Welcome to Plans Are Booked, a podcast for every reader.
I'm Molly Geller.
about this.
And I'm Caitlin Madison.
Welcome to chapter 29.
29 is Molly's lucky number.
Well, in my mind, it's her lucky number because she has a 29 birthday.
Before you said that I was just about to say 29 is my favorite number.
Those who know me in real life know I'm obsessed with my birthday which is
September 29th.
So we are going to be catching up with each other and we're going to be talking
about bright young women in this episode.
And we are very excited because Jessica Knoll, the author, we, well, I'll speak
for myself.
I have a love hate relationship with her in that I hated her first book and I liked
this book.
So that's kind of fun and we can talk about that.
we've had a lot going on, but I'm going to let Steph start because she had like a
whirlwind day.
I've never, I've never flown round trips someplace in one day.
Well, first I should start that I officially finished the second draft of my
book on Friday.
So I will attempt to start writing query letters, which is going to be so fun.
Yes.
Sorry.
said.
They just did.
I feel like it was a great life.
I was really glad when I just got started.
Well, yeah, because you have to compare yourself to other authors and pitch
yourself and like come off as super confident and all that jazz.
Yeah.
Well, Molly and I are going to.
we are happy to edit and pump you up.
Thank you.
Yes, so yesterday I left my house at 530 in the morning.
I drove to the airport, got on a plane for two hours, landed in Chicago, and went to
my not so little anymore, she's 29, year old cousin's.
appropriate 29 get out what a coincidence So she's getting married on her birthday
then
she's getting married on the 28th, but at midnight she will turn 30.
fun.
This cousin planned her wedding to strike the light into her birthday.
I don't think it was purposeful.
It was like that was the weekend that this location was available and it's just
coincidental that it landed.
Okay, otherwise I'm gonna go to the console now.
This looks like a new brand.
I've never heard of my whole lifetime block.
Yeah, I mean she's gonna get mega gifts.
It's gonna be like anniversary and birthday.
I hope they go on trips.
they leave two days later for their honeymoon, which is a Dubai slash African
safari.
So, yeah.
So I landed around, I don't know, like nine o 'clock in the morning, quickly
grabbed breakfast, took an Uber into the city, met up with my littlest cousin.
And then we went to Cindy's rooftop where.
they had breakfast at my bedroom, which Molly has been, but this was like...
I kept saying I wanted to transport this into a home because one wall was just like
two story brick fireplace, built -ins, and then the entire ceiling is just glass.
So even if it had been like a rainy day, it would have been so lovely in there.
We got a portion of the roof deck blocked off.
We had...
a lot of cocktails.
I ate minimal food.
I feel like crap today.
And then...
Because there's more of the options?
I had eggs and a little bit of fruit.
Yeah.
Yeah, there weren't gluten free options, but they were for the people who actually
act, not the intolerant person.
So...
eat a lot of food, drank a lot of booze.
I was tasked with being the photographer for the event.
I took an exorbitant amount of photos.
It was beautiful.
We had a view of the lake and the bean, which is under construction, and...
I was really interested in stuff.
I did the air and then I touched my cocktails with my aunt before she drove me
back to the airport.
And I got into my work and I loved it.
So it was fun.
a full day, but that's also an awesome day.
And also it's inspiring to me to like, if there was ever like a concert or a play or
something that I was like dying to go to, I now know that it's doable that I could
turn it around in a day.
know what that would do with the national, but if I needed to.
Here's the weird thing about flights.
I just don't understand how pricing works because I've done a different form of
support for Chicago for a graduation.
It is so cheap to fly.
there and back in one day and I don't understand why.
Probably because it's undesirable.
Like, there aren't a lot of people that want that itinerary.
I don't know.
But I'm glad I went.
It ended up being a gorgeous sunny day there.
And luckily Bing Lee let me sleep until nine this morning.
So, yeah.
gent.
Well, before we get into our big event that Molly and I went to, I did resign
from my teaching job.
That's like my big bit of news.
It makes you sad.
I'm glad that it makes you sad.
