Welcome to Plans Are Booked, a podcast for every reader.
I'm Molly Geller.
I'm Stephanie Blackburn.
I was literally going to say that I was singing in the car on the way home and
having the complete opposite of a Phoebe Buffay.
I sounded horrible and my voice kept cutting out like mid-note.
that's my favorite when you go to hit like a high and down note and all of a sudden
it's just air and you're like oh
Oh boy.
The best part of that classic Friends episode is when Phoebe is running around
Central Park licking everyone's coffee cups trying to keep the germs.
Listen, she had something going.
I get it.
So welcome to Episode 25.
I know it's wild.
And we're very excited because, well, when the episode airs the following day, for
all you Swifties, tortured poets.
department will be out.
I have a lot of plans.
I have like the whole weekend planned out because it also is the day before record
store day.
So there's just a lot musically going on that whole the whole weekend.
So I'm very excited.
I'm going to a Swifty dance party that I like bought a ticket for.
What does that entail?
I think you go and they play maybe all of her music videos or something goes on.
There's a visual component and then you dance around and sing her face off.
Well, there'd be tellers hooking.
cocktails at this dance event?
Great question.
I don't actually know the age requirement.
I think it's 18 plus.
So I don't know the answer to that.
Well report back to me on the drinks.
Um, it's been kind of a busy week.
I don't even know what I've done.
Something else should go.
I have to think about what I did this week.
I just feel tired, that's all I know.
Okay, well I'm happy to be here since I'm fresh off a plane.
I was just in Charleston, South Carolina.
I was visiting my cousin Martha.
Shout out Martha who listens to every post.
I can listen to the rest of the talks.
We were and will be working together, but she listens immediately.
So thank you for that.
If you haven't been to Charleston before, it is an amazing.
Food City, which was the primary reason that I was amped to go again.
I went for the first time two years ago.
I was there for a week.
We were there for my mom's 70th.
This was a bit quicker, just a Friday to a Sunday, but I did get to go to the
obstinate daughter, which is like on every top 10 list of Charleston restaurants.
It's on Sullivan's Island.
I had what I would say is maybe the best pasta with vodka sauce I've ever had,
which as a vegetarian, I've eaten quite a lot of pasta to just.
It also was at Biscuits and went to my favorite ice cream place, the Jennings,
and we did the whole new garden tour, which here in Boston, I used to do the
south end garden tour every year.
I covered it on my blog three years.
It was cool to do it in another city, just see the beautiful, elegant, amazing homes
and see all the different styles of plants and trees and my parents.
move at a slower pace these days, and they're 70, so that was a challenge, but
otherwise a very good time.
Got some shopping in.
It was just like a great trip, and it was one of those things where like three days
actually did feel like a legit vacation.
And I profited off of this because I'm a southern girl at heart, even though I'm
clearly a northerner.
I got gluten-free biscuit mix and grits, which shrimp and grits is one of my like
top five
So I feel like I want, you should go to South Carolina more often so I can have
treats.
I can bring stuff in that is actually fully cooked gluten-free biscuit, like
already made because I have heard that the famous place there, Cal, is called Little
Biscuit, does GF Biscuits, but in fact the only thing that was available was the mix,
not the...
like finished thing.
Yes.
oh.
That's why we have to acknowledge to the people.
Phoebe Buffay, I mean hello?
Yeah, but my ears are also clogged so I can't tell if I just sound weird to
myself.
I have nothing to report except that the house is still not done and I'm basically
just dying.
nothing to report except that the house is still not done yet and basically it's
dying.
Can you explain something about that?
She does have a head cold, people.
Okay, please explain to our beloved listeners what the situation is with the
toilets and the porta potty because I feel the women listening to this show need to
understand.
We wouldn't have to describe full names.
If you need to guess the names of the people and find out who it is that you
should probably know.
hire.
We would be happy to provide that information.
So our plumber, I think this was three weeks ago, I was texting him because he
doesn't always respond to my dad because my dad will just call him out on his BS.
So I texted him and I said, we are planning to list on such and such date,
which has actually passed at this point, but that's neither here nor there.
He said, I'm busy this week.
I will pencil you in for April 1st.
I said, great, I'll get you to that.
He was probably going to do that.
first and the second.
And then my dad being like, he has to do it.
So there's no canceling.
Went and had our port-a-potty.
requisitioned.
So they came and pick it up, but I didn't know that.
