.
It was like the last day of a four day heat wave.
And I was like, yeah, we're still doing this, we're on the clock.
So I've like, felt in the worst heat I've ever been in the world.
Like typically on a day like this, I'd be like, we can't have this, and take it out,
it's like crazy insane.
As a side note, since we're talking about the number 35, for my 35th birthday we
went to Palm Springs and I think our first day there it was 113 degrees.
That's a lot.
But you won't probably just went in a pool.
You didn't like do a sport.
was also going to say that it was so hot that even when we went from these very
plush daybeds that we were sitting on, the maybe two feet between the end of the
daybed and the pool, it was like the bottom of your feet got
singed if you weren't wearing flip -flops from the like couple of steps it took
before you submerged.
Okay, well, there was not one dry thing about me on Thursday.
It was absolutely repulsive.
I brought a change of clothes.
There's like a dinner and awards and stuff.
There was a luncheon to start and then there's dinner and awards afterwards.
And I brought a change of clothes and like rinsed off in the shower after the round.
They had like, like, like, like, like, like, like,
love a cold towel.
That to me is one of like the most luxurious things that can happen to a
person.
the quality of these materials.
It was like, well, it must be like ready to eat because everybody was suffering.
It was bad.
I didn't sit out the entire rolls, but there were like two rolls where...
cause we were playing like a best ball format.
There were two holes where like I was already out of it.
Like everybody else already had a better score than I did.
And I was like, I'm going to sit in the car and like try and be a person because I
do not feel good.
And.
it was a shot that was part of the whole team, and we were playing from one to
five.
the Celtics parade.
They moved it off the heat wave.
I know.
Yeah.
So, a million people were able to, and I love the way our country's running, 64
people that went running would have been.
Anywho, so that's like one thing that happened.
I made it through.
We came in fourth place.
We won some money.
My brother had the longest putt, 23 feet, one inch.
That was pretty sweet.
It was so, so unbelievable.
Like, couldn't breathe the air, the sun was atrocious, the heat was atrocious.
I'm a huge sunscreen fan, couldn't breathe, hair is skinned, and I got...
a bad sunburn, but like it stuck around for a day or two right below my knee caps
in the back.
And I was like, hmm, knee pit sweat's a real thing.
And my knee pit sweat just must've wiped out my sunscreen in that one little area.
And that's.
on my entire body.
I had like probably a fist size below each back of my kneecap.
got sunburned out of my whole body.
you feel that because you sit at a desk so every time you bend your legs you're
feeling that that skin is tight.
Totally.
So, so, you did it.
Drove home in a crazy way.
It ended up down for you within like 10 minutes when you get home.
It was pretty wild.
The night before another like heat wave, I feel like stamp is that you go see a
blockbuster movie.
I think we've all done it probably to escape the heat.
So Wednesday night I saw Inside Out 2.
I feel like this is great.
I think I'm really liking it because it's all about why you take care of your own
computer, and -
obviously I have a lot of school English classes and so those are like.
that's my bread and butter basically.
And so I really enjoyed it.
And like the new characters are like anxiety and envy and embarrassment.
And I was like, yeah.
I was like, do they call us middle school teachers to like consult on this movie
because it's like so, it probably will not.
I will say.
I know that puberty is like a serious thing and that it's not like pleasant for
most people, parents included.
I didn't think it was as funny as the first one.
Like it didn't have a lot of laughs.
And the laughs that I did have were like.
adult jokes, like, and these other adults.
It was like a mixed bag of these, like, these are the same kind of these jokes,
these are adults.
And there's just great, like, blackout moments.
People have worked hard.
that it was sadder than the first one.
Disagree.
You can't beat the sadness of Bing Bong.
Like, I'm sorry.
Do you know what's the difference?
They know it's true.
Nice.
So I want that to be a little bit.
I mean, Inside Out 1 is like probably it for the Pixar movies, it's probably
Finding Nemo and then Inside Out for me.
Like it's my, one of my faves.
I'd say it's an eight and a half probably.
Where does I just need to know for our friendship?
where does up land in there?
no, is this the end of our friendship?
For the listener, Caitlin just made her face like it's not on the list.
know if we listed them.
I'll tell you right now.
I don't like the Incredibles and I don't really like Toy Story.
That's fine, but up is like integral to our friendship.
up is very good.
I mean, I quote Doug all the time, the dog.
I wanted a whole movie about Doug.
I wanted a spinoff.
And I taught a kid that looked exactly like the kid in up.
Exactly.