I am really looking forward to having one commute and for people that don't know,
like I go to the school that I teach at and I teach sixth grade English and I'm
there at, you know, by eight o 'clock in the morning.
And then by 10 o 'clock in the morning, I'm at my brother's dental practice and
I'm managing that.
And so it's just like a lot of driving.
And then I also have a side gig where I tutor.
So I would say three to four nights a week or three to four days a week.
since I got my first eye.
been gone from like 730 in the morning to 730 at night, between tutoring,
podcasting, two jobs.
it's just been a lot.
It's been a lot and I'm, I'm house hunting.
So I feel like taking one of these things off my plate is like, going to be kind of
a game changer.
and it doesn't like change my finances or anything.
And I'm not saying like, I'm never going to go back to teaching, but I also.
like me.
I couldn't find a way to do it.
So I was like, I can't just be doing it.
one thing.
Well, plus tutoring and podcasting, but, but one actual full time job instead of
two part time jobs where one of the part time jobs is still full time, but, but I'm
like finagling it in a way where I'm shaving hours here and there.
So that was like my big thing that happened in the last like two weeks that I
didn't dive into when we were.
buzzed on.
wine talking about Nicholas Galatian.
So that's like my big piece of
I don't have anything travel or work related to share, but I will say, Caitlin
and I went to this epic event last night at the bougie bookstore in Norwood.
If you've listened before, you've heard us talk about it a bunch.
Caitlin and I had both been there actually separately.
And we've shared a lot of content from them on our Instagram.
This was their first ever, what they were calling the Bookstagram bash.
So people who are book lovers and who like to share their thoughts on Instagram and
TikTok were...
all over this place.
Everyone would come do take us to roll and they sold every single one.
And I just want to shout out some particular things that they did.
I plan all of the events in my workplace so I notice these things.
First of all, when we got there, the social media manager Cassie recognized us
immediately.
she was like, my God, Molly and Caitlin from the podcast, which is just like,
our faces like we hadn't even checked in yet.
We did I didn't even give him a name and she goes from the podcast the podcasters
are here.
I was like, excuse me
It was so great.
That's the type of person you want like front of house who knows who's on the list
and who's showing up.
They made name tags that were magnetic.
The reason I'm mentioning that is I can't stand when name tags are on like a pin and
it punctures your outfit.
So I love that they thought of that.
a sticker and my hair gets caught in it.
Also, the inflow stickers you could add to your name tag with pronouns.
I had never seen that before.
I thought it was awesome.
Caitlin mentioned she's seen it in other events, so I was like, wow, this is so...
Schools are pretty big on it now.
...considering.
So once we passed the entrance point, we got a swag bag that was full of...
I know that includes a scavenger hunting.
They have these hot pink ducks.
all over the space and the ducks had book titles on their.
fathers.
and if you could find all of them you could get extra raffle tickets.
There was also a bingo board.
And instead of letters or numbers on each square, there was a fact that you had to
learn about somebody like, I use Goodreads, or like, I love Romanticie, or
I just started my book talk.
And the person would sign their name on whatever square was applicable to them.
So it was a really fun way to chat with people.
And it's how I wound up following a bunch of people on social media.
And if
social media handles were also on those magnetic name tags.
Super organized.
Yeah.
should have said that.
So.
amount of preparation that they had to do for this.
asked Jamie when we got there, I was like, so is this your entire career?
Do you have another and she that's when she said she was a full time nanny in my
in the car ride with Molly, I was like, they have to be teachers.
Like the amount of emails that we got with what to expect there will be a place to
hang your coat if you want to buy alcoholic beverages like
you name it and they were like, you will have to carry your purse around.
This is an event where you're going to be like doing a lot of activities and walking
around.
So like everyone knew what they were getting into.
And then you got this folder itinerary with the duck scavenger hunt and the book
bingo and everybody started with two raffle tickets.
So even if that wasn't like your shtick, you still got raffle tickets just by
showing up.
It was
un -
organized.
I told Molly I felt like I was on a field trip.
Thank you.
And the bougie bookstores inside of the unknown marketplace, which is this sort of
like shopping thrift place.
