Welcome to Plans Are Booked, a podcast for every reader.
I'm Molly Gallagher.
I'm Stephanie Blackburn.
And I'm Caitlin Madison.
Welcome to chapter 36.
Almost said 26.
36.
Wow.
I know, but it's like, here we are.
I think that, so here's what it is for me.
Individually, we are busy people.
And so the fact that we have been able to get together 36 times and we hang out.
even when we're not doing this.
Like, Steph and I had an impromptu, like, we needed to trade some books situation
and we grabbed sushi.
You know what I mean?
And that was like a few days ago.
So the fact that we have hung out 36 times to record the podcast.
I think is like, you know, I feel like I'm patting myself on the back at the
beginning of every episode, but like, it's pretty good.
I had two jobs this year.
You know what I mean?
You built an entire freaking house, basically.
You're like cranking out with PDFs.
and putting out fire.
You have two holes.
And people have pets.
Like, we just work.
it.
Yes to that and also all the books that we read not just the books to discuss but
also I don't know if the listeners realize this we try really hard when we get to the
what we're currently reading at the end of every episode really not to have repeats
and not just not repeats like that we read the same book two weeks in a row
personally
thank you.
when we're passing books between each other secretly behind the scenes, we have
additional books we start reading, so we have more to share with you every single
week.
So I mentioned, I think, the last episode how Steph already just annihilated her
Goodreads goal for the year in the month of June.
But I'm more impressed with how much we've read volume -wise since we started doing
this.
we're essentially, I mean, for me personally, I'm basically reading two
books a week, one for us to talk about and then my currently reading book.
And none of us are having a bad time doing it.
That's the reality.
Like we like in our little pod doc, it's like called homework, you know, like,
okay, this is like the to do list of like what we need to get done to be able to
record.
But nobody is like, this is such a drag.
I can't believe I have to do, you know what I mean?
Like it really is a joyful situation that I hope comes across to people because, and
then like we're in Hull right now at Molly's Beach House recording.
Steph just made an epic breakfast.
Like we're just grooving.
We're grooving.
I know this is our first time not recording at Steph's dining room table.
So if it sounds beachier, that's why we're in a new location.
You
We're also playing around with the video because one day we might have guests and
it's fun to see people's like facial reactions when you have guests on.
And Molly was like, I mean, are we the Kelsey's now?
Like we're just like, it's just, it's so fun.
Technology can be so fun.
I feel bad for people that are like afraid.
Like people my mom's age, they're like.
My mom is always calling me being like, can you help me with the TV?
Can you help me with this?
Can you help me with that?
I don't want to blow anything up.
That's her phrase.
I don't want anything to blow up.
I don't want to delete anything accidentally.
And there's just this like genuine fear of like, I'm going to screw this up royally.
And like, she hasn't even listened to this podcast yet because she's like, I need a
tutorial on like how to click on an app.
I'm like, mom.
I gave her the bookmarks with the scan on them.
I'm like, just scan this like a menu in a restaurant.
It will take you to my podcast.
She still hasn't done it.
Joyce, come on now.
just a fear.
It's just if I hope this is the first one she listens to and she knows she got
called out.
But it like, you know, Steph was like, I'm going to research this equipment for us to
do a podcast.
And like, I'm going to figure out how to edit stuff.
And Molly's writing blur.
I feel like it's just like there's so many cool things you can do with it.
You just have to be willing to like spend some time on it.
We, as Caitlin said, we're testing the video for the first time.
We usually do audio only, but even when we did our little sound check, even those
eight seconds, I was like, my God, it's so fun to like see our faces and our body
language.
And like, it just adds a different dimension to it.
So hopefully at some point we'll figure out how to slice and dice the video to
share with you guys, but just know.
We're adding new things, we're trying new things, and hopefully you'll be able to at
some point see us or watch us in little clips in the future.
So what's everybody been up to?
I feel like the listeners are tired of my plumber drama, so I'm not going to even
get into that because it's a week later.
It's still ongoing.
I've had Nemo for the past week.
We have done a lot of reading on the front porch together.
Not a lot of walks because he doesn't like to walk very far.
A lot of me carrying him from place to place.
That's about it.
I think I haven't really done much this past week.
I did the horses again.
One of the boys had a birthday, so I made him a key the pony wears.
the physical therapist had bought a birthday cake hat and cut ear holes for
her.
It was...
it mall we've got to repost it we got to repost it for sure now that you've
mentioned it I'm glad that it's gonna get another life Because it's just like I'm
not really a horse person, but like I saw that hat and I was like, this is hilarious
she was a good sport.
And little boy turned five.
I'm like in love with both of the Tuesday kiddos.
I volunteered basically anytime that Tuesday horse handler is not free.
I am happy to come in on Tuesday instead.
Yeah, that was my week.
You want to go, Mo?
Sure.
I basically moved here to Hull this past week.
I've been going back and forth a ton as the weather's gotten nicer, but now I'll
be here for July and August, maybe, who knows, in the part of September.
And my cousin Noah is also down here for the summer and it's been awesome.
Like we've gone on a bunch of beach walks together.
He's very into looking for sea glass.
He has just been like spanking me.
If I find like three to four pieces, I feel like unbelievable.
And he's been finding like 12.
I told you I've never in my life found a single piece.
I think the West Dennis Beach just, it has...
I don't think either of you have ever been there, but like my parents lived there
half the year and we've had the house since I was 11.
It's like a very seaweed ridden beach.
So like when, like when it goes, when the ocean goes out, it's just like banks of
seaweed.
And so like, I find a lot of really good shells and like, I also find a lot of like
still living creatures kind of like embedded in things.
And there's like,
horseshoe crab shells like all over the place.
And so there's like a lot of, I'd say there's like more marine life maybe is the
way I would describe it.
And there's just like, I never have found beach glass.
I think today is going to be the day.
Maybe.
I mean, that would be epic.
And my friend Liv, you know Liv from Wheaton, she grew up in East Hampton and
she has like entire like, you know, those like glass lamps that are like empty and
you can fill them with whatever.
She has them like absolutely filled to the brim with sea glass.
And I was like, Liv, what the heck?
And she's like, I have spent my whole life combing for sea glass.
Now she lives in Colorado.
She must be going out of her mind.