It was uncanny.
was just in Stephanie's eyes before Caitlin answered that question.
gave me a list of all the Pixar movies, I'm pretty sure Up would make the top 10,
but I can't think of 10 Pixar movies off the top of my head right now.
So we'll discuss that.
I'll come up with a list.
I'll send it to you.
We can discuss it on the next episode.
Fair.
Played golf again, went to the Cape.
Holy hell.
Summer traffic is real.
I'm a fan of the Pride and the Fun, and I have been a fan of the Tiva and the
Filmmakers.
The Pride and the Fun, they're just so happy that I have this ball of fun.
The Filmmakers, they just want to be able to entertain themselves.
Never again.
Won't do it again.
The rest of the summer, three hours on Friday, two hours and 45 minutes today.
The weather wasn't good.
It was like misty and overcast the entire time I played golf again.
goodness Stephanie recommended you a podcast to get you through.
my gosh, Lost Hills.
That it's really good.
But she didn't tell me that there were four seasons.
And so I'm listening to season one and talking to her about it.
And she's kind of looking at me like, and I was like, are you listening to like a
different podcast?
She's on another season.
She just, she didn't even know what she told me to do.
But anyway, season one's great.
I'm loving it.
I listened to two episodes each way.
If you're a murdery and not if you're murdery, if you're into murdery things,
God, I hope we don't have any murdery people listening to this.
I'm proud of her.
And I'm proud of I'm proud of her.
And I'm proud of her.
And I'm her.
And I'm And I'm proud
has a fantastic podcast voice.
has a great voice and also like her journalistic integrity is like way higher
than, I mean, I was just listening to a Karen Reed podcast, which like low caliber
mass hole person running that.
So not good.
so like just quality, like writing and investigating and it's just really good.
And I think that some of the things going on at the moment, I think it just kind of
like was the theme for me.
I got the call from my deaf friend, Kate Donnell, did all my things.
I'm hoping that this week is.
it's not that last week was, wasn't smooth.
It was just like, it felt, there was like a little aspect of like survival mode
mixed in with it.
And like, I'm glad we got over that hump.
agreed.
I was doing things like asking myself, is the pavement too hot to take Scout outside
for a walk?
Like that's the level that we were at and...
obviously I wanted to have fun, but I also was like, hell no.
Yeah, we can't.
I think we better get this done, we gotta get the job done.
a grass for a little bit as needed, but for all the other pet parents out there,
just like I see you.
And that was really frigging hard.
as far as my last week, I feel like I'm now like our South shore correspondent now
that I'm spending a lot of time, down in hall and at the beach and similar to
Caitlin, I was at the beach for the whole weekend and I was so excited and the
weather was just terrible.
Like it was spitting or raining or downright pouring the entire time.
So I went into what I call shop small mode where if I can't be at the beach, I just
want to like visit all my favorite, like independently run places.
I did the same thing and I bought almost all of Stephanie's birthday gifts.
yeah, Steph's birthday's coming up right quick.
I went to this place that I love called the Sugar Shack, which is quite literally
a shack in the woods that is full of candy and pie and cinnamon rolls.
And they now have these cocktail mixers and like all kinds of flavored ice teas.
And they added for the first time ever pickles and like dilly beans and all these
other things.
And I was like, yeah, me too.
And I was like, I don't.
there is sugar in pickling.
my God, I just remembered all those all the pickling you did and you gave me back
in the day.
Now how long ago was that?
You're right, Molly.
What does she not do?
today we were talking about how Stephanie has all these hidden talents and like
anytime she takes on a new task she just like slays it and it makes me have like so
much imposter syndrome I can't even tell you.
so anyway I went to the sugar shack then I went to this awesome bookstore in Cohasset
called Buttonwood Books and I just love it there.
They have great stationery, they have amazing books, they have so many great
staff picks and you know when you read the staff pick descriptions of books you've
already read to see if like
you look at that right from every single article.
I'm just saying, please try to look.
And.
they have an amazing toy and gift section and they also do stunning gift wrap, like
just included.
So if you are around the South shore and you're in need of like any kind of gift,
that's a fabulous place.
I went to this place called the Bread Basket, which is one of my favorite
breakfast spots.
And I don't know if the woman who writes the names on the to -go bags was like an
artist or like a tattoo artist in a past life, but she always writes my name like.
So nice.
I'm gonna want to throw it back.
It was so nice.
I'm gonna want to throw it back.
And today I have a...
up doing a ton of yard work because it was just not sunny and now I'm back and I'm
just reading in the AC which I feel like has actually been kind of a nice byproduct
of the heat wave is I'm like if I've got to be inside like I'm just going to keep
reading and I've been blowing through books and I'm so excited to talk about the
book we're talking about today but
but also when we get to our current meeting, I just feel like somewhere we can
have a good foreword and I don't know if I'm saying this in a similar way.
have another funny update.