And if anyone's been to the Crompton Collective in Worcester, it's very
similar.
They closed it just for this event from seven to 10.
Throughout the space, they had high top tables, which had, you know, more pins and
beautiful floral decorations.
They had a friendship bracelet making station.
They had a bookmark making station.
And then we got into the very back room, the big room, I would find the star of the
story.
And then the bookmarkers would have a budget table and here, food salesman.
They also had all these fun desserts, and they had themed meals.
So it was like...
bookish blondies or like the blondie brownies.
They had paranormal pretzels, which were like chocolate dipped pretzels.
They had, I think it was like.
like, true art, true art.
Crème de crème.
crème.
And they were like, because they had a section that was like stickers on it.
Like, I need to read.
I need to read.
I mean, they were inside of everything.
It was so much fun.
I loved it.
also brought our bookmarks out in public for the first time.
It was awesome.
People were so excited about it.
They were so complimentary about the designs.
It was a great way to chat with people.
bingo really gave us opportunities when we were getting our bingo card signed by
people, not only to like follow each other on Instagram, but be like, here's a
bookmark for our podcast, like if you're interested.
So that was like a really nice segue to like network at the event.
I also want to say, because Molly didn't point this out and I'm shocked.
that that am
everything was pink themed.
So like all of the raffle gifts and like the whole like raffle gift area,
everything had like pink backdrops, all the high top tables, pink linens, they had
pink pens, like at every station, we got a little pink notebook in our grab bag, like
everything was pink, because that's, you know, how the bougie bookstore rolls.
And it's hard to have a dark paint with a lot of...
like a magenta and I had a shirt that had magenta in it also.
And so there was like kind of a theme going on.
And I will, there were also guys there, which was like kind of surprising with the
ones.
I think the guys that were there, at least one of them works at a bookstore.
So he was like, I wanted to come and see what all this was about.
People drove from all over the state to come to this event.
I hope our airplane is not a trap for unarmed smart people.
One thing I that
was like, I drove more for more than an hour away.
And that was like a spot that you could sign on the bingo card.
It was unbelievable.
me.
They also helped us to shop the other part of the place with what was around.
They were so kind to people that could get to us.
So I'm
you finished finding all the ducks or finishing your bingo, you could just
browse and shop.
I bought a hat that says dog mom on it.
And it's this one right puffy like color.
It's awesome.
post a picture of it on our Instagram so everyone can see.
I'm going to wear it today in honor of Mother's Day on one of my scout walks.
But there were so many cute and fun things.
And there was a photo booth.
Also, they set up a very cool backdrop that looked like...
They used real books to make what looked like wallpaper almost behind.
And then at the very end of the night, everybody gathered to find out who the
raffle winners were for the 20 plus prizes.
Caitlin and I both went hard on securing extra...
or other things, like we were very much, I much.
I don't know.
into the same two items, just praying it would improve my chance.
I won not one, but two of the raffle baskets and two of the biggest ones on the
entire table.
The first one Jamie had put together from the bougie bookstore, I had a mix of like
bookmarks and candles and it has a key chain that says hot girls hit curbs.
Which is like 16, I would say.
Mommy, I'm going to show you the piano.
browse shopping and she was like, this is me as a teenager.
And then she won it in the basket.
The karma was like through the roof.
was unbelievable.
And then I also was interested in the basket from Berkeley publishing, which has
a romance, my fave has a romance division.
I noticed it because Kate Spencer's book in a New York minute was on the top.
I've read that book.
I loved it.
I wound up also winning that basket, which had six books in it.
Six!
Like.
we're going to give away a copy of In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer because
now Molly has two and so we'll figure out what we want to do.
We're also thinking about maybe doing a giveaway because we hit 200 followers on
Instagram after going to this event and meeting so many cool people.
Steph, one of the first people that I talked to to get to sign my bingo card,
her name's Kalisha and she's the manager of Porter Square Books.
Yes.
Yep.
And I was like, my gosh, I was just there on Indie Bookstore day.
And she was like, my God, did you have a good time?
And I was like, loved it.