So I grew up for many summers vacationing with my parents and my sister in Truro on
the Cape.
And I love the Truro Vineyard and I have a bunch of empty Truro Vineyard wine bottles
that are in the shape of the lighthouse.
So I'm hoping to eventually have enough glass to fill at least one of those.
When you said lamp, it reminded me of that.
I have one on the counter here that's empty.
Noah has only really been.
on the quest since he like moved down here a couple weeks ago.
He almost has a full mason jar.
I have a mason jar on this front porch that I started putting stuff in when I
moved in here in November 2020.
I'm maybe just over halfway after almost four years.
He's almost done after a month.
It's insane.
It's absolutely insane.
That's wild.
Is he around today?
Can he can some of his good luck just rub off on me a little bit?
He's not around today, which is good news for us because he won't be able to pick up
correct.
So we have higher chances with him at it.
Yes.
gosh.
Okay.
All right.
Well, I'm glad he's not here then because I'm a noob.
chat, there's eight of us, and every day he texts a picture of his palm full of all
the pieces that he found.
So.
don't know how old is he like 25 26 Okay, I don't know a lot of 27 year old dudes if
he doesn't have this on his dating profile he should
Okay, he doesn't listen to this podcast.
So I'm going to say this because he will get because he won't hear this.
He's on the apps.
And earlier this week, while I was on zoom, he had a date here, he invited
someone to come down.
And I was like, wow, this girl was like driving from the city.
She's driving an hour to like go on a first date.
Some of that she's never met.
She was here for six hours.
They walked on the beach, they had lunch, they sat in chairs.
and she's supposed to come back in a couple days.
keep us posted on this.
This is awesome.
But yeah, if he doesn't have a picture of him with a handful of sea glass, I mean,
I'd be wooed.
That's like so charming.
And like, and then you know, he like spends the time doing that.
Like, there's a lot of layers.
A picture says a lot.
I don't think guys really realize like, how deep, how deep we would dive into
that.
But like, no more fish pictures, like for the love of God.
Yeah, I don't need to see the bluefin tuna that you took out of the water.
Not interested.
Yeah, it just is like...
and like I feel like it's been memed and like it's like an ongoing joke with people
that are on the dating apps and people still haven't taken them down.
I don't understand it.
very bizarre.
And the last thing I'll say just if any one of our listeners is in Massachusetts
and you come down to Nantuska Beach for any reason, Noah and I have also been
drinking mudslides at the local which is the bar in our neighborhood.
I've had a lot of mudslides in my life that was actually my first legal drink
when I turned 21.
I ordered a mudslide at Fire and Ice in Providence at the Providence Place Mall.
They're superb.
It tastes like ice cream basically the ones that the local makes and they put so
much whipped cream on it and it's just a joy.
first monthslide I ever had, so I had a grandmother figure, I guess is what I
would call her.
Her name was Ginny and she lived across the street from my real grandmother for
like 40 years.
And it was like really cool.
Like when my mom was, when my grandmother was 80, Ginny turned 60 and my mom turned
40.
They were all 20 years apart.
And Ginny was like,
my grandmother was old like she was like already like 78 or something not 78 she
was like 70 when I was born
She just aged very rapidly and she wasn't the kind of grandma that could do a lot of
things.
She didn't really come to any of my sporting events or anything.
She was on an oxygen tank by the time she hit 80.
Ginny was the one that you invited to school stuff.
I did sleepovers with her.
She would, when we rented houses on the Cape before we had a Cape house, she would
come and stay for the week.
She was like, she was like an emergency contact.
Like she'd pick me up from school, you know, like she was like my other
grandmother.
Like we were very, very close and her son was my orthodontist.
My brother interned with him.
Like it's like a whole thing.
Like we're very, we were very close and she loved mudslides.
And the 99, I don't know if they still do, but the 99 used to have a mudslide that
she was like, it's really just math, but those mudslides are worth going for.
I just remember as a kid being like, let me walk that in.
I don't know what really a mudslide is, but if Jimmy says that they're worth it,
then they're worth it.
And I've always been in trouble with people wearing mudslides.
let me tell you that there's a 99 here in Hingham.
About a 10 minute drive from here, so we can test ahead to head.
Listen, don't tempt me with a good time.
If you want to have a mudslide crawl at the beach, you just say the word and I
will get in the car.
I mean, I feel like how could we not?
That just seems essential to me.
What about you, Caitlin?
What's been going on this week?
this week, like I said, I met Steph for sushi.
I ripped through a book in two sittings that I think we're going to do a pod on.
So that, so I ripped through a book and like, I don't want to say I had been in a
book slump, but like I had started and stopped a couple.
And then the bear came back, which I absolutely love.
And so I've been
been so good.
I've only watched four episodes.
I watched two the first inning and then one one day and one another day.
But I'm going to the Cape for the fourth.
And honestly, like the house isn't that big.
I don't really get like a lot of time to myself.
So I think that I probably will finish the bear before I go to the Cape.
I think that's kind of my goal.
I've also been watching all the Olympic trials that have been on TV.
So the swimming, the track and field and the gymnastics.
So that's been really nice because since the Celtics won, I haven't really had like
a lot to watch.
Like I haven't found any other shows that I'm really into and I'm used to watching
sports all the time and they just haven't really been on.
And so the Olympic trials have been really nice.
And I don't know, I just, it wasn't like a super busy week.
I just kind of like.
actually, I didn't tell you guys about this.
my gosh.
I can't believe I didn't tell you about this.
Okay.
So Monday night, Monday night, I texted my friend Margaret and I was like, I'm really
in the mood for wings.
I'm having a very slow, boring day and she's gluten free.
So like wings or something that she can like do when she loves wings.
So we love Buff's pub in Newton.
Well, the afters of us probably got in the fire and swung us back and the other side.
Texas.
And she's like, I'm seeing on Twitter, the Twitter handle, I believe is caught in
Southie.
I'm seeing on Twitter that Zach Brian is going to be at this tavern in Southie
because he's doing these like
pre -album release parties at like, and I think the album is called The Great
American Bar or something like that.
And so he's like picking these like quote unquote American bars.
And I was like, do you really think he's there?
And Margaret's like, do you want to just like see?
I mean, it was like seven or 730 at night and we were like, there's no traffic right
now.
We, I had to drive her to Olson in any way.