So I went to go to the bathroom and there was no bathroom because our plumber did
not in fact come last week.
He still has not come this week.
He claims to be sick, which fine, you're allowed to take a sick day.
You are not allowed to take a sick week and a half when I am working and I am
dying.
And
I don't want to get into like the nitty gritty, but being a woman and having no
bathroom and also my dad just goes, just go outside.
And I'm like, that would be doable if there was a spot in the yard that wasn't
viewable from a neighbor's house.
There's literally no side of the yard or behind the house or next to the house.
There is nowhere to pee and not be in view.
of someone's window.
So I have taken the past week and a half to telling people to stay where they are
for five minutes.
And then I open the front and back door of a vehicle in the driveway and go there.
This entire time I have been wondering what you have been doing if you couldn't
hold it and I was like surely she must be driving to whatever the closest like gas
station or
There's a dunks that's like eight minutes maybe away.
The problem is that I just get to the point where I cannot hold it.
I just push it too far and then I'm like, well shoot, now I can't drive there.
I'm not gonna make it.
I'm using the test.
Well, there's no plumbing yet, so she can't walk.
No, there is plumbing.
Oh, there is.
Well, you're not going to do that.
Yeah, you don't leave that for them to christen.
But I just want people to know, so we are gonna go, Caitlin and I are gonna go to
see the finished product.
We're gonna take a ton of photos and videos, we're gonna share it all with you,
you'll see the finished product.
I just want you, when you see how gorgeous this house is at the end, to realize that
Stephanie worked on this house for probably two weeks by the time this is all
said and done without anywhere to go to the bathroom.
Like, this is what is happening.
This isn't the first house that this has happened either.
Men just do not think about the fact that maybe it's not easy to just go to the
bathroom outside.
I think this is the third house actually that hasn't had a bathroom.
Anyways, that's the phase.
We've been in many different phases of the renovation that you all have been
listening to as Stephanie has been giving updates.
We have reached the no bathroom stage of the renovation.
of a phase of the foundation that you all have addressed at the husband and wife
updates.
We have reached a no-file from the stage of the wedding.
Well, I have not been suffering as much as Steph, and I also did not go on vacation
like Molly.
I have been house hunting.
And I spent Friday and Saturday last weekend, I saw five different houses.
Three of them are already under contract.
Not a single one of them was interesting to me really.
It's just like kind of, like the spring market's a joke.
The Massachusetts house market right now is a joke.
Everything is really overpriced.
I'm taking my sweet time because I can and I'm in a month to month lease situation so
I'm not freaking out.
but I now understand why other people haven't been freaking out in the last few
years.
And it's just like time consuming and you're like right, but I feel like any of
you gets one of the votes I have to go to because they all come from the same, at
the same time, or you're trying to commit to waiting for people to do it.
So I think it was a critical moment for me now.
fun day.
went to Moose on the road, it was our first time in Harvard Square.
It's a TV bar, like fun, believable, great entertainment.
I had a couple of people, like both started preparing for class in their two,
like they had their birthday time up there, and the day four was really cool.
And then I took a class in Harvard Square, like from the dead of my year, like
January, February, and I walked past it, and I was like, this does look really
cool.
It's like a green and yellow, but it's not a cherry.
It's not a cherry.
I it's not in the same building as anything else.
It's like on its own and you kind of have to know it's there.
It's two floors.
The drinks have they have like a little Wu song character that they've created.
And like similar to like when a spicy dish has like the fire signs underneath.
That's how they rate their drinks.
So like, if it's five Wu songs, like probably just get one of those kind of
thing, which is really fun.
The food was
is really fun.
The food was unbelievably good.
Like, I know you guys have seen it here,
in them.
We got this really good lo mein that was gluten-free because we had a gluten-free
person.
My friend was like, this is the wettest lo mein I've ever had, but it was in more of
a sauce as opposed to a regular lo mein.
noodle.
It was like a rice, it wasn't like a wheat noodles basically.
Yeah, it was really good.
And I just went back and also, um...
They have all sorts of different buns and all of the buns come and they look like
animals.
Like the buns, like the top of the buns, like one was like a chick and one was a
pig and it was so cute.
And they have real crab, like crab, like really like good ones.
But then they also had a...
corn cheese rainbow, and it was like, so good.
It was really good.
I'm definitely going back, we can definitely film.
I can't wait.