But I don't remember seeing her there, but she was probably behind the scenes.
There were so many things going on that day.
It was awesome.
Major shout out to Jamie and Cassie and Erin and everybody else from Bougie
Bookstore who worked on this.
And before we move on from this, one of the things in the raffle basket that I won
was another blind date book.
Those who've been listening for a while may remember I bought a blind date book
the last time I was there.
It wound up being a book called Famous for a Living.
So I thought we would open this one together.
it's like there's calligraphy and like gems glued on to it.
And it's Yeah, I mean, you should have seen this bookmark bar to some some of the
like,
equipment, I guess I would say, like to make the bookmarks.
I mean, like they had tassels for you to tie into it.
And like, it was like no detail when without careful consideration.
It was super fun.
Okay.
gonna read you the description and then we'll see if either of you have a guess of
what it is.
This is a mystery slash thriller book.
It says perfect life equals perfect lie.
High school girl endures public humiliation.
Now she's older and so close to her perfect life, but she has a secret.
And then the last bullet says twists and pressure.
there's a quote on the back.
Moving on, it doesn't mean we don't talk about it.
We're pretty about it.
It's polar.
going to.
luckiest girl alive is my guess.
That would be so I know because she got she won this last night.
I only have
my copy a hardcover?
It must be a hardcover, so I don't know what the paperback looks like.
If that's what it is...
No hard...
again, would be wild.
Okay, I'm gonna unwrap it.
It is indeed.
Luckiest girl alive, Jessica Noll.
And we're reviewing her second book.
Is it her second book?
Okay, her third book, Bright Ann Women.
I didn't, and what's funny is I didn't even pick that.
That was in the basket.
it was in the basket.
But are we going to win?
Yeah, I know.
You need to enter the lottery tonight.
last night after saying she never wins anything.
And then tonight or today she unwraps a mystery book that happens to be the same
author that we're doing for our 29th episode right now.
they announced my name the first time, you know, there's people are like cheering and
clapping when my name got announced again for like a huge prize.
People were like, Yeah.
it got a little testy, but it's okay.
It's fine.
It was hilarious.
I loved it.
I loved it because Molly was like, I never win anything.
I'm just starting to get back into the Goodreads giveaways.
La de da de da.
It was hilarious.
I loved it.
should go buy scratchies or something later.
Yeah.
today.
Just keep the good vibes rolling.
something going on for you.
I don't I can't explain it, but it was just and I mean, she was Molly was in her
element last night.
It's not that like I wasn't having a ball, but like she thrives apparently with
competition because she was she had all the ducks in like five minutes.
I was like too busy talking to people with the bingo sheet.
So she like hooked me up with the other like.
Duck book titles.
I think I found three of them and she found the other seven.
And not only that, but she was just like, chatting it up with people and was like,
I'm Molly, this is our podcast.
Like, well, you know, and like, I know how to talk to people.
Like I'm, I'm perfectly capable of schmoozing, but like every time I turned
around, Molly had like a group of people.
So I was just like completely, I was just, it was just so funny because I was like, I
know that.
I know that this is who Molly is and like she's the perfect person to go to an event
like this.
But I also was like, she accomplished so much.
Like I didn't get to the Ducks because I was meeting people.
She got all the Ducks and had met a million.
I was like, how did she do this?
Like what is going where?
How does she have a time turner?
Is she Hermione?
Like, I don't understand what's going on.
So Molly really maxed it out, hit it out of the park and came home with all of the
best prizes, in my opinion.
we're
is that thing happening out?
I was sitting on the couch because my ear was open.
I was just supposed to be on the couch.
And I was like, how is this happening out there?
I was just like, my god.
I don't miss this event?
We also, you know, obviously we introduced ourselves to a lot of people, but we were
like live following each other.
And every single time I was like, we have a third cohost, her name is Stephanie.
And anytime we discovered as we were starting to follow someone and knew that
like they had things in common with you, we were making sure that they knew if they
listened to plans or both, they will hear about cats.
There were so many cat moms.
We talked about Taylor Swift.
We talked about so many different things.
So you were definitely represented even if you were not physically there.
