Welcome to Plans Are Booked, a podcast for every reader.
I'm Molly Geller.
I'm Stephanie Blackburn.
I'm Caitlin Madison.
Welcome to chapter 34.
I think I liked being 34.
Did you guys?
I think it was pretty solid.
couldn't tell you.
I was probably renovating a house, but I don't remember anything about 34.
when Steph turned 35, sorry I'm skipping ahead, we did the most epic trip to Palm
Springs, California, and I feel like for the six months before that, while you were
still 34, we were planning, which was very fun.
Yeah, I think we also traveled on a side trip too.
We do.
I'm sure that was a travel trip that year also.
I think that's when we went to Tracks for the first time.
Which.
Yeah.
Turks and Caicos shout out to the Shore Club greatest luxury resort I've ever
stayed at.
know once we get Jackson Hole in books, I feel like we need to plan whatever the
next tropical thing is going to be.
I know.
of all, not only do you not have to threaten her, she has 900 places
bookmarked already.
I'm happy to plan it all.
I like always visit my parents in Florida and that's like all fine and dandy but
like they live in basically a retirement community and I just could use a little
more spice in my life.
You know what I'm saying?
Okay chapter 34 we are going to be discussing a book by Merritt Weisenberg
called This Golden State.
It is a I would say YA adjacent book because she
has just finished high school or is she at?
No, she's at.
No, it's the summer.
what should be the middle of her senior year.
Got it.
Because she's in like a summer school program.
So I say YA adjacent because it's like a book that's really it's about first love,
but it's also about all the people in her family.
And we'll get into that in a little bit.
But I think that similar to All My Rage, there's definitely like enough adult
elements to this that I wouldn't only put it in young adult.
I would say that it bends a little bit on genres.
Would somebody like to start on our catch up?
well i got a lot to catch up on should we do happy first or sad first?
not sad, anger i'm sorry we're doing roses and thorns this time
No, I'm just kidding.
I didn't know we were categorizing it.
go around the dinner table to do Rose and Thor and I always always Struggled to like
pick just two things.
I'm so bad at that game
I want to just shout out Erica Frank, who always calls it our daily pit and peak.
So let's do, we'll do the pit first.
I don't know if you guys know this about me, but my senior year of college, I found
out through a mutual friend.
on the track team that my boyfriend had been cheating on me with a freshman also
on the track team.
And this was back in the day of the first year of Facebook.
So there was no Facebook messaging.
Everything was done through AIM, if you remember.
I found out the girl's instant messenger name and messaged her and was like, hi.
This is the level of crazy that I am.
Hi.
I'm just off writing a text.
I don't know the story and we went to books one day and you didn't know what we
did.
bookmarks from our podcast.
I had to do it.
And you're telling me you hunted a girl down on AIM?
Yeah.
I thought she needed to...
No.
If you knew me basically before 25, I was a different stuff basically.
Anyways, I messaged her and was like, hi, I hear that you are dating my boyfriend.
I thought you should know.
So anyways, along those lines...
I thought you should know you're dating my boyfriend.
I mean, I thought we had four companies that I had done, but I need to do math,
you know, for people.
Yeah.
You mean 21 year old to 18 year old.
Girl to girl.
Let's be real.
to girl.
Side note, he didn't know I did that until I told him like a day later.
He was like completely...
I basically clotheslined him.
It was fantastic.
But anyways, along those lines, if I need to find somebody, I'm going to find
someone.
So as you both know, our...
My plumber, who will no longer be my plumber after this house is done.
People might think you're nuts for this.
I love this.
care.
You can call me crazy.
The plumber ghosted me.
So last Saturday, a week, a little over a week ago was the last time I had heard
from him.
And it was left that he was on his way to the house to finish up the three
relatively small things that he had left unfinished for probably four to six weeks
at this point.
Sunday didn't hear from him when I texted.
Monday, as you know,
I do not like to phone call people.
I would rather text.
Monday I started calling.
I called twice on Monday, I think twice on Tuesday.
Also texting at the same time because, you know, sometimes people don't like to...
I think that was...
Was it Wednesday or Thursday?
Yes.
called and pretended we needed a plumber at the dental office I run.
on my way home, I was going to go see a movie.
Maybe I was going to see a song.
I was going to go see a movie.
days for him to return the phone call to me.
So didn't hear from him, left messages and I left very neutral toned messages because
in my mind, the worst thing that could happen is that he just does not respond
and then we have to find another plumber.
And this is something, this is something where a plumber has signed off.