I will say though, I kind of did this as like a little baby, or a big thing for my
friend Margaret, and...
like her birthday was almost two weeks ago and we had to go on a Sunday because when
I looked like in mid-March all of the Fridays and Saturdays were already gone
for all of April.
I was like okay.
I had a fun time with us, like, that's pretty cool.
Yeah, but I kinda like Sunday afternoon day drinking, you know?
It was weird, and fun coming.
I would like to see what it's like at night because I bet it gets like, cause
they didn't have both floors open.
They only had one floor open and I bet it gets like really fun.
And I don't know.
It feels, I feel like it would have good vibes.
The decor was awesome.
Every drink has a different mug that it comes in.
Some of the mugs you can buy, like I got a Mai Tai and it came in a mug that looked
like a Chinese takeout box with a handle on it.
Ooh!
It was really fun.
It sounds like I would be obsessed with this place just from like the branding of
it all.
It's super fun.
You have to collect the teaching cups from other teaching bars across the country.
And you can put them in a display box display piece when you walk in.
And I play from my bachelor party in Chicago and I've been to that teaching
bar.
And when you click in the display it's really cool.
Have a good day.
I love that.
Before we get into our book topic for the day, just before we got on these
microphones, unboxed a very special delivery that arrived a few days ago.
A few episodes ago, I shared my current obsession with Miss Peaches, the rescue
dog of Dave Portnoy, the creator of Barstool Sports.
And I mentioned, I think on that episode that...
they were at like 800,000 followers on Instagram and I was positive that they
would cross a million in short order.
So sure enough, they have hit a million followers and we now are the proud owners,
between the three of us, of two sweatshirts and a hat with every penny of
that money going towards dog rescues.
And he has made so many generous gifts to rescues all over the country, $10,000,
$25,000.
So...
I will share a picture on our Instagram of the stuff that we got in case anybody
wants to pick out some for themselves.
We'll share the link.
No like kickback to us just because it's a cool thing to do.
So if you're into animal rescue you can see the cute stuff that we will soon be
sporting.
So we're doing a YA book this week.
This, so kind of a funny like roundabout way that we all ended up reading this.
Steph read it years ago, gave it to me.
I was, it was like in my TBR pile for like a million years.
And I was like, I don't think I'm ever gonna get to this, gave it back to her.
And then we had the book fair at my school and a bunch of my students were like, oh
my God, have you read this book?
And it was a controls guide to murder.
And I was like, no, I haven't.
read it, but I really feel like maybe I should revisit it and read it because my
friend said it was good and it's also going to be a TV show and the lead actress
in it is Wednesday's bestie from Wednesday.
I can't think of her name.
The blonde werewolf girl.
She is the best.
So she's my favorite character in the show actually.
Um, so, I was like, no, my sweet said it's good, this girl that I'm always gonna be
in the show, I should just give it a go.
It's my product location with me, it's in Florida, right from my birthday, and...
I read like 30 or so pages and I was like, okay, I'm like sort of intrigued.
And then I like took it to the pool and read like another 30 or 40 pages.
And I was like, okay.
And then like halfway through, I was like, I have to know.
what actually happened.
Because the premise is very interesting, and I feel like very like, possible,
honestly.
Like, it's told from the perspective of a high school girl doing her senior capstone
project, and she gets a head start on it before school starts.
Keep going.
So it's about this really precocious girl and she has basically decided to
investigate a murder and suicide situation.
I don't want to like give too much away but essentially, this girl goes missing
and she's gone for so long that she's presumed dead.
And then her boyfriend commits suicide in the, well, it looks like suicide in the
woods and leaves kind of an ominous note that makes it seem like he did something
to his girlfriend.
And Pip, the main character, like does not accept it because she knew the boy in her
path.
Like as a child, she knew him.
And so she decides to take on this case and kind of be this like
because she feels like she knows the people well enough that they'll actually
talk to her.
I really enjoyed it.
The only hump that I had to get over was that the writing is a little clunky, but
it's all from the point of view of a high school girl who is submitting this as a
project, and these are her project notes.
So once I reminded myself of that a couple of times, I was like, okay, this is good
storytelling, even if it's a little not that polished.
So once I like, when I read the book, I was like, okay, this is a good story
telling, but it's like, well, not that much.
See, and I think that's why I liked it, is because, one, it kept me on my toes
because it kept changing from like, not scribbled, but like notes.
or, my brain's not working, but when she took recorded conversations and thank you.
I love those because you have to sort of imagine what's happening in between what's
actually being said.
