Welcome to Plans Are Booked, a podcast for every reader.
I'm Molly Geller.
Stephanie Blackburn.
I'm Caitlin Madison, welcome to chapter 31.
We are going to be discussing a book called One and a Millennial today by
fellow podcaster Kate Kennedy from Be There in Five.
Molly is going to catch us up on what she's been up to because she's been
traveling the world and we haven't recorded a pod in like
back, baby.
I'm so excited.
I feel like I've been away from this mic for far too long.
first I just want to apologize to the listeners for my voice.
It's a very pollen filled day in Watertown, Massachusetts today.
So you're hearing a bit of congestion thanks to my yellow covered car.
but thanks for bearing with me.
Yes.
I'm back after a two week vacay.
I went to Israel for my cousin's wedding and then I went to Amsterdam just to
explore.
It was my first time there.
I will say I got into vacation to ignore it right quick because when I touched down
in Israel it was already over 90 degrees.
So it was like being purled.
into the summer season and I had packed accordingly knowing it was going to be
quite hot and sweaty.
And there's something about just like the beach weather that puts you in that like
vague frame of mind.
It was so great to see my family was.
so fun to just be at a huge celebration.
And my cousin, and I didn't.
make a ton of purchases.
Well, this is the same name, I love names.
her name is Maya.
Lilly, her grandmother who...
Let me see how I can best explain this.
My cousin Tamar is married to a wonderful person named Yair and his mother passed
away last year.
Her name in Hebrew means Lily.
So they decided to name her Maya Lily and Maya, the root is from the word mime,
which means water.
And we all grew up together at the beach.
So she wanted a name that sort of made a nod to that.
So actually one of the nights we were on together, they read the
description and the
behind the name that they had read during her baby naming.
So it's nice that all of us got to hear that.
She's four months old and she's so cute.
She lets anybody hold her.
She has a great disposition.
It was just like amazing to get to spend time with her.
Very fun.
I made precisely one purchase.
Actually, that's a lie.
I made two purchases.
The first one was completely unplanned.
My cousin Julia needed.
She was at her wedding, she was unhappy with what she had packed, so we went into
a
store and she started trying things on and were the same size.
And I was like, Ooh, let me try on what you just tried on.
So I just bought a pair of sandals like impromptu.
Then we went to one of the big open air markets where they have like the spices
and the nuts and whatever.
And I bought an obscene amount of tea, hibiscus tea, watermelon tea.
And they like to just like scoop these huge portions because they know you're
like a dumb American.
And originally he scooped enough that he was going to charge me what equated to
about $350 US dollars.
And I was like, sir.
it was unbelievable.
It was like these huge bags, plastic bags that he was going to vacuum seal.
And I was like, I'm sure this is like his shtick.
He like does this to everybody.
but I took out my little calculator, do the quick conversion and I was like, no,
sir.
that's not going to happen.
So I saw these little Tupperware things that he had for some of the more like nuts
and stuff.
And I said, could we instead do that one for each?
So he did the world's giantest eye roll because he was so close to swindling me.
And then obviously the price came way down, but I'm looking forward to making
all kinds of iced tea over the summer and turning some of that iced tea into
popsicles.
So the shoes and the tea is the only thing that I came back with.
I did buy for other people chocolate and other things.
And then I went to U .S.
with my other friend.
I...
back in the long business in Europe, because I studied abroad in Spain, but I
had never been to the Netherlands.
I honestly feel Amsterdam is like wildly underrated.
I'm surprised that there are more people talking about it the way that people talk
about like Lisbon, Portugal, or like these other popular destinations.
The canals were obviously the main attraction in such a cool, different
experience.
And the people to walk there were there.
The canals were quite fun in the canals.
But for me, the biggest surprise was how I found the food there.
From street food to like five -star restaurant food, I actually went for the
first time ever to a Michelin star restaurant during this trip, which I just,
I don't know, I felt like I was on an episode of Chef's Table.
Like it just felt so fancy and amazing.
And we went to this other restaurant, De Kast, and it's in a former Korean house.
They were home to a lot of stuff.
there, and then everything else comes from their buy -in farms and producers.
Every sniffer, every man -bun, every grass -taker, every pig, so we actually
Bear, it reminded me of the episode in season two where Cousin does his stage at
the fancy restaurant.
Yes, yes.
And they just like know everything about everything and they...
They play stuff on the plate with tweezers and all those things.
So this is cool for anyone who might be planning to go there.
Definitely make a reservation.
went for lunch.
We had four courses plus a full bottle of wine, $95 per person, US dollars.
I was like, what is going on?
And you don't tip there either.
I couldn't get over it.
But we also had the street french fries and the stroopwafels and all the things
that people say to have.
And I went to the Moe Museum, which is a lot of great places, and I went to the
Mangone Museum.
It was just an awesome time, and I felt like it was a bit rushed because I only
had like two and a half days after I went to the Indian Museum.
So now I feel like wherever I travel, I stay in Europe or I go back to Israel.
and look into that stuff and be like,
a stop along the way.
It just feels like I need more time.
There's more to see and do, more to eat.
I also learned from our canal.
tour guide that he said the best day of the year is the Pride Parade.
It happens in August and the whole water is starting to flow.
It's like it floats and floats and
And I know many people know about King's Day there, which is also kind of like an
epic celebration.
But he said this is even better than that.
And he said you can come and
a lip season which is like April May he said but if you really want to experience
like the best best of Amsterdam you should come for pride so.
that was just like a note that I talked about into my brain.
So I went to Amsterdam in 2017 and I'm surprised you didn't mention this but I
love the architecture there.
I really like Dutch buildings.
And I also loved like sitting outside at bars or cafes and seeing buckets of
children with attached onto bikes.
And also the bike culture like when you get on the ferries like how organized it
is and everybody just rolls their bikes on and there aren't really a lot of cars.
You just kind of feel like you're in some kind of weird oasis or you're like,
everybody's like being green.
good to the environment, and there's tulips everywhere and art everywhere.
And this is where Anne Frank was safe for years and years.
It's like...
feels like...
a little bit.
But in a really healthy way.
Thank you.
That's a huge RBC experience.
Those were really good.
know I don't have an athletic bone in my body.
So I didn't ride a bike while I was there, but it was extremely cool to see the way
people use it to commute or to visit friends or to tow it around their kids.
Nobody wears helmets, which was shocking to me.
And I actually asked the canal tour guide about it.
He was like, honestly, the bikes have the right of way everywhere.
So it's not the same as in the U S where they're like fighting for space on the
road with cars, the bikes reign supreme here.
And so there's less of a safety concern, which was kind of interesting.
He also told us every year that the city fishes out 15 ,000 bikes from the bottom
of the canal.
Because of people who don't lock them up properly or whatever the case may be.
but to Caitlin's point about the architecture and the feeling that you have
while you're there, I remember thinking when we first arrived that it reminded me.
a
list of other things that will be released.