I appreciate that.
Do you want to say anything else before we get into the webinar?
I think it's important to add that we need to get like, the universe going to us, and
this random, boring day long is the author that we're discussing.
today.
I mean, maybe I should write my query letters today because I just feel like
there's really good energy.
I'm so lucky.
Okay.
Do you remember when Luckiest Girl came out?
We read it a while ago.
2016, I'm going to guess.
on.
Hold on.
2018?
2015.
So, Caitlin and I wrote The Most Faced Girl Alive.
Both of us came away, I mean, maybe we should have started talking back then,
because we had strong feelings about that book, which we'll get into, but I've been
following Jessica Moore on Instagram for a couple years now.
I did not read her second book, but
I've been following her on Instagram for a few years.
I fell in love with her bulldog Beatrice who it literally brought tears to my eyes
in her acknowledgments because Beatrice has since passed on this book.
She also has recently had a daughter.
She's friends with Jenny Han.
There's a lot of great content if you follow her on Instagram.
cooking videos came from something to be desired.
I don't know if someone has a tripod for her phone because she is holding her phone
and stirring or chopping or something with the other hand.
And it drives me nuts.
If someone could give me her address, I will nail her a tripod for her phone.
I pre -ordered this book the moment she came down from
so I knew she was editing this book, she started promowing it months beforehand.
I went to all her books and I pre -ordered it.
And the day it came out, I went and picked it up and I started reading it.
As I established, I am a word right now.
And so he has not mentioned this book for good reason.
This is a story based on the true orders that Ted Bundy did at, was it University
of Florida?
Florida State?
I can't remember.
Florida State University.
I...
I want to say that I think this book is necessarily the only one
people that are into murder.
I think that she has done this book in a way where it's a story about female
survivors, female friendships, female love, with a backdrop where some really
horrible, brutal things happen.
You kind of get the brutality out in the beginning of the book.
So if you're a little squeamish, just...
to try to get the way out.
I mean, you're not going to be do this for these next few weeks on the engine, but
then you're going to do it now.
And it is helpful with the engine.
is sexualized and their survival.
I don't know what else to say.
I just started off, I just want to add a little bit to this.
Male, female, not a veteran.
I just think this is a piece of -
beautifully researched and beautifully written book.
it.
And it's interesting that I did not want to talk about it because I enjoyed this.
book.
Her first book was, I'm sorry to say very clunky and there were too many conflicts
in it.
That's what we talked about.
It was two stories kind of spliced together.
Yeah.
So her first book has a
really.
tragic school shooting happened.
She also, the main character has like a videotaped sexual assault.
And she also is pretending that none of those things happened to her in her adult
life to just like propel herself forward.
And it was too many things.
And some people would probably argue like, okay, well that all those things could
have happened to one person.
And it's like, yes, but it would have been
been better.
if it had been three separate books where like the character was dealing with each
of those things.
I thought that this was much more like well edited and I thought that it flowed a
lot better and that she was much better at the character building.
She definitely has a knack for creating some unlikable women like she.
This isn't gonna be all women that you're like rooting for and you're like, my gosh,
you know, the title bright young women, bright young women can be brutal and
bright young women can be difficult and they might not be people that you were
friends with, but they still have a ton of potential.
And because some of the characters were killed so young, it's like, we don't know
what they would have gone on to become and they could have been really great people.
It also takes place in the late 70s.
So this was like,
you know, each time.
about like some of the characters not wearing bras, like, unless their parents
are around.
And like they talk a lot about female liberation and like, learning about having
equality in the workplace.
And so these are women that, you know, were in school at a pretty pivotal time in
a southern state, and they really could have gone on to make a pretty large impact
in whatever capacity their professional lives took them in their communities.
And so, it was very self -orchestrated that she showed that sometimes the wood
had a successful and so had a fair.
Like, out there in the country, sometimes it was hard times.
with the more emotional things and vice versa.
Sometimes the really emotional people that are in touch with their feelings, like
don't have.
huge success in their professional careers and just kind of navigating that and
showing all different kinds of women and how it can just be gone in a blink.