So it could be like so many different things.
I think it made the story more interesting.
I think if it was just told from like a narration standpoint, it wouldn't have had
the catch that it seemed to have.
Yes, it is a YA book and so maybe it's not as polished maybe or written.
so that the reader comes up to the writing.
But I wish that this book had been out when I was a teen because I feel like I
would have loved this and there was nothing like this back then.
now.
I wish I had this much time to think about this too, because I've lived through life
and said, you know, there's nothing like this.
I feel like the only thing that's even remotely similar in my brain, and we've
actually talked about both, well, I've talked about both of these authors,
Caroline B.
Cooney.
who wrote these other little works, and all these books, and then Paulist Duncan,
who wrote, I don't know if you're watching or, who are cultural history students or
are between category and class of a college.
Well, there's a lot to it already.
What did you think?
to cover it for the pod.
And at first I found it a little bit slow.
And I think part of that could be that I had just read a few books prior to this
that I like loved and had raced through and so it was like a rough transition as
often happens for me when I step outside the romance genre again.
I did like the project notes and the transcription from the interviews.
I think the thing
that was most interesting to me is when she decides to kind of reopen this case.
Her unlikely ally turns out to be the brother of this person, Sal, who they
think took his own life.
And I was very like,
how is she going to earn his trust?
His family's already been so like traumatized.
I don't know if this is going to work out.
And then their sort of co-conspirator relationship throughout the book was
actually the thing that kept me going.
And I felt like seeing how things, you know, just like evolved for them both in
their personal relationship, but how much each of them was willing to pour into
trying to solve this.
It was like the stakes got higher and higher and also their trust in each other
got higher and higher.
I'm not as good at predicting the endings of things as the two of you are, but I
will say that I did not see the ending of this coming at all, which I liked.
I felt like as it was unfolding in that final like 25% of the book, let's say, I
honestly had no idea what was going to happen.
And I felt myself like leaning forward.
I was reading it on the couch, like just wondering what the resolution was going to
be.
And I felt like even though...
you may find it slow at the beginning, anyone who decides to pick this up, you
really should stick with it because the pace increases significantly as it goes
on.
And then the big reveals at the end, I felt like were really worth it, like that
the payoff at the end was a big one.
And, you know, not that everything was like tied up with a bow, but I felt like
you did get answers to certain things.
And also, people who seemed
I mean, like the line in the book, which the stories sort of merged and you like,
try to be ahead of yourself.
I think people should try it, just know that it would be better if you saved it.
I also was just thinking that I think it had to be a YA book because only a
teenager would like catfish a person to try and get answers and like have no
qualms whatsoever, putting themselves in harm's way to get to the answers.
only because that person is a bigger person.
Well, like, I don't even know if that's my question.
Have you experienced any stress this year?
Yeah, it's so interesting because as he gets closer to his older brother, she
realizes, like, this isn't really about the project anymore, this is about
clearing his name, or at least getting the product to the defendant in advance.
Cause the brother, his like,
you know, worried.
cry the whole time is that my brother wasn't like this.
He would never do anything this selfish.
And that's kind of how Pip feels too.
And so they kind of have this like common understanding of like, okay, we both.
Still think of him as the person that we knew him to be.
And neither one of us has let like his death taint that and like, let's work
together to figure it out.
And so.
the stakes keep getting higher and she keeps taking like bigger risks that have
consequences that reach way beyond her.
And there's definitely some parts that are a little like, I wouldn't say scary, but
like you're kind of holding your breath like, oh, this might've been a really bad
situation she got herself into.
But then you understand, like she just gets this drive of like, I have to figure
this out.
Like we've come way too far to only go this far.
Um, I did predict one, um, thing, like one, there was one person that I found sus
from the start, um, and they, that ended up being a worthwhile investigation and as
a reader for me, um, when I was reading it, I started thinking about the case
slash show.
Um, and I don't know if what, no.
go.
I was just thinking about what to do.
Did I make a mistake?
Did you want to spoil?
I didn't, but you can spoil anything you need to.
Okay, well, I did so.
Based on what I've heard, this could happen, and I'm going to claim all that to
be true.
So basically, it was a case where you were on the wrong side.
bullied her boyfriend via text message into killing himself.
And she was convicted.
And it was a really big deal because it was like, okay, this is like the first...
big cyber bullying case where the person has been found guilty because there have
been other instances of unfortunately teenagers killing themselves because they
were egged on by classmates on the internet.