Like I just, I just, I'm have to go through this.
It's just, it's so much fun.
And it's a huge group, which I would love to go through.
So you can certainly do it on your way, just in the right place.
Like I was thinking, the game rest, it was fun to go by.
It's just, it's one of those real, cool, cool things that you can get to just
around anywhere.
So if you're thinking about it, if you're planning your trip this year and you say
hi,
directly going to add it on.
I also had an amazing experience finding a budget for which I used to be a free
advertising publisher because I was so lonely.
I flew to Luke, that's what I said, and my advertising agency is, I was like, I'm
saying, I flew to the Caribbean for the facility, but this was a great experience.
Ever since we felt the first class age, I couldn't get over it.
The TV screens were huge.
When you sat down, you could customize your meal before they delivered it to you.
They're now partnering with Gag, the food chain.
What used to be called, again, used to be called the other time when I worked
downtown, the food is awesome.
They gave out individual ice creams every time I turned the light.
And then several hours later, the card starts coming down behind me.
I was like, why is that so not such a familiar sound?
I was like, Jesus, it's not even, Jesus, it's not even.
What is going on?
And this was my first film.
And then I was like, it's not even.
So it was spectacular.
We did this flash, amazing.
I was just standing there, I was going, I was just going.
Yeah.
And then I was like, I'm going same movie I was in.
And I was like, no, no.
But I was just going to the movie.
I was just going to the movie.
Yeah.
I so I have a question for you, Molly, as if probably our listeners don't know this
about me unless like you're one of my besties.
But I'm like a huge Sanrio Hello Kitty person.
And one of the most devastating things that happened to me while I was in the
Netherlands Netherlands is that I found out about Miffy.
Do you guys know Miffy?
OK, listeners, you're going to have to look it up, but I will show you Miffy in a
moment.
and she is a little bunny.
and she came to fruition as like a character in books and like a stuffed
animal plush kind of way in 1954.
And basically Sanrio got accused in 1974 of working off Miffy to create Hello
Kitty.
And I was like, absolutely devastated when I found this out.
But Miffy's like a lot of places in.
Amsterdam.
and like in the airport and like all over the place and she's this like cute little
rabbit.
I will say Hello Kitty is definitely cuter, but I was like very devastated to
find out that they like might have modeled Hello Kitty after her because similar to
Hello Kitty, Miffy also doesn't have a mouth.
She just has a nose and eyes and it's like a very like basic rendering drawing of an
animal.
so anyways I found that funny.
I was just going to stay for a little bit longer.
And I'm going to come back and do this because I saw that I had a career.
I was thinking, I'm just going to do this right now.
And I was like, how do you do this?
And I was like, where?
And like, I'm do this off of here.
And then I was like, well, I'm going this here.
And I'm going to do this out of here.
And I saw it on the other end.
I saw it right in front of me.
I was like, I'm this.
Discoveries.
It's like the duty free shop.
And I was like, what is with this stuffed bunny?
And I thought maybe I just like missed it.
I was like, I'm sorry.
I missed it.
I was like, I'm sorry.
I missed it.
I was was was was missed I I I
Dutch is fun.
N -I -J -N -T -J -E, which is like a shortening of the word Konigente, which
means little rabbit.
I probably totally butchered that.
If you've ever heard anybody speak Dutch or Afrikaans, which is similar, I don't
even know how the sounds come out of their mouth sometimes, but she's known in
English as Miffy.
And she has like TV shows, and there's a picture.
She's like padded in there, but that overrides.
Anyways, I've known her since I got out of college.
Well, I hope you tell me.
were up to while i was away
Would you like to go stuff?
So there was a squirrel loose in the house.
And if you know me, you know I am terrified of dark water, basements and
small rodents.
And my dad was out of the country for two weeks.
So it was on me to get it out of the house and patch it up.
So luckily my sister was off that day.
And she's one of my scariest fighters so I knew that I was in good hands.
So we went to the house, found it, there's a...
my sister says it's a horrible video, but I think it's a hysterical video of the
whole conundrum on my Instagram, if you look.
We found the squirrel.
We managed to get it out the window.
I managed to patch the wall.
I don't even know why it came in or why it chose to come in on the ground level and
then scale to the...
ceiling for it to just be clear on the outside.
But, you know, it was a lot of fun.
Thank you.
also tell the people how you found out that it was inside the house.
our board member wants a screenshot of Helen's group meeting at her house.
She said, we think there's a blind car in the house.
That's a cool one.
That's a good one.
I'm just going to go run through the drawing as it works.
So we're as surprised as we are in the house.
So good thing I didn't accuse him like I was planning on.
Also, Chris, as we're still having to edit this report, he makes me happy when I see
the plan.
OK.
Yeah.
He's not going at this time of the year because he's not going to be able his job.
The side of the afternoon, he's going to be sleeping at the same time as I do, but
I'm going to pull over to the hospital.
How?
Super -fast.
Right.
So I'm going to go to bed and then I'm going to sleep.
Reviews imaginable every place that is open to me on the internet
I have already looked this person's business up obviously and he has great
reviews but all of the reviews that he has that are good are because he shows up for
emergencies.
So like people will be like my toilet is flooding my house and so -and -so showed
up like
like, you know, really.
an hour or whatever.
And so he clearly prioritizes the money, like going to these houses and making the
money.
And Steph and his dad very kind and her dad very kindly, like trusted him because
he's done other houses.
And so he's had the money and is just like, I'm going to take my sweet time and
take all these other effing jobs and just totally screw these people over that are
trying to sell this house.
I'm livid about it.
it.
And gets more and more people to recognize him as he has a problem.
or hasn't done what it is that he's supposed to do.
He makes excuses left and right.
It's an absolute joke.
He's despicable as a business person.
Could be a really nice human in his real life, business -wise, despite him.
I also want to say that I was on TV because of Julie.
The situation was really terrible when we were together.
And Julie used to work at the Attorney General's office when she was in college.
And we're together.
jobs was to work on consumer protection related issues.
So if a business was scamming somebody or not following through on whatever they'd
been paid to do.
And she said, when Stephanie is ready, you let me know.
And we are going to report this to the AG.
And I'm going to make sure that it gets escalated every single which way it can.
And I was like, I didn't even think of pulling that lever.
if you're listening, I love you.
the other news is that we got an offer and then a week later they got cold feet and
backed out.
So, I haven't been baking, which is usually my like stress thing.
Instead, I've been watching a lot of farrier videos, which if you're not a
horse girl, TM, then you don't know that that is a profession that, is sort of like
a nail technician.
Yep.
takes off the old horseshoes, basically trims down the hooves.
builds, you know, a few bunches of themselves.
And I think that's what I love about my job.
I work for Daniel and I work for all the other doctors and I love to have friends
that work on my team.
There was a film called, I just put this aside, I went to the psychologist's home,
and there was all there was.
pretty out there.
She was like pretty bizarre.