So my stepdad...
exclusively when I grew my hopes until two years ago, and then I saw something on the
internet that said, read perfectly, helps your memory, and all of a sudden, it was
my pay for it.
what kind of novels could you like one me that I might like and it's been this whole
like, I've been trying to get him to read novels for like 25 years.
Like this was I was like, the news told you to do it.
So now you're doing it.
I digress.
I gave her a true life problem, and I also gave him...
disappointments, didn't say anything about it, I had to take a bit of this moment to
state.
And she was not really, just like, I mean, you know, just, you know, just the music,
and it's like, there's no, like, I am totally not going to take any of this with
anything, or I'm just going to take it, you know, I love it.
And he goes, but This Golden State, I was gripped from.
the first page.
And then he has gotten to California.
And he's like, the mom definitely has some kind of connection to that house.
And I think that that is like a form of commerce, a form of military, a form of
like this, that, that.
He's like, he has all these like conspiracy theories about what Papi's
family was like.
And I completely die.
He like can't put it down.
Never.
Never really.
So we're at dinner and he's like going off about all of his theories.
And I was like, I wasn't going to tell you this, but that's a young adult book for
like high school kids.
And he goes, well, I really like it.
So you can give me some more of these.
I was like, we don't really have any, like, this is kind of a funky one, but
I'll see what I can whip up.
So now he's going to read young, like YA.
What, what, something is in the water this summer.
I know there's weird, weird things happening.
you give him, my God, the one we read right before it.
Why am I blanking?
Also YA.
Thank you.
Cause I feel like maybe worth a try.
try for sure.
For sure.
You also both just reminded me, I met some people who have been taking books from my
little free library.
I was coming back from the beach and I was like turning towards my house and yes.
And these two women were like, my God, we've been waiting to see you to tell you
how much we love your little free library.
We feel like we don't have to go anywhere else to get books for the summer because
you keep adding so many great things.
And this, this woman, one of them who was younger.
goes, I couldn't believe you had the throne of glass, which was Steph's book.
And she goes, I'm so excited.
She goes, I cannot wait to finish.
She's like, is there any chance you have the other ones?
And I said, I don't have them in my possession right now, but if I come into
them, I'll let you know.
And I said, I'll put them aside so that you don't have to worry that somebody else
takes them.
And the other woman with her was her mother -in -law.
And she was like, I can't.
you just commit to having a wait list for your free little library?
No, you're not because you didn't even like it.
But I feel like one of our big dreams is that maybe someday we would have our own
bookshop.
And I feel like people are responding to the books that we are reading and putting
into this little free library.
And they are going to have our bookmarks and they're going to know about this
podcast.
It's growing.
if you, okay, this is like maybe giving you too much work, but my favorite part of
going to the library was getting to like look at the inside jacket to see like who
had signed it out and stuff.
What if you put some sort of thing on the inside, kind of where they could write
like a little note where they were like, hi, I'm from here.
I thought this about the book.
Am I giving you too much homework?
Okay, we have to think about how to actualize this.
could put their email in there, just like something.
So like people could start, you are getting weepy.
I love this!
Now, it's because I don't have a house and I want a little library.
First of all, you're gonna get a house and we're gonna make sure you get a little
library, but I never thought I would like chat with people and that has been so It's
so nice and like I was joking with you guys when I first installed it I was like
this town is not ready for like our great taste in books people usually just use
those little free libraries to offload like stuff from their basement, but we are
putting like
right now, popular fiction and memoirs and YA and everything into there.
And also, I don't have that many kids books, but I kind of want to because I'm
noticing that around town, the other people who have them have a lot of kids
books.
So I'm going to work on them.
Say no more.
I definitely have books to get rid of.
Yeah, I probably do.
Yeah.
Okay, well, Brooklyn and I have Little Free Library is becoming quite popular.
my other thought, because I'm just like spitballing here, but what if you had like
a little notebook instead, instead of having to put like an actual thing inside
of each book, just put like an actual guest book inside there, somehow attach it
so it can't be taken out, and they could just write like a little thing.
They might want to, they might, you know.
I have to think about where to put it and also I don't like overstuff it because I
don't want stuff to get wet in the rain, but I will think about where I...
could do that so people would like notice that it's there.
I love this, both of these ideas.
It's really been so fun.
Steph, I think you are launching us for the seven year slip.
It's actually sort of, like, I can't think of the word right now, but the fact that
it's almost my birthday, and you gave me...