And so they made a TV show out of it and Elle Fanning is absolutely outstanding in
it.
She is like, she's, she should have won some stuff in my opinion.
But
kind of the tone of it and seeing how the families are impacted and how it takes
over the town and people make a lot of assumptions.
The girl that has been missing perpetually, you find out a lot of things
about her that you wouldn't know on surface level.
I really feel like I only knew the surface level of that texting case.
And then I watched the show and I was like, I see how it escalated now.
And when I was reading good girls guide to murder, I was like, okay, this is the
escalate that like teenagers are passionate and they don't have bills and
they don't have jobs and they just are supposed to go to school and do their
homework and pip has a car earn.
No, maybe she doesn't have a car, but the brother does.
And
a film that's not a film, it's a film that's not a film.
And you have to have a second to that.
I mean, other people's are gonna be trying to air style.
She's like, I'm gonna do whatever.
Like, it can happen.
I do know that.
But, like, you know, if you manage to kind of, and you don't do something that
actually
Imagine your day ending at 2.05 and you're like, I just got the rest of the day to do
whatever I want now.
okay, I'm gonna go to my school.
But, um, so, so if you like home school, if you like that like, kind of passionate,
un-dirty, teenage stuff, you know that you're not gonna be a star.
I think you are.
I think you only read the first one, but I have both of them.
Kathleen Hales, No One Else Can Have You.
Do you remember Kippie Bushman is investigating her best friend's murder in
small town Minnesota?
Loved that book.
Fantastic.
Similar like precocious teenage girl trying to suss out who is actually at
fault here.
Um, there's a second book, I bought it.
I haven't started it yet.
And, um, essentially Pip and the brother whose name we should have maybe looked up.
Ravi.
Okay.
So I think I said Ravi in my head the whole time I read it.
Okay.
Ravi, Ravi.
He and Pip get approached to turn...
their investigation into a podcast.
and I guess
while that's happening, another case, somebody approaches them and is like, I
need your help.
And that's what the second book is about.
And then Holly Jackson just came out with another book last week, or the first week
of April.
And that follows a whole different, I think, girl detective again.
Um, and it seems like another similar, like this happened in my town and I'm
going to get to the bottom of that kind of thing.
And so I'm into it.
I'm very into it.
I, but again, I love, I love a female detective mayor of East town.
Beautiful.
Loved it.
Um, I loved the latest season of true detective.
Jodie Foster was amazing as was her counterpart whose name I can't think of.
Oh my gosh.
Um, Callie.
From Rhode Island?
I don't know.
Yeah.
Um, anyway.
I just love Girl Protective.
So the idea of what these girls from like, these women were like as teenagers is kind
of one layer out of it.
And I can see why officers are like, cool.
are precludes?
Teenage, that is.
This could be one of the adults.
It is precludes.
And I think some of us also think that we're not really that.
It's more like, this was like, from a older age.
And I was like, oh, well, like, who's going to come off of this?
Like, the whole thing of like, you start to ponder on it, and you feel like you
have to do something about it.
And so I think it's kind of like a view of this thing.
You get into the cafeteria, and you start to think this person, like, how did you do
it?
And I think that's really the question of this whole.
And I just feel like it's fun to see when there's a good payoff for that.
So it's one of those reasons where you're willing to take on the upfront learning
curve.
I thought it was fun.
I thought it was an interesting read.
There were a lot of twists.
I only figured one of them out.
I feel like that's pretty good for a YA book.
Usually I kind of have pieced it together like halfway through.
That did not happen with this book.
So I thought it was a good one.
I'm excited to see it.
Is it a movie or a show?
Do we know?
actually don't know.
I will look it up.
Well, the cover has the red string, which style Stolinski, a nice little hat tip to
him.
the rest of the print, right?
So I was once a...
Yeah, I'm not as big a true crime junkie as the two of you, but I will say in
reading this, which happens to me anytime I read these kinds of stories, I just
become so...
become so disillusioned with the justice system in the way that I'm like...
I can't stop thinking about it like for days after I finished reading this I Was
like good god I hope I never go missing or turn up like murdered in a random place
because no one will do the right thing and like Search until they find the truth
no one will do that.
They can like search until they find the drink.
See, and I think to myself, my sister will be the person who figures out who killed
me.
Well, just, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
But I feel like when I read it, truly, for many days after, I was like, mm-mm.