Looking back on it, I think she was probably on the spectrum, but like none of
us really knew what that was.
And she would just like blurt out stuff all the time and was like super awkward
and also had terrible skin.
Like she just didn't have anything really going for her.
Okay, pun.
in our yearbook, I will never forget this, was something along the lines of like,
everyone should love horse people.
They're such stable people.
And I will never forget it.
And that's from like 1998, 1999 that I'm calling that back right now.
a great fun.
Well, as a quick aside there, if you are into calming farrier videos, there is a
guy out of the UK who is tattooed at the wazoo.
He's always got bear shirt sleeves.
Yeah, very.
It's.
apparently attractive.
You're like downplaying that part.
Yeah, for sure.
okay.
I just want to make well also you have to catch people up on like you're actually
like getting to like the query part of things.
wrote a really poop level version first draft, but I needed to get it out.
Just like as like, let's just attempt this.
I didn't read the email you sent with.
they're called first drafts for a reason.
Everybody has that same feeling about something important.
I always feel that way about updating my resume.
We're like, good Lord, this is going to be bad.
You just, as you said, have to like purge it.
So you have something to mold and shape.
Steph has been listening to these podcasts where agents will like live review query
letters and she sent me a few so I could better understand how it works.
timeout it's called the shit no one tells you about writing and you should listen if
you're a aspiring writer.
really good.
I found it fascinating, even though I don't have a query letter to write.
So I had all of that info in my brain when I was reading your first draft.
I think you nailed the structure in terms of what needs to be included, how you made
it clear why it's a dual point of view story and why there needs to be both of
those voices separately.
And I loved the tidbit you included about yourself.
I think that's important to know who you are as a person, who you do outside of
credit.
And you'll see in a little bit.
Doc.
I also wrote a version under your version if I was going to be the one to write it
about this book.
So you'll see what you think about my attempt.
I'm sure it's fantastic because you haven't met, at least with our viewers,
three times though, of any of the premieres that were sent for the time of
the time to a finance or a credit unit.
Yeah.
you're listening to this podcast for the very first time ever right now, I work in
public relations, which could be summarized as synthesizing someone's
business down into one paragraph.
That's like essentially what my job is to distill what a company does into an email
sized version for a reporter to be interested in talking about it.
So in this instance,
what we want to do.
Is what I think is what we have to do.
And also, I have a place to say that I have an idea of doing.
nugget is of that story.
And I'll be curious what you think when you have a chance to read it, but I'm
excited that we're at this stage of the process because I feel like this is the
point where it goes from a thing that's been living in your head, a thing that we
have read and shared feedback and it becomes something that now is like out in
the world for potential acquisition, which is awesome.
that is exciting.
I think the problem for me is that at this point it has been in my head for...
I've been doing six, seven years, so I've developed such a problem in my streets.
I have to do it after eight, every single word of support, every single platform of
support, it needs to be looked at what is truly important, just for the agent.
agents to get on board and have such trouble figuring out what place they're
having to go to to track someone through the story.
Because I know how much you've been through.
Also, beautiful shoes.
the submission process, usually the agents have like a specific number of pages or
like a word count that they want to see with your first submission.
So it's almost like a cover letter and then your resume, right?
You have to like whet their appetite and then you give them a little bit something
more.
So my hope is that not only does the query letter make them go like, interesting, but
also then they read the first however many pages that you're going to share and then
I'll.
That'll make it so that the more that you wish you could include will start to come
through.
didn't do this purposefully, obviously, because I was not thinking about the query
when I started writing.
But for the agents, so usually it's either five or 10 pages.
And if their submission is 10 pages, then they're going to get a chapter from each
of the perspectives, because somehow I managed to write basically five pages of
each.
So hopefully, hopefully someone loves it when it's time.
If you're listening to this, you'll be able to do it in a way that's basically
the first time you're taking this into account.
And so, I hope that you'll do that.
to happen in 2024.
I just really feel like this is the one I've read every single book that Stephanie
has written.
And this is the best one by far.
And I feel like it deserves this.
So if you're listening, just put all the good vibes out there.
a movie script that I also really want to come to fruition at some point.
Well, there's one that's my favorite, which you know, and...
All right.
I'm not here.
I want to just say.
as like maybe like an eight or 10 episode mini series, all normal people, maybe.
So I've wanted that to come to fruition for a long time.
And this is my number two thing that I want for you.
actually think this week in order to distract myself from not being under
contract, I'm going to start a first draft of something, probably one of the
manuscripts, turn it into a book.
Great.
And it's not going something I want to write.
But listen, just let this dress run.
This is how I want it.
I'm start the dress.
Or what?
I'm up for a ramen date at some point, if you'd be interested.
It's going to end of the week is rain actually, which is too bad.
all right.
So my catch up is I put an offer in on a house, didn't get it.
Still on the hunt for a house.
The Massachusetts market is crazy.
That's the name.
So we're going to see if we can just do this new thing.
How they can bring that life to life and make it seem like it's a common property.
So you have to go to an ad hoc again and make an offer by 5 PM on Tuesday.
Monday and then like hold your breath and hope you get it and hope that somebody
didn't come in with cash or somebody didn't waive the inspection or whatever.
It's pretty cutthroat, didn't get it.
Can I interject for one second?
I would recommend to someone who has no house knowledge whatsoever, do not waive
your house inspection.
But saying that, I also need you to know that not all inspectors are equal.
We just had a house inspection done.
And we don't lie.
Two quarters of that was worship.
For example, send it to the leaders of the party.
Well, if the other people too close, they have a problem with them.
I had said, well, if you talk, all you have to do is try to talk and all of you,
the heat works.
So just know from the beginning, not all of you are supposed to be a party.
equal.
Find one that has either great reviews or someone you know use them.
So my real estate agent came up with this like compromise that I actually really
liked Where we put a number on the inspection so I put in the offer which was
above asking and I said I'd like to do an exploratory inspection
and I won't hold the buyers to any of it unless it exceeds $20 ,000.
Which the seller's agent came back and said that she actually thought that that
made mine be a higher on the list potential offer.
I kind of like living in that land because then if you're talking a septic system or
the furnace is trash or what, you know what I mean?
Then they have to do it.
But it's like 10 things that like I've been shipped away at, that were kind of
not fish, but the houses that we live in and like whatever that is in there.
That's what I consider weird there.
So that's kind of like where I'm at with that.
I'm spending a lot of time in the United States right now because I think I was
making a lot of progress.
I had a lot of travel to do.
I had a lot
a lot of golf that I want to play.
I want to see my parents on the Cape a bunch.
And I'm just not going to be around as much to like do this house hunting.
So I kind of am like putting a hard stop on it at the end of June and like giving
myself a break.
that being said, I'm going to one this afternoon.
So like, watch that be the one that would be hilarious and I would love it.
But anyway, so my hard stop is June.