We're not doing the Dead Romantics, but that was the first Ashley Poston book that
you gave me, however many years ago.
We are actually doing her second book today, The Seven Year Slip.
Did I buy this or did someone gift this to me?
Maybe I bought it.
I loved the Dead Romantics.
Similar feel actually, kind of ish.
You didn't read that.
Did you also read it?
okay.
Okay.
So.
I'm going to talk about how I'm a legend, but I'm also a true other ghost.
This one doesn't have to be like a ghost, but somehow maybe just a sort of
nightmare.
aspect of it, I guess you could say.
The seven -year slip, I would call this almost like an adult Narnia in that, don't
you think?
In that there is...
So I don't even know how to begin about this.
Clementine, also the reason I love this is because she has a fantastic relationship
with a non -parent, an aunt.
The aunt gifts her her apartment or condo, I don't know what you want to call it, in
New York City.
And when she walks in, it's like going through the closet to Narnia and that...
she steps into like a magical place because in this case it's sort of like a
time rift, I guess you'd maybe qualify it.
When she walks in there, not every time, but sometimes maybe when she needs it,
there is someone that's in there in a different time period or someone's
actually, did that just give stuff away?
Anyways, I don't know how to go about talking about this book without like
spoiling things.
so I would yeah, so I would describe yeah, I totally get why you're making the Narnia
comparison.
I feel like if you like a time hop story, you will like this.
And Steph's right that there's this unknown element where like sometimes she
comes home and she's seven years earlier.
And sometimes it's just present day.
And as the reader, I do not have a place to go in the book.
It is what is happening at certain times.
And I felt like I was wishing for her to be the seven years earlier because I
wanted more of this relationship she was forming in the before time.
And even though it was really important in the present day, I just wanted more in the
earlier magic.
also works for a book publisher, and she's like climbing the corporate ladder and
really focused on her career when her aunt
passes and leaves her this apartment.
And her aunt also has like weaved these tales about how the apartment is magical
and like how things will happen when you're in it if you give it a chance kind
of thing.
And she meets this guy, Ewan.
We think it's Ewan, I -W -A -N.
We're going with like Ewan McGregor.
That's what we think it is.
Who is like a chef.
This is Southern Calvin.
And.
he says that he is friends with her aunt and that he's been told he can like sublet
the apartment for the summer.
And they basically try to like coexist in the apartment because it seems like she is
so career focused that she, if not that she doesn't have friends, she just like,
hasn't really let herself let her guard down and like actually put the effort into
dating and like doing all these things.
I didn't finish my book.
But wait, because you ran out of time or because you didn't like it?
Be specific.
it.
So my rule is 50 pages.
I gave it 93.
And I thought it was so corny.
And like, Ewan is like, it was just like, I felt like I was reading a Hallmark TV
show script.
Like, and then this guy magically appears in this apartment that her aunt bequeathed
to her.
Like, it just felt like.
and I really wasn't supposed to have it, but fairytales, I knew it, it was like, it
was fairytales.
Yeah, I didn't expect that, it was not me.
Does anyone said I'm not?
was like, I hated those effing books and I taught one of them one year.
I did not like those books at all.
I thought they were ridiculous.
No, because the first time I read them, I didn't realize there was a religious
aspect.
I just...
sorry.
Okay, finish your thought and then I'll resume.
So I really wanted to like it.
And it was just like, this boy, like her career is going so well and everything's
going so well except her aunt died.
But her aunt died and left her this like badass apartment.
And then magically her like dream boy is also in the apartment.
And I was like, really Clementine?
Like you're getting all this shit.
Come on.
they're in different time periods so like they can't live a life.
to aggravate me.
I was like, I'm going to root for them.
And then it's going to be like they can't actually be together because of the time
warp, whatever it is.
Like I was like, this is corny and ridiculous.
And I just, I couldn't get into it.
I like wanted to like it.
And like, I thought some of the writing was really funny.
Like I thought Clementine was pretty funny and like self -deprecating and she had
some like good moments.
But then I was just like,
A magical apartment?
Like, I don't want to read this.
Okay, listeners, if you don't want spoilers, just seek ahead for like the
next 90 seconds while I say two things.
You gave up on this book before they meet again in the present day at the same time.
So you did not get a chance to see what happens when it stops being magical and
just starts being, they're actually meeting each other for real.
You also didn't make it far enough to find out why he knows the aunt and how he got
involved in the apartment, which is like a pretty huge reveal about the aunt and her
life.
and things that Clementine didn't really know or understand about her aunt's life
that I thought made the story much like richer and rounder and fuller.