And I think I have watched a few of the documentaries or docu-series that you guys
have turned me onto about real-life crimes that were later on solved or reopened and
whatnot.
And you can't help but just be like, if it isn't for that one squeaky wheel person,
so-and-so just would have gotten away with this.
series.
So if the casting of this is oh yeah this is definitely correct.
So they've already started filming it.
It's the BBC that's putting it together as a series.
Because Holly Jackson is not American by the way.
is called polyamory, so they're not just trying to tell you that it's the beef to
seed it when it's together, it's serious.
It's always actually a problem for us.
Now I feel like an idiot.
Did it take place in the US?
It took place in the US.
Oh, oh yeah, okay.
I just always assume that everything takes place in the US.
Oh.
so Maul, I'm definitely going to send you some photos that I just found from the guy
that's playing Ravi Ravi.
Very good looking person, first of all, and second of all, he had it's from the
set that he's posted these so it's kind of fun.
Yeah, and you get to see Pip and it's fun.
Cool.
So I'll tell you a couple of things.
I wasn't picturing like certain people for every single set, and you were like, I was
picturing a series of people coming by.
And then, for example, I myself, I was picturing that picture of his previous
movie,
boyfriend in Never Have I Ever.
I mean.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I can see it.
Anyway, Caitlin will show me who's actually playing these people.
But yeah, I bet it will be great as a on screen story.
Oh my God, really cute.
little dog.
Yeah, he's a cute little dog.
His name is...
Well, his first name is Aiden, and he's lost in this because I don't think this
animal is actually lost in this.
We'll share some videos.
for those who might be interested in the film version.
Emma Myers is the girl that's playing Pip.
That was gonna drive me cuckoo bananas.
Her name is Emma Myers.
What's everybody reading?
I am reading a Reese's book club book that a college friend of mine had posted on
Good Reads months ago and I trust him inherently so I went out and purchased the
hardcover.
I don't know what has come over me recently.
It is called Did You Hear About Katie Carr?
It's by Crystal Smith-Paul.
I have no idea if this is optioned.
I hope it is because I think it would be beautiful.
So it's a story in two parts.
The quote unquote present day is 2017 and it's in Hollywood and there is this family
that is apprised of an actress and a musician producer and they have three
adult daughters who are in their like late 20s, early 30s and all three girls have
come home to their like.
family mega mansion in the Hollywood Hills because our next door neighbor, Kitty
Carr, who was sort of like a...
family.
You keep saying that and I keep hearing Katie car which is a person that I know
it's a guy that I went to high school with his mom's name is that and I keep and she
like they live right by our school so like she would be around on her bike and stuff
all the time and I'm like every time you say that I'm like wait a minute what
Meanwhile, Richard's very sad.
I'm going to get you a picture of him in the car.
Thank you.
by a kitty cat.
She's the worm in the apple car.
She's the worst.
I'm not even gonna lie.
No, she's sort of like a Elizabeth Taylor type person.
Like she was like a starlet in her heyday and then she became sort of like an
eccentric woman who lived next door to them, has like a labyrinth garden in the
backyard.
Anyways, she has just passed and left her $600 million estate to the three young
women.
And everyone is sort of like.
asking questions.
Variety wants to have an interview with one of the daughters to suss out why the
three of them ended up with the fortune because they're not related.
They're just neighbors.
Then in the past, we go back to 1930s and I think we're in North Carolina and this
girl Hazel, her entire family, she's grown up as a sharecropper family.
They all die in a boat drowning.
She gets taken in by this young woman who...
works for this wealthy white family.
So she starts working at the house as well.
And she gets earmuffs for any children that might be listening to this.
She gets raped by their son and has the child.
And the child, she realizes quickly can pass as white.
So on the weekends, they had to Winston's Salem, Winston's Salem.
Yes.
Which is like a two hour bus ride from where they are.
And she had a club.
So like, it was a club.
She was like, I don't know what you call it.
Like, an inn.
She was like, that's the mother.
So we were all trying to figure out what was going on.
whites only department store and whatever.
And so I have my suspicions of how this is gonna all kind of come together, but I
almost don't care at this point because both stories are so different.
For like present day stuff, it's like, it's like, how is this going to work?
and like the mother clearly has like an eating disorder, um, and is stressed about
her Halloween themed party that is going to coincide with the funeral.
It's like very like at odds with each other, but they're both beautiful stories
in their own right.
And so I'm, I mean, it's like a thick book and I'm only quarter way into it.