We were literally on the pike reading these texts while she was reading the
texts.
I was like, let's do it.
So we went, the line to get into this tavern was four blocks long.
Wait until I get into it.
I can't believe I didn't tell you guys this.
So the line's four blocks long and I dropped Margaret off to get in line and
then I found a parking spot.
And so I'm like a people person.
Like I will talk to anybody.
So I get there, there's like two bouncers.
I mean, this place is like a shit hole.
It's like a dive bar, like.
I've never been on it before.
And Sherry was having her same thing.
And so it looks like it's added like a tab that you would want to put in a change of
properties.
So there's two mouse rooms there.
And I was like, hey, what's this?
Like, should I even get in line?
Like, am I going to get in here?
And they were like, we're at capacity already.
And it's like a one for one, like when somebody leaves, we're letting one more
person in.
And I was like, do all these people know that?
And he was like, at this point, I think they're just like waiting to catch a
glimpse of Zach Brian, like if and when he like rolls up.
And I was like, so like what's going on with that?
And he was like, he's like, we found out like a week ago that there was going to be
this like pre album, whatever thing here.
And that he's like,
stop him.
some of the bars that he does it at because he picked like 23 bars or
something across the country and this was one of them because his girlfriend is from
Boston.
So I was like, so he's like maybe not even coming and he was like, I mean, I don't
know, you know, I'm sure he was told to just like shoulder shrug and I was like,
okay, this is a little sus.
So I like found Margaret in line and I was like, hey,
I don't even know if he's really coming.
It's a one for one situation.
They're at capacity, blah, blah, and she's like, let's put a time limit on it.
Like, let's hang out for like 15, 20 minutes, see what happens.
It was a nice night out.
There was like a beautiful breeze.
I was like, I'm game, whatever.
And she's like, if it doesn't work out, we'll go grab a drink someplace else.
Cause we were right near Broadway.
So like, who cares?
So I see this couple come out of the bar and I'm like, who would be leaving now?
It's like eight, eight o 'clock at night.
I'm like,
you've been in here this whole time and now you're leaving.
And I was like, and they were like very preppy and cute looking.
And I was like, let's go talk to them.
And Margaret was like, I mean, I'm not talking to them.
And I was like, I'll talk to them.
So we crossed the street and it looked like they were like waiting for an Uber
basically.
And I was like, Hey, you were just in there.
Like what's going on?
And the woman, she was, they were like our age.
The woman was like, I've been here since two 30.
First of all, she was dressed very nicely.
This place is a dive.
She's like, I've been here from 2 .30.
I'm like a freak for Zach Brian.
And I heard that he like might be coming.
She's like, they have the album playing on repeat.
So she's like, I've been listening to this new album for like six hours and I've like
kind of reached my limit.
And somebody came in like quote unquote from Zach Brian's team.
and opened it because they were sitting at the bar.
So they like heard everything going on.
She's like, somebody from Zach's team showed up and put down like a credit card
and was like, this like this is for everybody in the bar for up to $10 ,000.
Like, so I think his record company just like threw down as like a promo.
So people were like ordering rounds of shots and it was like starting to get like
a little not rowdy, but she was like, it's escalating, right?
Like it's nighttime now.
People are out of work.
Like it's the summer.
So he never showed up.
I don't know if he went to any of the bars as far as I can tell.
It doesn't look like he went to any of them, even though he said on Twitter he
was going to.
I don't know how long people waited in line there.
We waited until like 8 .50.
I mean, once this girl was like, I'm leaving because this is like the situation
in there.
We were like, we went to another bar and got a drink.
But just like the whole unfolding of it and like the excitement of it and being
like, is he actually coming?
And like, let's talk to these people.
And I was like, very entertained.
I found the whole thing very entertaining.
And Margaret was like, I feel bad for all these people that are in line that like
aren't talking to any.
And I was like, well, I mean.
You have to like play the game a little bit.
Like you need to talk to the bouncers.
You need, these people just came out.
Why are they leaving?
You know what I mean?
Like you have to like kind of read the situation.
So that was my Monday night.
That's what I did.
You almost had a brush with fame.
Almost.
I've had other brushes with fame, so like, it's not like...
I wasn't...
I think that other people were like, very disappointed.
If I thought that an artist that I loved was going to come into a venue that was
small like that, I too would probably wait in line for a long ass time.
Like, I don't know, Steph and I have had this conversation a lot because we used to
go to like a lot of big arena shows and then we started going to like these
smaller shows and for a while we were going to a lot of shows for this guy, Matt
Wirtz, and he was playing really small venues.
And it was awesome.
It felt like he was literally making eye contact with you while like sharing
anecdotes in between songs.
And I think if you are obsessed with someone and you have the chance to see
them in a smaller place like that, of course you're going to try to do it.
Anyway, should we talk some books?
All right.
Well, we are doing a special little episode where we're talking about a
variety of books because we are talking about books that have been adapted for TV
or film.
or in some cases, both.
I have a book on my list that has gotten both treatments, which I think is kind of
special.
So we're going to go through what we think are our best ones and our worst ones.
And I don't know that we have that much overlap, but I feel like most of the ones
that we're all mentioning, like other people might chime in on it because I
think that even if we didn't put it on our own list, like the other people have
probably read it and or seen it.
So who wants to start?
Okay, we're going to start with our the ones that we think we're good.
Okay.
This one's semi recently come to TV.
It was on Apple Plus, I believe.
I read this book, I want to say like 10 years ago.
It is Wool by Hugh Howey.
It's actually a trilogy.
I've read the first two.
I did not read the third one.
But the show is called Silo.
Neither of you have read this book.
Okay, sort of like a
sci -fi dystopian -esque, where the world, the earth, is no longer inhabitable.
So everyone lives in a silo in the ground.
And it is about the sheriff dies and this one woman who works basically at the very
bottom of the silo in like the engineering section.
start, she gets picked to basically replace him.
And the upper crust people at the top of the silo are like, why does this person
who no one knows who's like basically like a grunt worker get to ascend and be our
new sheriff.
So she's sort of unraveling why the previous sheriff died, while there's like
these upper crust political players trying to like maneuver things around.
and when someone, they don't have the resources to basically have a prison.
So if you do something that is deemed, you know, unlawful, you get pushed outside
where the earth is inhabitable and you basically die on the screen.