Every time I put a hard stop on something, like when I was applying to teaching jobs,
I was like, I'm giving myself this timeline of.
whatever.
Something that usually seems to happen, like in the first lessons.
So I'm saying this out loud, I was talking about gym, I'm a gym.
I have basically like a week left of teaching, so this is kind of like a crazy
time where I'm not finding it anymore.
and we like kind of fill class time with fun stuff.
But then I also am like submitting my grades and it's like a little chaotic.
And then...
had a huge celebration at my school last night because this is the 100th
anniversary of this whole being open.
So we had this crazy banana centennial celebration that was Gap Beavent.
And they had people park off site.
They had coach buses to like,
were 450 people at this event.
It was alums.
It was like previous faculty, retired faculty.
The previous head of school came like.
there were places to be there.
And if you work at the school and you're like required to sign up for a shift or
day in some way, this is where my first movie goes fast.
I have three events.
-event activity in which I was supposed to call former faculty and invite them and
let them know like, hey, did you get our flyer or our email?
Like, do you want to come to the centennial celebration?
And...
There was a window of like making the phone calls between May 13th and May 17th
and the email went out to sign up for a job on May 14th.
So already a day was gone by and I was like, hmm, okay.
Signed up for it.
Do you think a single person gave me a list of phone numbers of people I was
supposed to call?
Absolutely not.
I did nothing for the centennial celebration.
Thrilled about it.
Bragged about it to everybody I knew.
I was like, I did nothing.
Meanwhile, my friends had to like man the photo booth or be a greeter at the door.
Or towards the end of the night, they'll have people like, handing out like,
colored board games.
And like, and you're gonna have a school walk in, and it's gonna have to be like,
what have you.
And so it was ridiculous.
So my friends and I, it was open bar.
There was one, I actually thought the food setup was dumb.
I would not have planned it the way that they did it, but it was in our gymnasium
and they rented all these couches and furniture.
plants.
And like, we didn't even know what we were doing.
a gym or anything ridiculous.
And it had a jazzy quartet band singing pop classes.
And it was very nice.
There was an ice sculpture at the bar.
It was like the...
logo of the school.
Like it was swanky.
It felt like a very, very fancy bar mitzvah basically.
So.
the food station one food station was they had like already scooped bowls out of
these items and so there was like some kind of sweet potato concoction that was
like had also like earth and like some kind of like you could scoop it with like
a chair kind of thing and then they also had yoghurt with them.
pesto.
So those were like the bowls you could grab at the one station.
And then the other station was.
every plant is usually possibly a happy plant.
It was great.
I had the idea of putting one for the first time in my life.
And also they had, I thought it was shrimp cocktail of course, but shrimp were
grilled, but it still had like some kind of like cocktail sauce in it like you went
through there.
So that was all seafood.
And then there were some past appetizers, but I didn't really...
don't think we could have a good price to try.
of object is that.
And then there's the cast dessert, so there was like a fruit sorbet, a banana
pudding.
mini whoopie pies that were on a tray of rainbow sprinkles.
So if you were a sprinkle person, you could roll your mini whoopie pie around in
it, which I have to say rainbow sprinkles as like a...
I fountain.
like a setting on a thing.
I'm going to steal that for a party at some point because it was like so festive
looking.
And then in the corner, they had two people doing cotton candy that one flavor
was rose or rose and the other was champagne, which I hate cotton candy and I
didn't eat it, but it was very fancy.
No, no chocolate fountain.
Nope, didn't have one.
No fountains of anything.
going to say something and you can make me edit it out if you think that it's not
appropriate for this.
Okay.
I wish that instead of spending money on silly frivolous things, they thought
harder about retaining talent that can bring their students up to a level.
where they will then go on to high school and succeed.
like the theme of my kind of music video was why this was special.
It's fine.
It doesn't look special.
I mean, please.
Why this was special.
And how it was going to affect my music speeches, all this.
It was, you know, whatever.
I will say, if you weren't a fan of the number, it was $200 ago.
And...
So I would say out of the 450 people, there are probably at least 100 people
that have to pay because we don't work in an event, quote unquote.
So they have to go pay after the balance.
The event easily exceeded $35 .20, which is really nice.
And the event was probably set up just based on what I had in mind.
It was a complete open bar with a high shower of water.
like.
This was an expensive prospect.
I get that the school is a hundred years old, but like, and I've, you know, like at
an event like that, I was like, there's going to be like some fundraising aspect
to it where there will be like a silent auction or something.
No, there was nothing like that.
There was no like open your checkbook kind of thing for the school.
So they just were like shelling out money for this event.
And then I was standing with my friends.
We're about to do an English department photo in the photo booth.
all of a sudden this very loud, aggressive hissing sound starts.
I'm like ready to like go like to the cocktail and look at it.
I mean I do it in college school for like a million pairs, like I've seen some
things.
All of a sudden, it's like, it's a huge loud hissing sound.
We're like, are we, are the sprinklers about to go off when everybody's in this
very fancy party?
no.
All of a sudden, from every corner of your room, confetti cans.
we didn't even know were there.
started chewing on the places, where was covered an interesting confetti?
It was hot.
There was a cop that was at the end of the park, I don't know what happened, or this
guy who was there, and he was sitting there and like, because he was like,
please, don't do this to me, I don't you.
I just was like, what is this guy?
It was hot.
wild because we had just sang to school happy birthday which I thought was the
corny song that I had heard twice in my life
will say as someone who plans a lot of events for the nonprofits that I volunteer
with, I'm not surprised to hear that they didn't solicit people while you were
there, but their hope for sure.
is that people had an amazing time.
They walked away feeling closer to the school, like they have this tightened,
strengthened bond, and the next time they solicit them, whether that's one -on -one
or the next time the parents are all together or whatever it is, surely they
will be asking them for more money, I guarantee it.
If you can afford for confetti cannons, you can afford to pay an English teacher
full time.
I think it was more than four.
I mean, this is like a double -sized gymnasium.
It's huge.
in the fact that like they paid for buses, they had all these branded elements, like
if I were you, knowing everything that you've gone through, I think even just
seeing like the ice sculpture would have sent me over the edge.
There's just like...
I took photos and sent it to my family.
I was like, this is what I'm dealing with right now.
Thank God I didn't actually have to work at the event because I would have lost it.
And also one of my colleagues is a long -term sub and he just was like under the
assumption that he did not have to attend this because he hasn't been a full -time
faculty member.
And our boss told him that he was expected to be there.
So in the 11th hour, he had to go into the like shift.
spreadsheet and sign up for a bar which started at 9pm.
It was wild.
It was brilliant.
There were a lot of people that came, did what they had to do and then got out.
It was crazy.
I've never been to an event like that and it just was like very...
Yeah, I was gonna say yucky.
Wasteful is more posh.
My issue with it...
is that I try to expose myself and I try to talk it full -fret here, like this is a
protest.
It's like...
so unnecessary.