I'm loving it.
It's I understand why it's on Reese's book club.
So I will pass it along.
Maybe we'll do an episode, who knows?
We'll see if you guys like it too.
I can go next.
I am reading a book called on basketball and dissension.
Neither of these two fine women are going to read this book, I think it's by Hanif.
I don't know how to say Hanif last name.
I think it's Adarabh Keeb.
I butchered that I'm so sorry, Hanif.
But anyways, Hanif, I don't know how to explain him.
He's from Columbus.
Sorry, is this memoir?
Like what?
I have, it's like the best things.
Oh, okay.
He does these books.
This is like his third or fourth book that I've read.
He does books where he's promoted his social solidarity and solidarity from his
perspective on being a black Muslim man in the United States.
He's run for office, he's always running for office.
He's a part of the U.S.
He did go to college.
His mom passed away.
He made a new book.
He's one of five kids, I think.
And he just has really interesting things to say.
Like people kind of have joked around him and like he's the black Chuck Klosterman,
but like, no, that's like, that's cheapening it, I think.
Um, he has one book that's called, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, and it's
basically like him interspersing like ideas about life and his experiences with
like music criticism.
This one's about.
like coming of age, but he also uses basketball as like a metaphor throughout
it.
He has another one that was literally every single essay was about a tribe
called Quest.
He has another one that got nominated for
It was a, I think it might've been a finalist for the Pulitzer, but it was a
finalist for the National Book Award and a couple of other ones.
And it was all about black performance, like through history.
So he just like, he has a really interesting perspective.
He knows a ton about music.
He's a great follow on social media.
Um, he is just, there's nobody else out there writing like him.
He's just really interesting.
The first chapter of this book.
He talks about.
it ends up being about like haircuts and identity and first love but he starts off
by talking about the in the 90s there is this group of five freshmen starters for
the University of Michigan's basketball team and they were like, like Jalen Rose
was one of them and like, they all came in together and like, had completely like
bald heads and it was like a power move of like, we don't even need hair and like,
we're studs like whatever.
And then that like,
kind of like resonates throughout the whole essay about like hair and the
importance of hair and whether or not you need it.
What does it say if you don't have it?
It's just really interesting and then it turns into like he's dating this girl and
both of them have lost their mom so then like wigs come into play like he just he
takes a topic and just like weaves it.
It's unbelievable.
Anyways that's what I'm reading.
from high brow to low brow.
I just finished this book that Steph loaned to me called Done and Dusted.
Oh yes, on one of your many bookstore outings.
Done and Dusted is by Lila Sage.
It's a fiction book.
It's about...
A woman who is a barrel racer gets thrown from a horse, has a very traumatic
experience and comes home to her family's ranch in Montana to kind of recoup and try
to like...
Oh, I'm sorry, Wyoming.
How dare I make that mistake?
It's called Meadowlark, which is I think where the M came in my head.
So she comes home to Wyoming to kind of like get her bearings again.
And a surprise to no one, she falls in love.
part, we try to get her thoughts together, but this is not the case in some records.
How do you try to get them together as a whole piece of content?
when she was like knocked sideways off the horse?
Did that bother you at all?
there are holes in this story for sure.
And also she is like number one ranked in her like age group, her demographic,
whatever.
And no one is concerned that she just like abandoned the tour and like there, yeah,
there are a lot of holes.
So she comes home and winds up really falling for her older brother's best
friend.
They have like, you know, an antagonistic history from childhood.
Um, but their romance.
was very, very fun to follow.
And I had read like, I don't know, 30 pages maybe before I got on the plane to
Charleston.
And then I read the entire rest of the book on this hour and 55 minute flight.
I really loved it.
Like, is it the best writing of all time?
It is not, but it was very, very fun.
And I was picturing certain people in my head as both.
Her name's Clementine, but she goes by Emmy.
Emmy and Luke and so I had these like visuals in my head and I was picturing
Luke as Glenn Powell from yes Top Gun from Top Gun and from Anyone But You and a
million other movies that he's recently been in.
But then I read this Q&A with the author at the very end and I need to share this
with you.
I know you can always count on me to read whatever's in the back of the book.
So the person asking the Q and A, which I assume is like the publisher said, you say
you drew inspiration for Luke from Friday night lights.
Did you have any other inspirations when creating the characters and done and
dusted?
And she says, I always joke that Luke is Tim Riggins.