Like everyone watches, they sit in the cafeteria, watch the screens and you just
die in front of them.
The books are hand -published.
I want to watch this.
I'm very intrigued by this.
And Mike, who may or may not listen to the podcast also, he's not a reader and he
liked the show so much that he went out and bought the books and like spread them.
And so I know I like that speaks volumes to me because he's not a reader and he's
like doing the reverse.
He's like, I want to go back and read this.
What?
I feel like that as a premise is really hard to adapt.
So what, like, are there any like standout parts that you were like, my God, they
nailed this?
so Rebecca Ferguson, who you would maybe know from The White Queen, which was on
Starz, also a fantastic book to film, TV adaptation, if you like, Philippa Gregory.
She's also in A Mission Impossible.
You would know her.
She's kind of an odd duck in like press tours.
She plays the grunt worker.
from the mechanical section who comes up and becomes the new questionable sheriff.
There's a lot of famous faces and I cannot think of them off the top of my head right
now.
It's sort of like a have and have not story and when a have not gets pulled into
the haves, it's like a, you know how like Twilight was very like grays and blues?
This is all interior because it's in a silo.
So it's got like a darker,
gritty film covering it.
It's fantastic.
And I don't think you have to like dystopian stuff to enjoy it because it's
more about like politics and who's playing the game correctly and who's bumping up
against the rules and that sort of thing.
So that is my first one.
Awesome mall you want to go?
What a totally different vein I'm about to take us in.
My number one choice, which was like when we decided to do this topic, I knew this
would be the first one I would say, is Sex in the City by Candice Bushnell.
The book is okay.
Like if you love New York City, if you love reading about a single gal who's like
hobnobbing with publishers and big people in the writing world, like you'll love it.
It's great.
It's very good beach read.
But for me, the show that resulted
or was inspired by that book became not only such a huge cultural phenomenon, six
seasons of the show, multiple movies, but to me, that show was airing real time when
I was in high school and college.
And it was like such an aspirational thing, fashion, living in the city, female
friendships reigning supreme.
There are still things I say to people when I'm.
giving advice about something that are direct quotes from that show.
And I think it's a case where the author shared about her real life and it was like
fun and light, but it turned into these four women who many people deeply relate
to talk about.
It just took on a life of its own that was so much more than the original source
material.
And sometimes when
shows go beyond what is written on the page.
It's a little like, I don't know.
Like, are they going to take this in a weird direction?
And I felt like this was an instance where it just got stronger and stronger and
stronger.
And I just love it.
It's like one of my most treasured viewing experiences of my whole life.
And I had a period where I couldn't rewatch it because I felt too real to my
own life.
And it was actually starting to make me upset.
But now I've come back full circle where it's like fun and joyful
I feel like the other reason apart from like the glitz and the clothing and the
what and being, I feel like, you know, she's a writer and a lot of people like
aspire to that.
And, but I also feel like it was one of the first shows where it was like females
can be sexual beings without being like total skanks or like not being labeled as
skanks.
And, I feel like that's why so many women gravitated towards it.
And then I also feel like.
there are so many gays that also gravitated towards it because of the
fashion and because they're like, these are kind of like the women that I would be
friends with.
And I feel like it had a whole awakening for a lot of people.
And I can't tell you how many quizzes that are like, are you a Miranda?
Are you a Charlin?
Are you this?
Are you that?
think for all the reasons you just said, all kinds of people gravitate to it.
But like, if I honestly had to pick one reason why people love it, it's because
the female friendships trump every other relationship in their lives.
And that's so unusual.
It like goes against the like, life is only meaningful if you get married and
have kids.
There's an episode where Carrie turns 35 and she's very emotional and she just
feels like crap and they meet.
at a diner and they're talking about how, what if like, we're meant to be each
other's soulmates, that it's not about romantic relationships, it's not about the
dream guy or the dream girl.
It's like, what if we can just be that for each other?
We can lift each other up, we can celebrate with each other, we can come
together when we need to commiserate.
And I, yes, like us.
But I remember seeing that like,
have a podcast in the revamp.
my god, I just like...
there is a podcast.
Okay, you two need to watch it.
There is a podcast in the new two seasons.
Carrie's on one.
No, it's Carrie.
I won't be watching it, but that's fun.
Caitlin, what's your first choice?
Okay, so I didn't rank mine in like any kind of...
Yeah, okay.
So the first one I'm going to mention is The Spectacular Now, which I did a
reverse.
So I saw the movie and then was like, I need...
Yes, in the movie theater.
I saw the movie and then I was like, I need to go back and read the book.
It's Young Adult, Coming of Age, which if you know me by now is like...
My tropes are Love Triangle,
and coming of age.
So the spectacular now follows this guy Sutter and he is like the life of every
party.
He is like very charismatic.
He's played by Miles Teller in the movie who I adore.
He's very charismatic.
He's very like carefree I would say.
And he's having a really hard time writing his college essay.
Like he can't like settle down and do it.
He has a mom that works as a nurse nonstop.
She isn't around a ton.
His dad's absent.
And he basically has this like random bump in with Shailene Woodley.
And she's like nerdy and she has a paper route and she, she's kind of like a
She's adding to the family's income basically.
She's helping support her family and she hasn't really ever had any time for
boyfriends or she sees that as a frivolous thing.
She's like, I have responsibilities, I need to do things at my house, et cetera,
et cetera.
She has this run in with Sutter and he basically is like, we're only young once,
you need to live a little.
They like fall in love and it's like a whole thing, but he also like has a
drinking issue.
Like he binge drinks a lot and it's like becoming a problem and he like gets her
into drinking and like, there's just a lot of like, it's just a really earnest story.
It's really like he's dealing with having an absent dad.
He's trying to write this college essay.
Like he's got a mentor at work that kind of calls him out on his shit.
And then he's dating this girl that he's like,
she's too good for me and like, he kind of gets to this point where he's like, am I
turning her into a party or like, am I a bad influence?
Like there's just a lot of things going on.
And I think it's so beautiful.
I think they are so talented in the movie.
Kyle Chandler plays his absent dad and he like the scenes that he's in are really
good and heartbreaking.
And I feel like Shailene and Miles have like,
really good chemistry.
They've been in more than one movie together.