And like everybody was just like patting themselves on the backs at like how great
we are.
And I was like, we're not that great.
Like honestly, we could be so much better.
And then all these parents were asking me why I'm not coming back next year.
And I had to be like, well, they won't give me health insurance as I'm in a
cocktail dress.
I break the free phallus with two syringes in my hand, and I'm stripping on a
prosthetic limb.
And I'm like, why are they trying to use the bed sheet?
So I have to be like, I'm a life -saving person.
I'm a ruthless, economy therapist.
It was ridiculous.
And I was not carrying a concrete lie.
I was not coming back.
I have to say that I'm a
that you're describing is reminding me a lot of a show that
Steph watched and then I just binged and we hope you're also going to binge called
Maxson Hall, which is about a very preppy school.
It's not a boarding school.
It's not private school.
it takes, here's my just quick aside on that.
It takes place in England and yet they're all speaking Dutch, German, Dutch.
Not important, but.
you like a gossip girl type vibe, if you like these kinds of over the top rich
people parties, Max and Hall has six episodes.
It's on Amazon prime.
and they just got approved for season two.
The lead gentleman is extremely handsome and I think you won't regret it.
And since it's fictional, hopefully it won't give you the same ick vibe that
hearing about this party just did, but it's very much that like the big party for
the donors and they have the students involved.
You didn't mention, but I'm sure it was also part of it.
yeah, it's very similar vibes.
I have one more update for our listeners before we get into the book of the day.
I have one too that Steph and Molly don't know about yet.
Ha ha ha.
Okay.
So I was supposed to go to a taping of, I was going to call it the Cold Bear Report,
Late Night with Cold Bear, whatever his show is called.
And my dad passed away and the timing was just like, I was like, I'm going to give
up these tickets.
It's just like not going to work.
It doesn't make sense right now.
So a week or so ago, I was like, I should get on the wait list to try and go to Cold
Bear again.
Like I'm going to put my name on the list.
So I put my name on the list and within 24 hours, they emailed me and said, we would
love for you to come see a taping of Colbert report this summer on July 11th.
That date meant nothing to me at that point in time.
And 48 hours later, I found out that that's when Trump will be sentenced.
So the day that Trump gets his sentencing, I will be at a taping of the Colbert show.
And then that's what I'm going to say.
and that weekend, the RAC is in the city, which I also did not know.
So it's going to be...
bonkers USA.
I'm so excited.
It will probably be 200 degrees in the city while I'm there.
And I just don't even care.
And I'm probably going to have the time of my life.
Like honestly.
wait, before we get to that, I just want to say that bonkers USA should be Trump's
campaign slogan for the rest of the campaign.
Anyway, but yes, tell the people about why we three are going to New York.
Big, big, big news.
For Molly's big four -o, we are going to New York City and we are going to see
Romeo and Juliet starring Kit Conner and Rachel Ziegler.
Steph is the only one of the three of us that got a pre -sale code and she waited
for five hours in the queue, Taylor Swift style, to get the tickets.
Bless her.
The next day when the general on sale to the public,
lobby, I had only cushions and gifts, and I got into the, I got into like five, it's
within three minutes, like I did.
But the truth is, it was five minutes longer.
So, the steps were like, just like completely knocked out of our process and
went out and onto my life.
In addition to this.
Unreal theater performance, which I know it will be.
We're also going to try to go to 11 Madison Park, which I have been wanting to
go to for years and years and years.
If you aren't familiar, it's a restaurant off of Madison Square Park and it always
makes the list of the 50 best restaurants in the world.
There is just like a magic about that place.
I've watched documentaries about it.
Like I'm far down the rabbit hole and they decided about two years ago.
to make their entire menu plant -based.
So at first I was like, I don't know if I should go, it might not be worth it
because what if everything is like meaty?
But hopefully we're gonna get an incredible vegetarian feast as part of
this New York weekend.
So very excited and yes, huge thanks to Steph for sitting in front of her laptop
literally for five hours straight so that we could go to this.
Well, I was also on the other side of the world and it was 1 a for me and I was like
laying in the bed.
following the text chain just to make sure I could like give her any real -time
answer that she needed while this was happening but we made it we're in we have
the tickets and obviously we'll recap it for everybody when we come back in the
fall but okay one final update before we get into the book of the day which is to
say that right before I was leaving for this vacation we had decided to do a
giveaway on our Instagram of a book by
Kate Spencer, who is an author that I love and adore, and she was also the co -host
of the Forever 35 podcast for many, many years.
And Kate just like exploded my brain by responding to us in the DMs and not only
sharing our giveaway post to her thousands and thousands of followers, but offering
to send her newest book, One Last Summer, which comes out on June 11th, to our
winner.
including signing it and customization of her inscription.
And she also offered to be a guest on this podcast in the future.
And I almost fell off my chair.
This is like to me, there are A -list celebs like the Brad Pitts of the world.
This is like very A -list in my world.
I listened to Forever 35 multiple times per week, every week for over five years.
It was a huge part of my COVID experience was like hearing them in my ear pods,
AirPods.
so excited to read this text.
we'll be able to find a time that works for her schedule.
She's based in LA.
But I just want to say if by some miracle, Kate Spencer, you're listening to this, we
are very, very grateful to you.
We're so excited to read your new book.
We can't wait to potentially chat with you.
And just thank you for being all up in the Bookstagram Booktalk universe and
supporting what we're doing in addition to us supporting what you are doing.
we need.
It was such a pleasant surprise after.
When was that over the winter when we had that petty interaction where we tagged
somebody?
It's just like so refreshing that somebody like appreciates that we're like reading
their books and talking about them and tagging them and Ellie and Tessa are like
our listeners, Ellie and Tessa are hardcore, hardcore forever 35 people.
And I texted them the news and they were like,
do you think?
And I'm like, no, I don't think I want this.
But I appreciate in three lines the significance of it and I'm very much
looking forward to playing the role of the non -fandirl in the film.
And I'm looking forward to it in the block and cast, I can make sure that we like,
get the hang of it.
professional and that nobody is like, you know, if I see like sweat coming off of
Steph's brow, I'll step in, like it'll be fine.
say I'm gonna be sweating like crazy.
I'm happy to be that lady.
I'm purposely not going to listen to any Forever 35 in preparation so that I can be
the composed one of the group.
Hahahaha!
Yeah, I hope that I will be able to be chill and actually just like enjoy the
privilege of getting to have a conversation with her and not fall over
myself.
But anyway, yes, we're very excited about Kate and our book is coming out next week.
So you'll see more of that on our Instagram for sure.
Okay, transitioning into the book of the day.
We are talking about, as Caitlin said earlier, one in a millennial, which is
written by Kate Kennedy.
I started following Kate on Instagram years and years ago.
I found her because at the time she was making hilarious doormats that said things
like, turn off your straightener.
And she got some pretty like decent press coverage of these mats.
And she actually left her full -time corporate job in order to pursue doing
these hand -painted doormats.