I agree that there's corniness in the first third where it just feels kind of
like, is this all too good to be true?
And like nothing bad is ever going to happen.
But I felt like once it caught up to the present day, it got a lot more
interesting.
Cause it was like, if this isn't like a magical fantasy, can it actually be
something real?
And that's the part I liked the most.
sorry, there's also that part where And I don't think this gives anything away, but
basically the aunt alludes to like having a relationship with somebody that was like
a ghost of the whatever whatever we're calling the people from the past
tell you the stuff you missed off air so that you can understand better without
ruining it for the listeners.
I mean, you don't have to, but okay.
Also, I just need to say, this is part of a broader conversation, the three of us.
and I finally like didn't finish it.
I mean like that's pretty good.
It's a pretty good.
No, no chapter 35 of our podcast.
And I finally didn't finish one.
And let me tell you, I hate finished the Kerry Washington book.
Yeah, but there was another one you didn't finish.
Which one was that?
Not important.
There was one.
At the beginning.
all of them, because the Kerry Washington was the one that I wanted to spike on the
ground the most.
I think you gave up on glossy.
No, I finished that.
I didn't want to.
a memo.
Anyway, it's not important.
But what I was going to say is that we've been having a conversation amongst
ourselves just in our text thread all the time about our good reads reading goal for
the year.
So Steph is a fucking beast part of my French and already hit her goal.
She said her goal as 40 books for the year.
And last week she already hit it, which is psycho.
And then Caitlin, okay, she's at 41 out of 40, which is insane.
And then Caitlin.
told us that she was at like 18 or 19 and we were like that's impossible because
we've seen how many books you've read but we've learned that you don't count the
ones you don't finish.
My brother and I actually just had a conversation about this like a week ago
because he asked me he and Zibo both asked me like, what do you do with those books
and Zibo is not even on Goodreads.
He has his own Google Doc that I have very generously been shared on that I can see
all of his books he's read in the last like eight years, and what he's rated them
one to 10.
And
I, Brad was like, you know, what do you do?
What happens?
Like, what do you do with the books that you don't finish?
And I'm like, I either delete them from my Goodreads or I move them back to, to be
read depending on how I feel about it.
them?
Because I have like five books that I haven't finished, but will eventually.
They're just like in limbo in my currently reading.
love the limbo situation that much.
And so I either move them back to to be read or I if I know that I really don't
like it, then I remove it from all my shelves.
Got it.
I want to say one thing.
I feel like the seven year slip is sort of like a more fantastical conversation about
relationships that are created in sort of a bubble and trying to see whether that
chemistry can exist outside of.
Like.
right, I didn't finish glossy, I just looked.
I feel like in real life and in books, I enjoy that sort of, you know, a
relationship could be, let's talk about golden hour, like a relationship could be
so magical and wonderful in a vacation setting.
Can you take it outside of the vacation setting?
I mean, this is sort of like the most grandiose type where it's like literally
in a magic apartment, can you take it out and it also exists and works type thing,
you know?
So I was, I always thought we could do it in the middle of a relationship.
But if I could guess.
Maybe I revisit this book at some point.
I don't know.
But I also I would definitely watch it as a movie.
I will say that.
Like I would be interested.
movie.
I would be interested in seeing that.
Because like I've read The Time Traveler's Wife and I really liked that book.
And I've read, I'm trying to think of another time jump one.
no, it's a movie, but Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman and he comes through like an
elevator.
Is that Kate and Leopold?
no, I don't know that one.
sweet.
was gonna say my favorite time hop is Una Out of Order, which I don't know if you
guys read.
what's the one?
my God.
He's a Weasley.
I love that movie about time.
I sob every single time I see that movie.
It is a hard cry for me.
It's such a beautiful movie.
So I like time jumps and I like time, whatever we want to call them.
I like those.
I don't like when it's like.
Like I thought that this was going to be one of those books, like the same day gets
repeated over and over again.
Or maybe it's a book where like she, it's second chance romance and she dates
somebody from seven years earlier that she bumps into them or what.
Like I didn't think it was going to be like a magical apartment.
So going into it, I had like the wrong frame.
And so then I started reading it and I was like, what?
Like I just was, I, it just.
this is why oftentimes I do I have so many books that I could pick one up and not
remember why I purchased it I do not allow myself to read the inside cover or back
cover before I crack into page one I just start off
that's what I did with this.
That's why I thought it was a second chance romance where she's dating somebody
from seven years ago.
If I had read the back of the book, I would have like maybe been a little ready,
but that didn't happen.