They're very good friends outside of movies because they did the Divergent
movies together as well.
And I just, like you're watching it and you can like, it's like palpable, like
that they're falling for each other.
And you're like, I don't know if they're going to be a good fit long -term.
And like, it's just,
It's a coming of age movie that really makes you think and it's not like all
happy and like first love and prom and yay.
It's like, it's like teenagers that are dealing with real shit and like, it's
really good.
And in some ways, I think it's better than the book.
It's, it's like some of those things you kind of have to see to believe.
And so the book like does a pretty good job on a lot of it, but
I just thought that that was like such an unexpected movie.
And if you haven't seen it, you totally should.
I think it was only like maybe the second movie Miles Teller like ever did.
Like they're just, they're really, really good at it.
Like people should definitely give that movie a minute in my opinion.
Okay, my next one is Station Eleven, which I'm trying to remember.
Was that on HBO?
Caitlin, do you remember?
It was HBO.
Wait, did you watch it?
this book, I had like an unnatural attachment to when the book came out.
Like it, first of all, it felt like something I had never read before.
The premise is that, well, I mean this.
It's weird now since we've gone through COVID, but it's sort of like a COVID type
thing that happens where I can't remember if it's like only a quarter of the
population has left, but it's present day after most of the population has gone.
And then it's flashbacks to the night that stuff started, people started getting
sick.
And it is about in present day, it is about a troop, which reminds me of the
Oregon Trail type covered wagons.
There's the spirit of the others, which is just so certainly.
So many people have talked about this group of people is traveling around and
talking about this group's very own place.
But.
about found family because so many people are left without anyone and trying to find
something to like hang on to when there is literally nothing left.
I don't even know how to really tell it without like...
They're providing entertainment during a very bleak time and they feel very
committed to it and like they're they still have like auditions and they like
rotate who gets to be certain characters and they're on a journey all the time.
they come across, like they come across like a cult at one point.
And it's also about this airport where, I mean, flights got diverted and canceled
and people just ended up in this airport where they were like, what are we supposed
to do now?
And the flashbacks I love because it's about, I mean, it was different in the
book and the movie, but it's about
one guy who was at this theater performance when people started getting
sick and he was at Chicago.
Yeah, I think it was Chicago.
He and his brother, his brother is handicapped, live on, I don't know, like
the 20th floor or something of this building.
And it's about, they decide when it first happens to just sort of sit it out because
part of any sort of disaster is you think eventually it's going to get fixed, you're
going to get saved.
So they are up.
was
high.
I think he's in a wheelchair.
And so he's not going to get down.
Like he's not going to be able to crawl down however many flights of stairs.
So it's two brothers trying to figure out what the heck to do, how to survive.
Do we let anybody in?
That part is heartbreaking.
In the TV show, it's still heartbreaking, but they put a little twist on it that is
still worth watching.
And then one of the players in the past
is a little girl.
And then she's in the theater troupe in the present day and she's now an adult and
it's, I think her name was Kirsten, Kirsten.
It is, I don't know, maybe it's too close to home for some people if like COVID
affected you, but I read it obviously before COVID happened.
So it felt, at that point in time, it felt like this would never happen, but now it's
like, okay.
I don't know, it's about humanity, where you find reasons to continue on, found
family, but also just imagining Chicago decrepit and overgrown with tall grasses
is just, I don't know, it was beautiful.
I forgot to even say who the author was, Jesus Christ.
Emily St.
John Mandel, who also did Glass Hotel, and I don't know if she has any other books,
but she's a phenomenal writer.
Glass Hotel, you said?
I don't know if I know that one.
Okay, let me just, listeners, I keep track of every book we mention and this is a
long list, so getting it all in there so we can share it with you on Insta.
Okay, my next choice is Big Little Lies, Leanne Moriarty.
I read this book in anticipation of the fact that the show was coming out.
It was very well documented, you know, where they were filming and it had such an
A -list cast and I was like, ooh, I definitely wanna read this before I see
it.
I was not a person who had read like all of her books.
There are a lot of people who, yeah, Steph's raising her hand, you guys can't
see, but there are a lot of people who, she has like a cult following, I would
say.
I wasn't one of those people.
This was the first one that I read.
I loved the book.
I'm very into like the seedy underbelly of suburbia.
That is one of my favorite types of like Tom Perot's Little Children or like Bruce
Hollinger's The Gifted School.
Like I'm very into that.
So I knew I was gonna like it for that reason alone.
But the dynamics between all of these women was so fascinating to me.
And everyone acts like they're so perfect and they live in this gorgeous
neighborhood in Northern California.
And really, there's a lot of shit going on inside all of these houses and family
members and divorces and whatnot.
Then I think it's also HBO did the TV adaptation.
And it was awesome.
The music is amazing.
The cinematography is gorgeous.
The cast is incredible.
I particularly loved Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgard.
I think that casting was incredible.
There are things that had to be cut understandably.
You can't fit in every minute conversation that happened in the book, but I thought
they did a good job of capturing the essence of each of the women.
And I loved watching it.
I know they're doing a second season, excuse me, a third season, which again is
like, you know, what we're...
talking about earlier when they just continue beyond whatever was on the
written page and you never know if you're gonna like it or not but I think the cast
works so well together that I'd be willing to watch however long they continue.
So I only watched the first season, which covers the book.
And I haven't watched the second season.
And it's not because I didn't like the first season.
It's just because I'm like, I don't know.
I basically didn't trust the process, honestly.
I mean, I don't think they needed the second season, but I think you should
watch it just for Meryl because she dominates.
Okay.
All right.
Noted.
Okay, so I feel like I don't need to go into massive depth about this because I
have mentioned it before, but Friday Night Lights, I feel like I can kind of say
enough said and like we can move on.
But like the movie was very good.
The TV show is even better.
they just took, they took a story about people who feel stuck in a small town in
Texas and football.
And I don't mean just playing football, but like all the things associated with
it.
Right.
So like riding the coattails of like people who are going to get drafted and
like the coaching aspect and like the boosters and like.
all the things that like give people clout or opportunities to get out of that town.
It's covered and it's really not about football at a certain point.
And it's so beautifully done and they shot on location and I can't say enough good
things about it.
And if people want to talk about it, hit me up.