I hadn't read Luckiest Girl Alive, so this is my first book of hers, so I don't
really have anything to compare it to.
I am not, like, typically a person that goes for the murdery genre.
I loved this book from the first chapter.
I think I texted the two of you to be like, holy crap, I am all the way in on
this.
I felt like it hooked you immediately.
The fact that they never use his name makes it really intriguing, because you're
only really hearing about...
the people who are victims of or part of the community of wherever he found
himself.
I agree with everything Caitlin said about how some of the women are not necessarily
so likable, but they're also kind of like forces to be reckoned with, the characters
in Pamela and Tina especially.
I have a thing about understanding where titles come from.
And often when I'm reading a book, I like make a note of where it's clear what the
title is or what the origin is.
And I just want to make sure that I'm not just trying to say that.
says, I've tried to make sense of how someone who didn't stop his victims in
advance ended up going after the best and the brightest.
And I think that's it.
The thing they all have in common.
I would like to let out Joe.
He targets college campuses, sorority houses, because he's looking for the cream
of the crop.
He wants to extinguish us.
We are the ones who are not smart, not that good looking.
There's nothing particularly special about him.
it.
Can I tell you that I kept getting confused?
I kind of tried to tell someone about this book as a promising opponent because yes,
it's very similar to the title of that movie, but it's also kind of similar
meaning -wise about someone who survived and is kind of going down this path
because of what happened to their friend.
Also, you should watch the movie if you haven't and it is brutal.
but it's worth it.
I also thought about constant.
And even if you don't go to court, the witness becomes a part of your daily
experience for the rest of your life.
And her story is more recent.
Chanel's story.
But it just kind of helped me think about those two as kind of in the same universe
where, yes, it developed a crowning, but it's more so about that ripple effect that
was honestly for the rest of the first time on this planet.
I was actually going to bring up Chanel as well.
Because Promising Young Women, Promising Young Woman, the movie.
don't think I realized that.
okay.
So in the Brock Turner case, and he is the man boy garbage person who assaulted
Chanel while she was blackout drunk.
He, you know, went to Stanford and was on the swim team.
And when he got off easy, the judge said, well, you know, he's just, he's a
promising young man.
I'd hate for this to ruin his whole life.
Which is literally the same thing the judge said about Ted.
So, Promising Young Woman, the movie, is a play on what the judge said in the Brock
Turner case.
And then Bright Young Women, when I found out what this book was about, I was like,
okay, so we're playing off all of this, you know, misogynistic, unfair judicial
system that we kind of operate in.
And honestly, I...
you know, I've read a lot of different books about assaults and various different
things.
And, you know, one of the things that comes up again and again is that and it
comes up in this book too, is the judicial process is so long that these people just
have to keep reliving it.
And the main character in this book, Pamela talks about like,
how long it was before she had to get on the stand and say everything that she saw,
like the day that her best friend was murdered.
And like, it's just, it's so excruciating and so intense and damaging.
And then for somebody like Chanel or a lot of these people, they don't even get a
result that's even like tolerable or like manageable.
And...
to go from that, I have to
he becomes a Supreme Court justice.
Just saying.
that too.
I will say I said this to Molly last night.
When I still had like 80 pages left to go in the book, I was like, I like this book.
I'm not sure I was in the mood for it.
We like had planned that this was going to be like our podcast episode.
And sometimes, sometimes people the reading becomes homework.
And so we knew that, you know, both of them had read it and I was the last one to
go.
And so I just I don't know that I was.
that's not necessarily the case.
It's basically like I just come off as like...
a really great YA read.
And then I had to like kind of plunge into this and I did really like it, but I just,
I'm not sure.
It feels like a wintry book and maybe not a May book, you know, like I'm feeling
like let's get the shorts out and the sandals and the pedicures.
And I'm like, no, I got to read about some asshole murderer who just destroyed these
women in this.
this sorority.
It's the most important thing.
Well, suppose our spiritual leader, I feel like this is the major reason for it.
Yeah, I feel like I just take breaks.