The blurb also doesn't really totally give away that that's kind of like the premise
of how it's going to go down.
feel that The Seven Years Club would make a perfect 90 minute Netflix rom -com.
Like 100%.
It would be, it has all the right sort of like beat points.
It has like the magicalness that's intriguing and also watching it, it's less
of a time commitment than reading this entire book.
I, but I like this category of stories, I guess I would say.
Like the, I like the time hop setup.
And I think we've read a bunch, all of us that we've really, really loved and you
know, movies too.
so if you are a person that usually enjoys that, I would say give this a shot.
and I didn't read the Dead Romantics yet.
Actually, Steph gave it to me and I took it from my TBR pile and brought it here
for today.
I do really want to read that.
And I know that Ashley Poston has a book, that.
by the time you guys are listening to this, will have come out on June 25th.
So there will be yet another opportunity to read some of her writing.
If either of these premises don't appeal to you, she has something brand new.
either of you noticed this trend that's happening where romance novelists are
including an aunt?
I know Steph was always saying like a non -parent like good relationship.
It's been on a lot recently for some reason and florists.
Did you notice that the florist thing that's been pot?
So there's a.
made me think of Colleen Hoover.
Something bloom.
Isn't her name Lily Bloom or something?
Yeah.
So she opens Bloom's Buds.
We don't know what it's called.
So that's in that book.
And then I read the, yes, then we read the new Carly Fortune book.
and that she's a florist in that and she has an aunt that dies.
And then we read seven year slip and...
He's a chef, which like the PEI book also has like the oyster shucker works at a
restaurant, runs an Airbnb kind of thing.
And then we also in the seven year slip have the aunt that dies.
So it's like aunts dying, florists, restaurant adjacent people, book
publishers.
I don't know.
I feel like these authors are just like reading each other's books and they're
like, Ooh, that'd be fun if I like used that, you know, like job or.
religion or whatever.
And it's really a classical book to my credit.
And I'm like, I know, I'm just so smart.
And it's like, I can't read that.
It's just awesome.
Yeah, I see that.
I was when you were saying florists, I was thinking of Tia Williams love song for
Ricky Wilde.
She's a florist in that.
I didn't even read that one, so there you go.
Huh, fascinating.
Well, sorry that I didn't finish it.
What is everybody reading right
I just read Hannah Bonham Young's Out on a
I saw a different cover on, I don't know, could have been Instagram or something.
And I was like, I love that cover.
you buy that at Belmont Books' birthday?
Yes, I did.
Wow, you just got that book.
You're already done?
Yes, I'm trying to get my interest in this.
Dang.
I need to get back to the site.
Please tell me if you have the book that you're reading.
I have a new outdoor sectional, which allows me to recline.
God, it's like a full dream.
Also, it's in shade until probably 2 p So even if it's hot, I can sit out there.
Nemo had half of the couch.
I had the other half.
We didn't have to be like on top of each other.
He could adjust and it didn't like ruffle my feathers.
And then with the plants.
very dreamy out there.
I grew up with a greenhouse as part of our house and inside.
So this is like an in attached indoor greenhouse.
And my dad had bought these swing woven chairs that are like the epitome of
perfect reading spots because it's bright light.
But you're indoors if it's like a colder day and you're swinging which is like
the dream.
And it's not in this book.
This is, I don't know, I don't know if you probably saw it, but it's not in the book.
Wait, well, it's there first, and then it's out, it's two of those.
the way that Amy and Sarah were like a box, and I...
noticed he had a prosthetic leg and I was like, I haven't really read anything with
like, I mean, I feel like spectrum.
we've been seeing a lot of those.
I've seen characters on them, but I haven't seen any sort of differently
-approved characters.
And this one, they both have something.
So he has a prosthetic leg, and he, like the author, has a prosthetic elbow in his
hand.
So it's interesting that I keep going forward and going forward.
books that sort of encompass all types of people.
just tell you, you've been waving that book in front of my face for like two or
three minutes and I'm just noticing the prosthetic leg now.
It didn't didn't even pop out at me at all.
I didn't even like think about that being part of the story.
I was just going to say, if you're in the Boston area, there are two sisters that
own a business called
Read My Lips Boston, and they have some disabilities themselves and are very
passionate about stories that show all kinds of abilities and differences.
And if you're looking for more of books, like what Steph's talking about right now,
you should follow them.
It's Read My Lips Boston on Instagram and like daily they're sharing new books and
ideas.
So this is the characters are Wyn and Bo.
Wyn, her name is Wynna Fred, but she doesn't like that.
So she goes by Wyn.
It starts at a Halloween party.
She is dressed as a pirate.