And then she also decided around the same time to start a podcast.
on kind of all of her pop culture musings.
So Be There in Five, the podcast, covers everything from TV and movies to very big
Taylor Swift situation going on there.
And she also talks a lot about millennial culture, millennial nostalgia, sort of
what it means to be of this age group.
And when I found out that she was coming out with a book, I was like, my God, like
her podcast is already so long for most episodes are more than 90 minutes, like 90
minutes to two hours.
And I thought this will be great because it will be like almost uninterrupted
medium for her to share everything that she wants to share.
I, these gals can attest, I wanted to read this for months and months and months and
I, and I waited because it was hard cover.
It was very expensive.
of.
And then Mr.
Chair, he gave me a good card with the obviousism to the coursework book so I
decided to use it on this in my hero book.
So I want to say that one of I enjoy most about P is the music nature.
And I'm thinking that for a conventional book.
her in the podcast medium, listening to her talk to the camera on Instagram.
I think for me, one of the things that was hard about this book is that I think her
humor and her wit.
would disagree because I actually, since I've listened to so many episodes of her
podcast, I didn't hear my inner monologue.
I heard her.
She has like a sing -songy poetry way that she speaks on the podcast so fast and...
never heard the podcast.
I think it's important if you are interested in reading this book just to
know that she kind of splits it up.
chronologically in terms of like coming of age and being considered a millennial.
So she has like a section that's 1990s and like what was going on during that period
and then the 2000s and then today.
And she covers things like, she covers things like, you know, what it was like to
be a girl in the 90s and everything was like.
I had that game Mall Madness, which was all about shopping and spending money.
And then I had another game called Girl Talk, which was like, you would do truth
or dare, and there were zit stickers you had to wear.
And it was a totally bizarro.
Looking back on it, I'm like, this is what we were giving the girls to do.
This is ridiculous.
And there were so many, I mean, she talks about...
sleepovers versus a slumber party.
And she talks about having a day bed, which I had one.
There are so many things that like, and like I said, I don't listen to her
podcast.
I just started following her on Instagram a couple months ago because she's a
Swiftie.
She got recommended to me on Instagram and I didn't even really know that she was the
one that had written this book.
Even though I had heard about this book, I had read a review of it or something.
And
so there's so many things that resonated with me at the very moment when I was very
close to the age of her.
But for me, I'll dismiss me, there wasn't like an anthropopoeic piece or like a...
it almost felt like I was like reading her journal entries about like reminiscing
about the past.
And it was supposed to be, I think essays about like what it's like to be a woman
that grew up during that time.
And I just didn't feel like we finished the loop.
I felt like, here's what this is all about.
I know that we have copies and I know that we gave that and I know that we played all
that mess and I know that there's no culmination.
of like why she wanted to talk about those things.
Or like she talked about like a little bit about like how they influenced and
informed her career later on.
But like there just wasn't like...
thematically, I wasn't really sure how she was doing this as a book.
It just felt like a list of all these cool things that she wanted people to connect
to her about.
And I just felt like that had like wrapped up.
It felt like it was a problem.
unfinished and like maybe she hadn't completed all of her thoughts.
super interesting that you should say that because I read a lot of the Goodreads
comments right before I left my own personal review because I was just kind of
like curious if people felt the same way that I did.
Many people said that this should have been in the memoir category and that even
though it's not.
No, it's essays.
I think it would be in the essays and criticism section of a bookstore.
What's interesting is that in the intro, she talks about how it's not a memoir, but
more like observations about, you know, her reflecting back on this time and kind
of what her life is like now.
And I think if it had been in the memoir category, she maybe could have gone
further in a lot of the things that she discussed.
So for example, she talks a lot about like body image.
And how when she was in a sorority in college, she really was like the hyper
-focused on what she was wearing and what she looked like and was she skinny enough
and how did she look in pictures with all these friends?
And I thought to myself, if this were a true memoir, like she would have gone even
further.
She would have said how it's impacted her over time.
If you follow her on Instagram, you know, she's still working on her own kind of
body self -acceptance, especially now that she's a mom.
I just felt that because it wasn't all the way in the personal category, she couldn't
really take it there.
And I would have loved to hear that.
And I think she does give her listeners a lot of that on the podcast.
She's very vulnerable.
She's very open.
And I think she was trying to keep this in the, I don't know if analysis is the right
word, but just almost like pop culture observations and reflections, instead of
going all the way on the, this is how this impacted me, or this is how this is, you
know, a part of the way I think about myself or my relationship or my approach
to motherhood now.
She actually did an episode where she interviewed her mom.
And I learned so much about her in that conversation and the things that she sort
of regretted about her very religious upbringing, the way that it made her think
about dating.
Huge.
To have a family that's not super religious and to make that choice on your
own to sort of enter into that culture.
I wish we had done more about that because one, that would make you crazy at that
age.
but also like, I didn't quite understand why she had chosen.
Like I understand the whole like water skiing at camp thing, but like,
That is such a drastic decision to make without familial influence that I need to
know more about.
I want to also just share with the listeners a little bit about her writing
style.
She talks about how parents tend to talk about like the olden days and what it was
like when they were kids.
And she says, I think they forget that millennials have our own version of this.
It's like, yeah, but walking miles to school in the snow was hard.
But have you ever had to navigate an empty new release VHS shelf at Blockbuster with
a sleepover crew in tow that will never achieve rental consensus?
Have you ever spent a night being disinvited to a slumber party in solitude,
only to play solitaire and fail to experience the abundance of flying card
stacks graphics of an it's time quote, make it rain you hoped would solve your
pain?
Have you ever played fast and loose with a limewire computer virus that will come to
your Windows 95 before your Melissa Etheridge album ever finishes downloading?
Your skin just gets tougher when a burn CD takes eight hours to buffer and no one
respects millennials for the baby pirates we once were, committing federal crimes on
the daily to pay our respects to the arts by not paying anyone in the arts.
It's just like, she sometimes hits it so on the head, that idea of the empty.
Can you tell me more about where the Papagenos and the Blockbuster were in
Nonantum?
What's there right now?
it's the giant plaza kind of between Nantum and Watertown that has the stop and
shop grocery store.
You have to drive down a hill to get to it.
So there used to be to the left of the grocery store, the Papagenos and the
Blockbuster.
Those were the two stores that were on the left side of the plaza.
I understand.
Yep.
Yeah, I totally know where you're talking about now.
also want to talk about, first of all, she has a chapter called, Are We Going Out
Out?
Which I just feel like is the most millennial question of all time.
Like we all know what that means just by hearing, but towards the end of the book.
like the millennial version of like, but do you like like her?
Yeah, exactly.
But the thing I need to point out is, yeah, so I'm going to choose that teacher.
She's talking about what happens if you get a bit older and some people are older
and some people are not, some people are older, like, you know, older.