If he grew up, washed his hair and got a savings account.
And I was like, okay, well now I have a different visual.
Also in the Q and A.
the whole story.
They asked her, which author she admired, what stories really moved her and you guys
were going to tell.
because these are like our favorites so she says some of my favorite books are
love is a mixtape by rob sheffield ninth house me too ninth house by lee bardugo
eldest by christopher pallini getaway girl by tessa bailey writers and lovers by lily
king
and of course, be true to my heart.
Henry.
But more recently, I've fallen in love with Helen Hall and Ashley Poston, Riley
Sager, and Abby Jimenez.
To me, these authors are absolute masters
their craft and I can't wait to read everything they write for the rest of
forever.
So I read that Lily King book.
I don't even know if I've finished it.
I'll answer you.
Oh, the writers and lovers?
I have to...
I don't think I've read it.
It's in your require.
I know, I know, I didn't get into it.
I don't know.
I don't know what happened.
she was like, I've become obsessed with Helen Huang, which I just spoke about that
at length, Ashley Poston, author of Seven Years Slip, Riley Sagar, which you guys
just finished one of those.
I mean, this is like our reading list.
with Poe and Hoang, which I just spoke about, Ashley Frost in an author of Seven
Years' Look, Riley Stegar, would you guys just finish my book?
I mean, this is like our reading list.
When I read that book, first of all, I loved it.
It's not perfect, and that's okay.
But also, I can just tell how much she loves Wyoming, and I immediately was like,
I want to be friends with her.
I think we could be on so many levels.
I'm forgetting.
got motion, correct?
It did get motion.
I just wanted to make sure that we could share it with the public.
And there currently two of them out there to come in and to ask for a comment out of
somebody and she was just like talking without yes.
And she was just like, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
the two most people in the city that I've ever seen on the internet.
Yeah, so she's under 30, which is like, what?
But also...
I need to share.
I said this to Steph in a text.
I was recently telling my friend Emily, meet and friend, shout out to Emily, that
I was reading this book and I was like, I just finished a great book.
I think you would love it.
It's called Done and Dusted to which she said, is that about cleaning?
Uh, no, no it's not.
I said, no, that is about being thrown off of a horse.
It's not about cleaning.
It's not an Amelia Bedelia book.
So if you're interested in Wyoming or the West or cowboy romances, also this is very
small townie.
So like if you like a Gilmore Girls type vibe, it does also have that kind of same
energy and there's all kinds of people in the town who have been there forever and
ever.
to explain that.
Yeah I mean I'll talk to them and talk to them.
We already tried to buy the second one and they didn't have it.
Remember?
Correct.
I also just love they're all like alliterative, which I just think makes it
more fun.
Also, the colors are awesome.
Yeah.
They're so campy here.
Like, the colors are old, Western, but like, they're not really different from
these.
Yeah, they're very like frameable.
I know.
I want to tell you how it looks.
It's those...
that are going to be in the next books.
Because it's all, you know.
Yes, which is great.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
And in the acknowledgments, I think that she did already know that the next one was
going to be coming out because she says, you know, and I'm so grateful that I'm
going to get the chance to tell the story of you know, so on, so on, so on.
So I think each one of the next installments follows a different sibling
in the family.
a different facility.
Yeah.
I also just really love that like her origin story is that she self-published
that book.
and then got traditionally published because it did so well, which just like
gives the layman hope, you know?
that she saw for the cat book and then after this one published, we have a piece
called, which just gives a light and hope.
Absolutely.
Do we know...
It's not a trope, but do we know what it's called when an author makes a series out
of the side characters from the first book?
Is that called something?
Because it also reminds me of the motorcycle books that I made you read.
you.
And also, for those who read the Jasmin and Tory books, there's always
cross-border public events from the previous installment.
Well, T.O.
Williams did it too.
Yes, T.O.
Williams also worked with the...
from the character from 70s in June reappeared in Love Song for Ricky Wilde.
Um,
If you all want to follow what we're reading, what we're excited about, an
incredible amount of hilarious memes and reels, please follow us on Instagram.
I have two personal links.
It's called, yes, we'll share the sound of Tony on Instagram.
Let's see if I can really do that.
But.
give a follow at plansarebooked.
You can also shoot us a note to plan We love to hear from you.
We want to know what you're reading, what you think we should be reading, and the
ideas for upcoming episode topics.
We are delighted to hear your thoughts.
on.
And until next time, our plans are booked.