She always dresses as a pirate and hits her best friend's house.
Her best friend is sort of like a kept woman.
She doesn't work.
Her husband is making like boatloads of money.
And so she loves to throw a party.
So she goes like over the top.
So anyways, they meet across, I can't remember if it's like the Punchbowl or
something.
They're both dressed as pirates.
The banter is hysterical and they're trying to like one up each other.
And then she pulls off her hook to show why she has it.
And she looks down and he has wrapped faux wood sticky stuff around his prosthetic
leg to make it look like a peg leg.
So they're like one -upping each other as pirates.
It's fantastic as like a meet -cute.
The band's work is great throughout the entire form.
There's like, they're in the very best shape to a time to use the wrap.
They're like, my best friend, awesome, so like, the best condition to have, you
know, I don't know.
in watch to all these previous chapters where you don't feel like you're not
throwing something to the table.
When you live in a basically a typical house.
apartment that I had for 12 years in Summerville, like a 375 square foot one.
your friends and for all your partners.
It was kind of like a trigger, I'm sure.
And she feels personally blessed to have been part of this.
It was delightful and fun and I will say it made me want to ask you guys what you
think about...
content learning.
She has a content learning team and I looked through what she had listed and was
like...
I don't think you need this much.
It's kind of different stuff.
I mean, maybe it's because I'm pretty confidant.
I'm a little bit of a blackbird in life.
Yeah, that really brings you to my school.
So thank you for like, my school.
And I didn't have to do that before.
I mean, it's kind of a sad thing to do.
It's also a fun thing.
Yes.
But I feel like sometimes I'm like,
I still like offer something else to apologize for like, everyday things that
like, I didn't contribute to.
If we, if slash when we get some authors on the pod, that is something that I would
definitely like to ask about because I don't know how author driven that is
versus publisher driven.
And I would like to know whether who's pushing for that basically, because I said
in an earlier pod, probably when we were talking about all my rage, that there were
quite a few things referenced in the trigger warning section that.
also were spoilers as well, because I didn't know that that's what the focus was
going to go.
Right.
So I feel.
like it's really tough.
It's really tough.
And it's like almost like a censorship kind of like what are, you know, and, you
know, I think for a book like All My Rage, especially it's like, okay, is this an
adult book?
Is this a young adult book?
Like, how are we?
to market this?
Who are we targeting in that kind of like, expanded growth problems?
And so I think that's...
guessing it's publisher driven, honestly.
I'm like, there's a time when I used to turn to the one that's real.
like you don't sit up and be out with you about like I didn't actually like what it
was, but it's like, I don't know.
Maybe because I read the entire.
spectrum of stuff, like some stuff that's like horrifying.
For example, I won't name the book because I can't think of the title of it, but
Caitlin lent me a book probably about six years ago that I took on a tropical
vacation.
It dealt with a, it was a young girl who I think is like 12 in the book, maybe 13,
who is being continually abused and raped by her father.
It was not tropical.
vacation rating by any means and that one didn't have any warnings that I can
remember.
the hell book was that?
yes, that book was really well written.
Something about my beautiful darling, my absolute darling, my absolute darling, I
think.
that's me.
warnings and I wouldn't have read it if I had I Don't remember there being warnings
anyways, I just feel like we've gotten to a point where everyone is trying to be
very like political about like I'm just gonna warn you that like this this and
this but it's like Like anxiety warnings.
Okay, I don't need the warning.
I deal with that on a regular basis.
It's not going to trigger me by reading it.
I
I don't know.
I just...
I think it's a tree, but I feel like there's more to it than what it is, and I
think that's okay.
I just want to read the pirate meet -cute now.
It's so exciting how it's so hot, and how it's so dark.
book that I am about to start tonight, like after we finish podcasting, this is
my plan for the evening is called the Friday afternoon club.
And
I have a bunch of bookstores to look at.
It's pretty tight for a club.
And.
if you don't know Griffin Dunn, you probably do.
He was in, he was like a background actor in like a million eighties movies.
And then you might know him as Uncle Nicky on This Is Us.
He also has like pretty famous parents.
His aunt was Joan Didion.
He directed a documentary about Joan Didion.
that was beautiful.
I'm a huge Joan Didion fan.
The documentary he did about her was beautiful.
He grew up in New York City, kind of like socialite lifestyle parents, I would say.
And I forget if he's a teenager or in his 20s, his sister gets murdered by her
boyfriend who had been abusive, like long -term.
And so his parents...
end up starting like a foundation that raises money to one, I don't know all the
details, but one, I think help battered women.