And she's talking about how people who are single often get sort of isolated or
routinely just called out for the fact that they're not in a traditional
relationship.
And she says, we should be applauding single people for having the courage to
leave relationships that aren't right for them.
We should be marveling at their resilience in the event it wasn't their choice.
Making the right decision for yourself time and time again is a marker of
strength and self -worth that gets unfairly branded as quote, still being
single, a title nobody should be reduced to outside of a W -2.
Not spending your whole life in a shitty relationship is a pretty big W to me.
of my favorite chapters was when she revisits in her 30s, Saved by the Bell,
because I feel like that was very clearly...
in all of our childhoods.
And I remember feeling like I was not supposed to like Jessie, because one, I
hated my curly hair, and she had curly hair.
But also she seemed so over the top, and I hate to use this word, but like almost
kind of crazy.
At the same time though, I did
like the way Slater talked to her, but I thought I was supposed to like it because
of the way it's presented on the show.
And now looking back, I'm like, what the
had teenager we had a teenage boy calling his girlfriend mama in the hallway.
Hey mama Weird so weird and she was definitely supposed to be like the
frazzled brainy friend that like Was super chaotic and like stressed out all the time
even like aside from the caffeine pill episode like
She was definitely just like, kind of rabid and just kind of like, thick.
I mean, definitely, you see the canines under the chandelier.
It seems pretty weird, but like, she probably had parents that were like
playing a lot of fresh college football, but apparently she didn't.
I think she was slater.
supposed to be opposites attract kind of thing.
And it was just really chaotic.
But I think it's in the same chapter.
One of the lines that I wrote down to mention was,
of course, I have my piece.
I have my piece, my future.
Yep.
I'm in a little bit of a fall and I'm just rolling around in it.
And a big, long, huge, and even a huge, large, huge chamber that we watch on and
on and on and on and on and on and on and on and
I don't know.
And so there were just like, it was all over the place.
It was like, that's the cool summer job.
Like.
you got the sandbox player, and they had, you know, complete work, and when you're
there for it, you have to be in the car, right?
It was just like, very much in the -
the 90s.
And actually, I know the public didn't watch it, but that was one of the things
that really cracked me up about Stranger Things is that there's like a full season
of like -
guy that ends up being this like monstrous villain on the inside is the like hot.
like, are like a full, like, a mullet, all pumped up to like, sweat and over it and
everything.
like I was just like yeah this is it doesn't didn't everybody have a crush on a
lifeguard at one point in their lives is it just our generation that she made me
question myself a little bit like our kids not having crushes on lifeguards anymore
I'm going to ask my students actually, they won't tell me because they're 12, but
like, I'm going to be like, how many of you had a crush on a lifeguard?
I'm very curious for their answers, but also I was going to say back to the Save
By The Bell bit, some of the best episodes are when they worked at the Malibu Sands
Beach Club.
It was like, I looked forward to those every time that would come into the cycle.
Correct, Stacey Carosi.
Yeah, I just, I think to bring it back to the summary, I think, of what we're all
saying is that there's so much about this book, One and a Millennial, that is crazy
relatable.
And she articulates things in such a way that you picture it perfectly, like how
you were playing that board game or how you used to get ready with your friends to
go out, out or whatever it is.
Or reminding you of one of the most terrifying episodes of Rescue 911 where
the babysitter opens their mouth and their tongue gets stuck to the freezer and I was
terrified afterwards.
Never opened my mouth in your freezer.
one that traumatized me was did you see the episode where the kids were making a
bonfire in their yard and they thought they should just like put a little
gasoline on it to like they put a little gasoline on it to like really get it going
which they don't realize how bad of an idea that is because they're like 13 and
this kid gets like his whole body burned and almost dies.
No.
that was like, I think the kids version of Baywatch, but instead of it being
lifeguards, it was people that rescued animals in a bay.
who would we know that was in it?
Hey dude, Pete and Pete, there are just so many good Nick shows.
But anyway, if you want a dose of this kind of nostalgia, I think you can either
read the book or give her podcast a listen.
I really think it's so great and...
You can pick and choose by the topics that you're interested in.
So as opposed to this book where maybe, you know, you relate, let's say to 50 % of
it with the podcast, you can bounce around on the topics that you're most interested
in or the pop culture moments.
Certainly if you're a Swifty, you should be following her already because she does
amazing analysis of Taylor's every move.
would suggest her two -part series that she did, I don't know, like three summers
ago about Bama society culture.
That was a phenomenal listen.
Yeah, she went hard on the Alabama rush culture.
And I think that's actually how I started like falling down that rabbit hole.
And there was the HBO documentary and all these other things, but she was really
like at the forefront.
And sometimes she gets obsessed with very niche reality shows.
So if you're following her and you have a shared joint interest, you will be in love
with her because she deep dives on everything very, very, very extensively
when she's interested.
question.
I'm not, I don't follow any of the sorority, Bama, whatever, whatever.
I just don't.
Did Outfit of the Day come out of Rush videos on TikTok?
OOTD?
What about Get Ready With Me?
GRWM?
Okay.
I'm just curious.
I don't know the origin stories of those things, but...
See, I don't either, but I did listen.
I mean, I don't, first of all, I'm not on TikTok.
Second, I didn't follow any of the
what the video, specifically, I've been watching, but what I did was I took her
podcast and then turned it into a first -time.
I think it's been a really important to do the research yourself.
I mean, she does so much research for any topic she discusses, even just for trust.
trust that she's telling you everything.
would also say, I can't remember where I first heard this, if it was from an author
or if it was like in a podcast I was listening to, but someone recently said
the more niche and specific something is, the more relatable it is.
And I felt like this book is like a masterclass in that it's so specific.
It's about such a specific age group, growing up experience, girlhood
experience, self -esteem experience.
If you moved through the world on the same sort of timeline and age timeline as she
did, you will undoubtedly have moments where you're like, yep, that's exactly how
it was for me, or that's exactly how I felt, or that's how I spent my time with
my friends, or we were talking about just before we started recording, Steph was
interested in this one part in the chapter about popular girl handwriting.
I mean, there's just certain things that she hits on that are so true and real.
to the idea of gel pens.
Gel pens, so true.
So anyway, Kate Kennedy, we thank you for this mega deep dive on all things
millennial.
I thought this was really fun.
I'm excited for her that this is a new medium for her, that she has Instagram,
she has the podcast, now she has this.
I have no idea how this will be one and done or she'll have opportunities to write
other things.
But go ahead.
want to lastly say that the inside covers beautiful.
I mean, they hurt me.
The collared t -shirt.
the skirt that has the like frills on the bottom.
my God, the S, why did we make S's like this?
Everything, it's just.
related to Snoop?
I always thought it was.
The S?
Are we talking about the same kind of S?
Six lines, yeah.
Yeah, no, I thought it was Snoop.
I thought it was...
I loved jelly shoes.
They cut my feet to no end, but...
Should we talk about what we're reading?