I'd be happy to go on and on for days and days, but I've mentioned it before.
And so I'm not going to dig in, but it is beautifully done.
I have to
have to
last good, I don't know how we want to qualify this.
I loved this adaptation.
It is If I Stay by Gail Foreman.
I love all her YA books.
This one, gosh, I don't know when this came out.
Was it like 10 years ago?
Have either of you seen the movie?
With Chloe Grace Moretz.
This is about Snow Day, she and her family.
of four are in the car together.
I can't remember where this takes place, but I'm picturing like the Pacific
Northwest and they all get in a car accident on the icy road.
And
Her family passes and she is the only one who she's in sort of like a coma stage
kind of going.
and forth to decide if she wants to continue to pass on and be of her family
or is it worth fighting to come back and live, but not have her.
family there anymore?
It's a beautiful story.
The adaptation was beautifully done.
The casting was fantastic.
It's emotional.
It's, I don't know, it's like a lovely YA story.
a little fantastical aspect to it.
Gail does fantastic books.
I can't think of the other series that's about a girl who is spent a day,
my gosh, she's on like a European vacation and I can't think of it and I'm not doing
her justice.
But I like blew through that series as well.
So I feel like a little, not angsty, but kind of like dark and emotional YA.
It's also a quick read, so there you go.
I never saw that movie, so maybe I'll have to add that to my list.
My next one is In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner.
So maybe I'll say about this one and then I can share some honorable mentions.
In Her Shoes, if you haven't read it, is about two sisters, Rose and Maggie.
Rose is kind of straight and narrow, a bit uptight, and her sister Maggie is kind of
a wild one, and they have a very strained relationship, and they wind up coming back
together again as adults.
And Rose falls in love and is just sort of struggling with how to or if to include
her sister in any way in her relationship, in her upcoming wedding.
And in the movie version, Rose is played by Toni Collette, who I just think is like
a dream at everything she ever takes on.
And Maggie is played by Cameron Diaz.
And Cameron Diaz has had a lot of sort of like silly and comedic roles.
This I think is actually one of her best.
performances where her sort of like beauty and wild goofy nature really plays into
this archetype of this character.
There is a scene at the very end of the movie which is Rose's wedding which I cry
every time.
I've probably seen this movie like conservatively 20 times and I cry every
single time doesn't matter.
I think if you are into sort of like family drama, family tension, the book is
great.
The movie I think is just as good.
I felt like when I saw it I was like wow they really
it, so now I'm gonna put it on my list.
good.
OK, so for my honorable mentions, I loved the book Bringing Down the House by Ben
Masrick, which is about the poker ring at MIT.
It became a movie called 21.
Most people don't even know that it was a book.
You should absolutely read the book and then reward yourself by watching the
movie, which is
awesome and very fast paced and high adrenaline.
Almost reminds me like kind of of the Ocean's Eleven movies.
I also wanted to talk about Fleischmann is in Trouble, which is by Taffy Brodesser
-Akner.
I hate read that book.
Everybody around me was talking about how great it was.
It was on these like critics lists and I was like WTF.
I don't get this.
I also felt that way about The Goldfinch.
But then I saw the TV
adaptation, which I loved.
And I thought like, this is why it's worth it for someone else to put like a lens on
some of these stories, because in the visual medium, I felt like I understood
characters that I had hated in the book.
So whether you've read it, you don't need to have read the book to understand the TV
series, but I think it's worth a shot.
And then my last one, which is really kind of like old school.
the sister of the traveling police.
by Anne Brashears.
I really liked the book, but I also loved this movie.
I feel like it came out at a time where people our age, it was kind of like the
right age, like peer level.
And I still rewatch it anytime I like casually come upon it on TV.
I think there are so many moments that people reference about that movie.
relationships, friendships, whatever, and I still, like with friends, if we're out
shopping and something fits everybody, I'm like, my God, it's the pants.
It's just like one of those things that has applications still in everyday
conversation.
So if you didn't know it was a book, you should definitely check it out.
And I just think that's a classic from the teen years.
anyways.
Okay.
So I have quite a few left that I'm just going to rip through because I feel like
they're all
I feel like some of the things that we mentioned before, like a little niche and
like we're cluing the readers in that they should check it out.
These are like my, you've been dead in a hole somewhere if you haven't heard of
them.
Normal People.
That's a TV show that I've watched five or six times through.
I cry every single time.
It makes me feel alive.
It's beautifully done.
I read the book after I saw the show.
The book is amazing.
Sally Rooney forever.
so normal people, amazing.
One day.
Didn't like the movie, really liked the TV show.
The book was amazing.
if you're somebody that likes to watch a couple that starts as friends and blossoms
into something else and get your heart ripped out, amazing.
Anything by Jenny Han.
So like her, To All the Boys I Love Before trilogy became movies and then her.
Trilogy that's the summer.
I turned pretty got turned into a TV show.
I feel like the books are a little Like generic and not the most well -written
things and I feel like the movie all the movies and the TV show She just like I
think maybe became a more mature writer and she adapted them herself and like she
really like dug in and figured out
what people wanted from the characters and like made them richer.
And I think, I don't know this for a fact, but since she started doing the movies and
TV shows, she hasn't come out with any more books.
And I feel like she might just be a screenwriter from here on out.
I'm not, I haven't read that anywhere.
That's just in my own head.
I've come up with that.
I'm not one to say like, skip the books, but like,
really don't think that they give or take anything away from the movies or the
shows.
And I don't say that lightly.
So I would just do the movies and the shows.
And then Spotlight.
So Spotlight is an interesting one because that is not a book to film situation.
That is a, if you don't know the Spotlight series in the Boston Globe, it's, they've
done it on Aaron Hernandez.
They've done it on like a lot of big
trial cases, but there's a spotlight team of journalists at the Boston Globe and
they do like a deep dive of like a year or two of investigative journalism.
And then it comes out in a multi -series every Sunday.
They give out another like part one, part two, part three.
And one of the biggest like prize winners for them where they won all sorts of
journalist awards was when they covered
the priest scandals in Boston within the Catholic Church and how the Catholic
Church was basically just transferring priests who were pedophiles to other
parishes to cover up that this was like a pandemic essentially.
And that's when my family stopped going to church actually was when all of that came
out.
And it was very...
I mean, it hit my family.