And two, I think there's a real issue of justice in his sister's case that I don't
really know how it gets resolved, which is I kind of like not knowing all of the end
results when I'm going into a memoir like this, but those are like the snippets of
what I know.
Like she was killed, he was an abusive partner.
his parents started this foundation, it became like a big like landmark moment of
his coming of age, I would say.
And also one of his best friends was Carrie Fisher.
And there's photos of him at the premiere for Star Wars.
And there are quotes of him being like, yeah, I was at some like sci -fi movie
premiere that Carrie was in and like nobody thought it was going to be
anything, which I think is hilarious.
So he's just had a lot of different things.
in his life.
He's been on literary projects, movie stars, his parents played really cool on
the play, when I would call it the true writing scene and what really built that
up.
He was in LA, he was in New York, he went pretty good all the time.
And at the same place, I just think he's given us really interesting perspectives.
And it's been a direct,
on the Joan Didion,
documentary, the thing, and he's gonna reflect his writing is going to be, it
should be very enjoyable.
very excited to read that when you're done.
I just I like his whole persona like what I've seen of him in press interviews and
obviously I loved him in This Is Us.
It's always fun.
I feel like when people who you encounter in one artistic vein actually have like
talents in another so you know maybe people know him from This Is Us and he
turns out to be a brilliant writer.
Also, that was reminding me, I read a Tom Hanks collection of short stories called
Uncommon Type that was actually great.
And I was like, Tom Hanks, like you have so many talents.
I don't understand.
In terms of what I'm reading right now, I'm reading Not in Love by Allie
Hazelwood.
I need a doctor.
He directed a practical emergency room.
What?
I did not know that, but I don't have a name.
I'm sorry.
I don't know your name, but I know your name.
So I need a doctor to come in and find out what he's doing.
out.
And I was saying right before we started recording, I think this is in like the top
five spiciest books that I've ever read.
Like 50 Shades series is up there, of course, but this is like descriptive,
let's just say.
And I was expecting it to some degree, because a lot of her books are like that.
And I knew it would be...
All of Ali Hizowd's books, if you're not familiar, have some sort of like STEM
sciency connection in most ways, or at least the ones she's most famous for.
So I was expecting that element, but this, I don't know, it's just like hornier for
lack of a better word than a lot of her other books.
So I'm on page like 280 out of, I think 380.
So I'm in the home stretch.
And I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.
These characters are a bit different than typically what she writes about.
They both have.
a lot of intense value, they treat their child sort of like they bond with them, so
there is some seriousness alongside.
I hope I'm not too close.
But I also brought another book with me to this recording session because as I
mentioned, I was at the Buttonwood Bookstore in Cohasset and because of
Caitlin, I now meander to the young adult section in every bookstore that I'm in.
hooray.
And I was like, actually, I was like, read this, read this, read this.
But then I saw this book that had this very eye catching cover, which has pink
heart shaped sunglasses on it.
And it's called Sunkist.
I'm just going to read you what's on the back of this jacket, because after I
finish, you'll be like, yeah, of course you had to get this book.
It says Avery has always used music as an escape, but after her best friend betrays
her, even her perfectly curated playlist can't help her forget what happened.
To make matters worse, her parents have dragged her to a remote family camp.
for two months of quote unquote fun.
Just when Avery's ready to give up on the summer altogether, she meets Brooks,
mysterious, frustratingly charming Brooks who just happens to be on the staff, which
means he's off limits.
As the outside world falls away, Avery embarks on a journey of self discovery and
when Brooks offers her the chance of a lifetime, she must decide how far she's
willing to go to find out what she wants and who she wants to be.
Hello?
Correct, which is why I had to have it.
to you.
see okay if that one's corny I'm down because it sounds kind of corny and it's
basically dirty dancing and like we already know that story and that will be
like a cozy blanket on a breezy summer night.
And for me, I'm the opposite.
I'm like, we've already done this exact story.
Why are we doing it again?
It's all right.
that are like just trope after trope.
You know what I mean?
I don't know.
I'm like a comfort rewatcher, so in a surprise to no one, of course I would like
a book that has a plot that is exactly like something that I already love.
I'll let you know how it is.
Also, it was only $8 and I was like, I'm having this.
I hope that there's like wonderful differences.
You know what I mean?
Like it's original even though it has some semblance of dirty dancing.
report back.
All right, people, if you want to follow along with all the things that we are
reading, you can give us a follow on Instagram.
We are at Plans Are Booked.
We always love to hear from you.
Please write to us if you have ideas for books we should read or topics you'd like
us to cover.
You can write to us at plansarebooked at gmail .com.