You know, what I feel about to be a part of this board, I can't even imagine myself
taking a story of me and my people and the weight of that, the responsibility of
that.
like fictionalizing it and praying you do not offend somebody and also that you get
it right and sort of do the people that were murdered justice.
I would not sleep, so I could never take on this kind of book.
You know, it's like too, too, too, too, too
this all the time, right?
Like she takes, you know, the Rat Pack or Fleetwood Mac and Serena Williams, like
she fictionalizes.
kind of like a loop that she takes their life story like the loose parts of it and
then she cultivates something that's fictionalized.
But there's not as much at stake with those stories like because it's so loose.
It's like is it about is it inspired by them?
Is it not?
And she you know, she kind of like remains low key on that and this like she used the
same school like like it's very clearly like Ted Bundy and so.
it's her acknowledgment.
She talks about...
article that sort of spawned this.
Do you remember what medium it was from?
Was it Moenstone?
Okay, that's what I thought.
I think it was the night I finished it, I went and read that article and it sat so
heavy with me.
I mean, I just...
never just pull a surrogate like, hey, I'm not afraid of this.
I just don't have a function for that, clearly she does.
I hope she wants awards for this book.
I think it was a necessary book.
Who else was gonna write this?
also talked a lot about cover art and the way that covers jump off a table or jump
off of a shelf.
This cover is bright yellow.
It has a hot pink look at a woman's, you know, upper part of her face and then very
bold font and text at the bottom.
This is a book that is impossible to ignore if you saw it in a bookstore.
store.
It also looks straight out of the 60s or 70s.
Yeah, that's what I thought it would be about.
I think the other compelling aspect of it and what made me, I don't want to say more
willing to read it, but more willing to give it a chance because on the surface, I
think a fictionalized story about Ted Bundy, well, about the women that were
victims of Ted Bundy, that could be a hard sell.
But Jessica Knoll is also a survivor of sexual assault.
And so that to me, I was like, this was probably the research might've been
cathartic for her.
Writing the book probably was fairly empowering.
And I'm imagining that she made some connections with people, that that was
part of their story, and that maybe it was like really healing for both parties.
That's at least my hope.
And now that I finished the book, I definitely will go and dig into some
interviews and some other things that she did around this book because I'm curious.
What are we reading?
so I've been, well first, okay, so I binged Jessa Hastings Magnolia Parks,
which Caitlin had given me.
after we finish recording, I'm going to hop up to Belmont Books because I pre
-ordered the rest of the series and I have to go pick it up because it's arrived.
What I want to say about this series.
the viewers want to hear it.
was 20s, had this like connectional person that was like totally couldn't get out of
your head, the chemistry was boneless, and then they betrayed you, and then you fell
apart and you explored that room to talk to them again and you hated them, and then
you fell back together, and then every time you fell back together again you
remembered...
in the midst of it that they're just going to hurt you again.
You mean?
wrote a 31 song double album called The Tortured Poets Department about a decade
long situationship that she went back and forth to like that?
Yeah.
Obviously, this is theoretical.
I'm not speaking from personal experience.
Never.
This book.
Well, first of all, who doesn't love their parents?
Okay, I just love to like sit in that.
for a day in the sun and just read it.
So Magnolia Parks is the daughter of a music mogul and ex -model.
They have exorbitant amount of wealth and her fixation is she can spot when someone
walks in the designer, the year, every single detail of the person's outfit.
So,
that's something that's really on point.
but I also kind of loved it.
I did not look it up because that would have slowed this book down once like.
She fell in love when she was little with this boy, BJ.
He's the older brother of her best friend, Henry, and he is also, you know, a one
-percenter.
And there's this group of them that they get together for dinners and they call it
full box set when all of them are at the dinners.
And they are all so messy.
And we know at this point, she's 22, he's 25, that he has betrayed her.
We don't know exactly what you get.
understand Vanessa, what goes on in her mind.
And they fall back.
And they're a different part, and they're a different part of her life.
What makes this book interesting is like, at one point she starts dating a pilot and
she's like, he's a pilot, let's go on vacation.
And one of the friends is like, we all have our own planes, why do we have to
take his plane?