This has been a long app, but we should pop it in, I think.
Want me to start?
I'm reading my first Abby Jimenez book.
I have been following her Instagram, not actually for her, but for her dog Tess and
also her Yorkies.
Sorry, not sorry.
And maybe that inspired me to do Huckleberry's narration reel yesterday
because Tess has some pretty epic reels.
So if you love dogs, definitely follow her Instagram because it's quality content.
This book is called Just for the Summer and apparently it's the third.
I think she does kind of what
Is it Anna Huang who does the like each story is from a different side character
type thing?
I'm imagining that's what the case is.
I don't know for sure.
This is about two characters who are both basically good luck chucks if anyone
remembers that movie.
I don't know how well that movie has aged because I have not watched it since when
it came out.
our age knows it because that was like the height of Dane Cook time.
Correct, which is also super cringe now.
But anyways, this is about a guy and a girl who are both good luck chucks
essentially.
Everyone who dates them after they break up, they find their person.
And she finds him because he has done, am I the asshole?
Which if you know, my God.
Thank you.
If you know those, some of them are hysterical and some of them are really sad
and horrible.
But he has written a hysterical one and she responds to him and is like, hey,
guess what?
I am dealing with the same thing.
And so they end up kind of texting back and forth for a while, but she's a
traveling nurse and he lives in Minnesota.
And they kind of come up with this agreement.
If we...
date each other, will we cancel each other's curse out so that basically after
we break up, we'll both find our person afterwards.
As far as rom -coms go, there is great banter.
I have not gotten to any sauce.
I don't know if there is sauce and it's okay.
Great characters, great side characters.
And then it's just making me want to go back to Minnesota for pizza, even though
Pizzeria Lola has not been mentioned, but it's making me think about it.
have to say whoever Abby Jimenez's publicist is deserves mad props because
I've seen this book everywhere.
I've seen it.
I've seen it everywhere.
All over social media, all over all the bookish things that I follow.
I feel like it's prominently displayed in bookstores across America.
They're doing an amazing job of making it sort of like one of the hot books of
summer.
I will talk next about the book I'm reading, which is also appearing on all of
those lists.
I just finished this on the plane, actually it's called the paradise problem
by Christina Lauren.
We've talked about Christina Lauren a lot on this podcast.
It's a author duo.
It's actually two women, Christina and Lauren.
This story is about a guy who is one of four siblings and he is one of the heirs
to a huge supermarket chain.
chain which is what is called the Westerns, obviously it's going to be a
critical urgent situation.
And in order to access his inheritance, he has to be happily married for at least
five years.
He winds up...
marrying someone while he's still in college in order to start the process,
start the timeline.
Then during this five year timeline, his youngest sister gets engaged.
and is having a wedding on a private island in Indonesia.
It's giving like major crazy rich Asians vibes.
So his family knows that he got married without them and they think it was just
like a courthouse thing because he's not like a showy person.
Well, now he has to bring said wife to this wedding after three years of nobody
meeting her or knowing anything about her.
So this is like the fake dating trope on steroids.
So they're faking the marriage.
They have this really high stakes reason why it has to be real.
And Anna, the woman who has the fake fiance, fake wife, also has some stuff
going on in her life where she really needs this to go well.
Like she needs to make it to the other side.
has he promised her money out of it or something?
saying that she will receive a certain amount of money if she agrees to go along
with this.
She has a dad who is very sick and has a ton of medical bills and it's a single
parent situation.
And she's like, I'm doing all of this for my dad.
If you've ever loved like a makeover montage, all all like tied clueless, that
is basically how this book starts because this girl.
girl is not going to do the same thing that Richy and Gia were doing.
She has to do quite a lot of poop jumping in order to seem like she could be
somebody who's actually married to him.
The way they describe this may attract her to be underage.
I just like want him to be real because not only does he seem so incredibly
attractive, but he's also crazy smart and he's like pushing against this like
predestined outcome for himself because he wants to be a professor.
He doesn't want to work in the grocery store.
And
a whole new world.
I just loved it and it was such a good plane book.
I'm sure it would be an equally great pool book, beach book, lake book.
It just, between the tropical location and the high stakes of the fake relationship,
you're just glued and can't recommend that enough.
will be reading that shortly I believe.
I am reading a totally different kind of book from what you guys are reading.
I am reading a book called Talking at Night by
Claire Daverley.
She's a debut author.
And I got recommended this book because I'm a Sally Rooney freak.
And a lot of the authors on the back of this book are kind of like, is she the
next Sally?
Like, Carly Fortune has a quote on the back of this book and Napa Lutano has one,
Mary Beth Keene, like authors that we really like are quoted on this book saying
you must read it.
It's a first love book.
The two main characters are 17 years old.
I'm not that far into it, but both of them kind of seem like sad sacks.
Like the boy, Will, his mom just like took off on him and his sibling and he lives
with his grandmother.
And we don't really like know a lot from the start as to why that happened.
And I think also he maybe doesn't really know.
And his hobby that keeps him out of trouble essentially is that he's really
into fixing up motorbikes.
And that's his thing that he does and he's really good at it.
And then the female character, her name is, I believe it's Rosie.
She is a songwriter and she's very into music.
And she has a very good sense of humor great at really answering questions.
She has the right to say, like, basically, what she doesn't say.
wrong.
So she's very much like a gets good grades, keeps her head down, kind of keeps
the songwriting to herself and like within the first chapter or so she like is like
songwriting and like gets carried away with the time and she's like god.
and I'm a little bit gentle with her.
dinner and like I have to go do that so she's like a people pleaser and She meets
this boy at a party and they have a conversation and both of them are like
we're never gonna see the other person again And then it's like very clear that
that that they are going to see each other again people on the internet have been
like this book is so
like it's normal people, but like in a less sad way.
And there's like a chapter at the beginning that hints at something bad
happening.
And I don't, you can't really tell who the bad thing happens to.
I just know it's not the girl, but I don't know if it's like one of the parents or
like her brother or Will or Will's sibling.
Like I can't really tell like how it's pieced together.
So.
I think it's going to be really good.
The writing is very stark and beautiful, similar to Sally Rooney.
And instead of having traditional dialogue, it's like a third person
narrative.
And it says like, then Will said this, then Rosie said that.
And so that's kind of like a different format that I like.
It seems really good so far.
intrigued.
If y 'all want to keep up with what we're reading, give us a follow over on
Instagram where at plansarebooked.
We also are gonna have another giveaway coming up.
We are gonna be giving away two Colleen Hoover books.
It starts with us and it ends with us.
If you're into Colleen Hoover then you already know that the movie version...
is coming out at the end of the summer, the end of August, I think.
So if you'd like to have access to both of those books before they're moving jobs,
we're going to look at it at the end of the year.
And if you have ideas for things you'd like us to chat about, books you think we
should cover, and next week, it's going a book that's a book that you'll love.
until next time, our plans are booked.