Like it really did.
And we didn't know anyone that had been personally affected by it.
Like we didn't know anyone personally that was molested, but we knew enough people
that were like, yeah, he was weird.
And like my parents told me not to be alone with them.
And like, you know, I know, I mean, my stepdad was an altar boy.
Like a lot of the priests like back in the day were heavy drinkers and like my
stepdad's like looking back on that.
I wonder if it was because they were like trying to
deal with things and it's just, it's really well done.
It's the acting is Mark Ruffalo's in it, Rachel McAdams, they cast it really well.
Michael McKeaton's in it, he is awesome.
And you know, if you're from Boston and you lived it, I feel like you have a
certain...
affinity towards it and it's like a time and a place and all of that and I just
think it was really well done.
And I went back and read all of the articles after the movie came out because
it was like 97, 98, I feel like maybe 99.
And so like, I was like 14, like I wasn't reading the Globe on a regular basis.
So I like went into the archives of the Globe and like read all the articles and
was like, wow, this was like an unbelievable unveiling.
And when
When that all happened, I was finding out about it on the news, obviously, but I
didn't know that they broke it, that they were the ones that were like, hey, we've
done all of our research and we've interviewed all these people.
We tracked all these priests down and they shouldn't have been priests anymore.
This is a bigger thing.
Then once that got unveiled, then they started doing investigations in all of
these other states.
It was like...
It was really, it was sad and gross and thank you to the spotlight team on that.
Should we move on to our bad adaptations?
All right.
We've talked about this before, but I...
This is like one of my heart books, Bear Town by Frederick Bachman.
And I really had the highest possible hopes for this show.
When I found out it was coming out, I was like counting down to the days and it was
on HBO.
Was it six episodes?
It was something short.
I think it was six.
so bad I tried to block it out
I hate to say like negative things, but it just, it did not do the book justice.
You did not get any of the backstory on any of the characters.
You didn't fall in love with them the way you do in the book.
You weren't even really rooting for anyone.
You, it just felt very unattainable.
co - So my whole family has read this book and we all watch the show.
Me, my brother, my stepdad, and my mom.
It's very unusual that any book has been read by all four of us.
Our biggest complaint about it was the heart -wrenching conflict that happens
like 250 pages into the book happens in the second episode.
It's like, I don't know who adapted it.
I don't know who signed off on it, but it's like the pace of it and what they
decided to focus on is idiotic.
I remember one day I actually visioned.
each episode would go, because this was back when I was like in my, maybe I should
stop writing books and start writing scripts mentality.
And this could have been like the most beautifully done show.
And it just it lacked the heart that is in the book.
So yeah, I'm sorry.
But this was a no.
Yeah, I'm just going to quickly say one that we've dissected at length in previous
episodes, which is that I loved the book, The Idea of You by Robin Lee.
I was so looking forward to this movie and I just felt like they got it so wrong.
It's one of those cases where like just the essence of the characters felt so
different.
Obviously, there are going to be changes in the adaptations.
You have to cut a lot.
There's not as much space for things.
but it just felt like the core requirements of what happened between
these two characters were missing and for how much press they did and how much hype
there was around it, it just felt like a giant flop to me.
Do either of you have more than one bad?
Okay, I have two.
So I'll say both of mine.
The first one is Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.
And the backstory on that is that Steph and I went to the launch party with
Celeste Ng of that book at Porter Square Book.
So like, we were in it.
We had a piece of the cake that her writing group created.
the only non friends that came.
know it was like publicized.
I mean, it was only her second book.
She hadn't blown up yet.
This was the book that like put her on the map.
And like we were at the book talk and she was like, I got an email from the Reese
Witherspoon and she wants to adapt this and she's going to have it be in her book
club.
And we were like at the event where she like told people that, which was so cool.
And we have great pictures from it.
And so like I read that book and you want to talk about
some words, behind closed doors, family, trauma, etc., etc., like buried secrets.
I mean, that book has a whole lot of it.
It's so well written.
And it's like, it's so, it takes place in Schumer Heights, which like was the place
that I didn't really know very much about.
And it's so good.
And then I got recently to have Joe, which we
already talked about big little lies.
And you're like, OK, this is going to be amazing.
It stunk.
It was not good.
I didn't even finish it.
The cast was amazing.
I mean, you got Kerry Washington, Josh Jackson, Reese.
I was like, this is going to be unbelievable.
No one was likable.
I felt like, again, they focused like Bear Town.
They focused on the wrong things.
They like flat.
They didn't get you invested in any of the characters.
I felt like the big twist that happens was like overly hinted at in the show.
So like.
people that had read the book were like, this just stupid.
I already found out what was going to happen.
And I was like, in the book, you don't see it coming.
And I'm like, shoot, should I read the book?
No, I'm not even gonna.
If you already see it at the show, you know what's gonna happen.
You know what I mean?
It was like, the like foreshadowing that happened in the book is like subtle and
you have to pay attention and like it's literally and you have to work at it and
like.
it felt like a network TV show.
It was like such crap.
I was so disappointed.
And everyone should read the book and skip the show in my opinion.
My other bad one, which again, I didn't make it through this movie, The Giver.
I loved this book when I read it as a kid.
I've met Lois Lowry in real life.
I got starstruck because I was teaching The Giver.
The book is stunning.
She is...
credited to have been one of the first authors to really launch dystopian novels
beyond the Ray Bradbury's.
She was doing it in the 90s, and this had been a genre that had been avoided for a
while, and she resurrected it and made it appropriate for kids.
This book is top of the fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade.
Ray Bradbury, and that was one of the people.
you know, like the Kurt Long kids and all that.
Those are high school things, really.
Or maybe even the animal farm.
So.
she really made it more accessible for younger kids.
And like, it's a banned book.
It's a beloved book.
She won the Newberry, like, and she had done Number of the Stars.
So this was like a real pivot and
It's a beautiful book, because you have to write it before you show it, as an adult,
you can do it.
in one or two sittings.
It's really like pretty quick.
It's on a lot of summer reading lists.
It's just wonderful.
And it got adapted as a movie.
And again, the cast, I mean, Taylor Swift is in it.
And, you know, it got really like the star treatment, like it's all the promos and
the this and that.
I think that's an option for your 40 minutes on it.
And I really like it.