Like it's that level of like,
in regards to health.
Maybe it's just my opinion, because the arrest of a female that has been de
-escalated, this was like such a huge mistake.
escape.
I feel like the whole thing is kind of like crazy with Asians because as
successful as it was.
Exactly.
I'm reading two books.
One of them I got on Indie Bookstore Day.
I wanted to get this book that's by, I don't know how to say her middle name, but
it's Sasha Taksablou Lapointe.
She is an Indigenous person.
She's from the Salish community, which is in the Pacific Northwest.
And...
She has a book of essays that just came out that I was really interested in, but
they didn't have it.
And so then they asked me if I had read her first book, which was a memoir.
And I said, no.
And then that's what I bought.
And it is a really interesting story.
I would call it like coming of age in some ways, because she talks about like when
she moves out of her parents' house for the first time and like her first real
romance and.
identifying as an Indigenous woman, even though she like didn't participate in a
lot of the more like ceremonial things growing up.
It's just like a glimpse of life that is totally unfamiliar to me.
And she also is like a self identified punk.
So that's kind of fun.
And like, she's around our age.
And so like,
night I was with her,
Washington and like all of that, like she's very much a part of that.
so I'm about halfway through that.
And then I got Carly Fortune's new book, which is called This Summer Will Be
Different.
And I'm about 50 pages into that.
And that one is like a forbidden romance.
two women, one of them is from Prince Edward Island.
and she takes her roommate that she lives in Toronto with home.
for like two weeks, one's up and one's out.
And one of the problems is we don't have a job.
We don't have a job, so we have to do it.
PEI for two weeks of just like oysters and wine and beach and being besties.
And the first night that she's there, she's there solo and she meets a boy and
the boy...
ends up like this.
And we'll come back to do it.
and I'm not getting it right.
And I just want to stop it from being a bad situation.
And it happens in that summer when they're like, not doing anything.
And to present day, I'm the best friend.
It's like 10 days out of the day.
married.
And so obviously the best friend has to go back to PEI where this for
Bidding's Way.
And it started, it started off with, well, it's not choosing, it's a choice.
And now, it's a choice.
It's a choice.
-for -tentative fun, fun, free -for -all thing.
I loved her book every summer after, so I can't wait to read this.
I also read the second book, Meet Me at the Lake, but the first one I really
loved, loved Capital L.
I am reading a book called One in a Millennial by Kate Kennedy.
I've followed Kate for a really long time.
She actually left her corporate job to pursue something that was a side hustle
and became a full -time business where she was making doormats that said funny things
like, turn off your curling iron.
And it became so successful.
She was able to sustain herself just with that.
And then she launched this pop culture podcast called be there in five.
She is a huge Swifty.
She watches every TV show movie that is, you know, on the top of every list.
And I just find her commentary so smart and also so funny.
So when I learned that she was going to be coming out with a book about nostalgia of
the eighties and nineties, I couldn't wait to read it.
They're mostly personal essays and there are these deep dive moments within them
like she has a long tangent about American Girl dolls.
I'm currently in a chapter where she's talking about popular girl handwriting.
It's just very relatable for anyone who was born I would say between maybe 1980,
1988 is kind of the range.
I'm about 120 pages and it's about 350 pages.
I'm excited for the upcoming essays to see what else she covers.
She's currently on tour promoting this book.
She does powerpoint presentations at her tour stops.
That's how she brings people into her universe.
And pre -COVID she has done a lot of township dance parties.
She just has a lot in common with us.
So I'm excited to finish and hopefully pass on to you gals.
I'm really looking forward to reading that one, but I do not listen to her podcast.
I just follow her on socials.
She's such a fan of tampons and deep dives and can get off the highway and take 10
rows, you know, down the left.
It's fantastic.
All right.
I'll have to check it out.
If you want to go read it, you want to enter some of the links that are in the
description below.
us on Instagram over at PlansAreBooked.
If you have a recommendation for a book you think we should cover, please shoot us
a note.
You can write to us at plansarebooked at gmail .com.
until next time, our plans are booked.