This is the biggest disappointment.
It was just, it was like corny and like they added music to it and it like didn't
need it.
And like, I, Jeff Bridges was playing the giver and I was like, this is going to
blow my mind.
And like it, the script was so like the people in it did the best they could with
what they were given, but the script was.
awful and everyone should skip it.
It's just and I had students that read the like I taught the Giver and they were
like, well, Miss Madison, have you like seen the movie?
And I was like, don't even go near it.
Don't even think about it.
some kids that were like, I watched the movie because I thought it might help me
with my knowledge.
and like the stuff that I needed to hand in.
And they were like, not even a little, like not even.
I mean, we're talking 12 year olds were like, Miss Madison, you're right.
This is trash.
If 12 year olds are saying that and they're like, my gosh, the book is so much
better.
I'm talking about 12 year old boys.
You don't even like to read.
We're like, what a garbage movie that was.
So don't watch it.
Skip it.
You don't need it.
The end.
Okay, let's talk about what we're reading now.
I read Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen in two sittings.
Do you guys remember how you felt when you finished The Hunger Games?
Do you remember?
Okay, that's how I felt reading this book.
my, what an accolade!
So it's another haves and have nots story.
It is about a girl, Mare, who comes from a family of five kids.
At the start of the story, the father is disabled from the war.
They are struggling to get by, so she has become a pickpocket to kind of, you know.
Her sister's helping, her brothers have all been shipped off to war.
So it's the two younger girls and the parents just trying to make it by.
And the haves are the silvers, which are human but not because they all have like
abilities, which reminded me of, I'm blanking, but like districts one and two,
what were they called?
The tributes in those districts.
They were like, they'd been trained forever.
Do you remember?
know what they're called.
it reminded me of that.
So the Reds are just normal humans, don't have powers.
And Mayor meets this boy, she's pickpocketing him, he catches her, and he
gets her a job for the Silvers, like in the King's household.
And so, you know, this will provide for her family, so she can't say no to it.
So she goes there, and they are having what is called the Queen's Trial, where
all these young girls are basically
showing off their powers in order to perform, to be chosen, to be the eldest
prince's basically bride.
And in that, this thing happens where she ends up displaying a power, which isn't
possible because she's a red.
So the silvers and the king and the queen and all them in a panic decide, well, we
can't admit that someone who's human actually has powers.
And they say she's like a long lost silver princess.
This kind of is giving like shadow and bone vibes.
I didn't read it.
I only watched the show.
this is full of action.
It's YA.
it has sort of a Hunger Games feel because, you know, her family is still
struggling back, back home and she can't say no to what's happening because she
needs to protect them type thing.
And the excess of like the silver court is just like disgusting and gross.
I think there are five books in the series.
As soon as we get home from this little beach trip, I'm going to go to Belmont
books and get the...
of them because it was great.
It was a fun little, you know, vacation.
this fantasy land.
There's no better feeling than getting to the end of part one of a series and being
like, I cannot wait to read everything else that exists.
That's the best.
I finished yesterday, Sun Kissed by Casey West, which I mentioned during our last
episode, I had gotten as just an impulse purchase in Buttonwood Books.
The premise of this story is basically dirty dancing, except instead of a dance
competition, it's a music competition.
Ava set a standard camp and starts to fall for one of the staff members who is in the
stand.
I wasn't very nervous like, is it just gonna fall the same as I thought it would?
It did fall the same as I thought it would.
The picture was excellent.
Avery also has a younger sister who is on TikTok and wants to make a documentary all
about the band.
So she's like a fun little like pipsqueaky character.
and I read a lot of spicy books these days and I was also like, this is YA.
Am I going to just feel like bored by the fact that nothing's really happening here?
And honestly, the banter was so good that it made up for the lack of anything like
steamy or spicy that wasn't included.
it was just a delight to read.
Great beach read, great pool read, great plane read, just easy.
It's like magic 106 .7.
Easy listening.
That is a great
great way to describe, because that's for if you don't live in Boston, that's the
channel that does soft rock.
And also it does bedtime magic, which is like.
So when I was like in middle and high school, like that's the station I used to
put on and like daydream about slow dancing with my crush.
So yeah, OK.
I that's now my new favorite way to describe something like that.
Just nostalgic and yeah, I love that description.
It's a bedtime magic book.
I got you.
I am.
We're on the same page.
Okay.
I finished a book called Even If It Breaks Your Heart by Aaron Hahn and I'm not going
to get too into it because Steph just ripped through it also and now Molly's
going to read it and I think we're going to do an episode about it.
But
I will say it is a rodeo romance and and YA and I think that the cool kind of like
twist about this is that the boy lead is grieving his best friend passing away like
from page one of the book and it's a huge part of the story and he is on this
journey of like figuring out who he is without this best friend and like
Does he still want to do rodeo?
Was he doing rodeo because his best friend did it?
He lives on a ranch and the girl works on the ranch and he's like never really
noticed her before.
And so it's like, again, a have and have nots, right?
Like she works there, his family owns it.
Sparks fly, good banter.
She doesn't put up with any nonsense.
He's kind of like a fuck boy at the beginning of it and like kind of just
meandering his way through life.
I found it so enjoyable.
I ordered another one of her books, which is about a country music star who has a
fall from grace very publicly.
And so I ordered that from Amazon.
And I also started following her on social media.
And she just seems very cool.
And
I'm not going to get too much into it, but Molly, I think you're going to enjoy the
acknowledgments of this book because there's some things that are personally
related to her real life that got put into this book.
If this is your first time listening to Plans are Booked, you may not know that
I'm obsessed with acknowledgements, that I always read them, and that I often call
them out when we are chatting about books here on the pod.
So I'm excited for that.
And yes, Steph was ripping through the end of this yesterday while we were here
together, and I'm very excited to be the next one to read it.
If you guys want to follow along with everything that we've got going on, all
the fun book memes we're sharing, you can give us a follow on Instagram at
PlansAreBooked.
We will share every single...
book that we mentioned in this episode, so if you're interested in those adaptations.
diligently doing her note taking.
Yes, you will see everything.
And you can always DM us if you have a question about anything.
And if you have a topic idea for a future app, we'd love to hear from you.
You can write to us at plansarebooked at gmail .com.
And until next time, from Hall, our plans are booked.