The plumbing inspector signed off on the rough, but he hasn't finished the second
part of it.
And a plumber is not going to want to step into this job.
and have fear in this also being sort of associated with his work.
So it's just like a physical situation.
So I could leave it on Ryan's work, where I do find his type of work, and found his
white -hawntons, right?
I've never met her.
I also wasn't quite sure what her name was.
The things I knew were that she doesn't.
know.
and that they have pit bulls.
And that's what I was going on.
Now, I'm going to start to define the status of their heads and their faces for
the process.
So also, I'm going to come up with a process of deciding what you can do to
just write a natural review.
And that's going to be one of the absolute factors that I want to be because it's his
business.
It's his life.
He's covering all of your things.
So I'm going to highlight the fact that I'm going to be actually starting off with
this.
So I messaged her very nicely.
the spirit.
This is where I would have been.
This is where I've been sitting.
Molly's been roasting on this as well.
And we've just been waiting.
I mean, I was like, Stephanie, give me the number.
I'm fucking calling this guy.
If he calls me back in 15 minutes, we will know he's a POS.
I mean, we know he is, but now we really know.
We would really know.
also just need to say for any listener who's hearing this tale and has been
following along or even if you're hearing it now for the first time if you're
thinking yourself why not just find someone else who would be willing to
finish the work this gentleman who they are working with already has been prepaid
so it would be a completely sunk cost if they were to try to hire somebody else
He should do the right thing and finish the work.
And because of the parts and all the parts he does, can be found on the internet.
You're right, and you'll see that this is where we do this all the time.
And since I used to work in customer service, for those who don't know my first
job out of college, I answered phones for two years in customer service at Fidelity
Investments.
I know all the worst things you can possibly say to get somebody to never
touch a business again.
So I messaged her on, we know it was Thursday, Thursday afternoon was my first
message.
And then I waited until next morning.
and discovered she had another personal account.
So then I copied and pasted the same message again.
And I erred on the side of like, maybe she has no idea whatsoever.
And since she doesn't work,
This is their dual income that is effective in not responding.
So I decided to feel like a nice price.
And I was like, I just want to make sure that she has responded to this, feel okay.
And it's also, you know, I'm not going to be able to grow through this.
and that's why he hasn't been responding.
That is what's heard on college.
They dress it because stuff is like, what if something actually happened that they
don't have a comma anymore and nobody can tell us that maybe it doesn't exist
anymore.
So we thought maybe that's what's being like, you know, giving them a sense of
doubt.
Yeah, maybe.
So, you know, we're to wait and see.
So the second part is first, here's my theory.
And then within like three to four minutes, he texted and claimed that he was
going to come yesterday.
I have not followed up to see if he didn't.
Well, I mean, I followed up yesterday and he said he hadn't been there yet, but he
was on his way.
I called BS.
I mean, this is what happens every single week.
So at this point, like he's the boy who crawled cried wolf and every other animal
in the zoo.
So anyway, I hope you have a fine little day today.
Hopefully he has finished, probably not.
I'm probably gonna have to hound him again all this week.
But now I know that I could just reach around and message the wife and she's
gonna be like, what are you doing?
I were him, I would be so embarrassed that clients are like hunting down my wife's
personal Instagram to reach me.
I, before I got embarrassed about it, I would be afraid of you because you hunted
down my wife on social media and messaged her.
And I'd be like, I got to get this chick's shit done real quick because she is not
messing around.
And then afterwards I would be embarrassed.
I think it would be that order.
But since he still hasn't shown up, I'm like, does he even have a brain?
Because we're like,
he, he, what I am imagining from like overhearing him, he takes phone calls the
entire time that he's, he's got earbuds in while he's doing his plumbing.
So he's taking phone calls the whole time.
And I think that he has over -spended himself, like, way beyond the picture that
he also had at the end of his career.
A whole series of things three weeks ago, and I quit.
So my surprise.
So I think that he probably over -spended himself assuming what it's not, because
he's out of hands, and then realized what he had done.
to himself.
But also...
people.
are in the same school and also three houses are two houses private.
So you don't not push the project out of your way or else you're going to have to
pay the cost.
I think that if you are a person who is highly apprehensive and you want to find a
way out of that, then HAC, whatever it is, in your entire business, rests on all of
that.
And the fact that he thinks you're not going to like warn every person you ever
encountered not to use him is insane.
And I've never seen something so simple drag on for so long.
And he is a very down -evaluated kind of person.
I feel like he's, his reaction to that, I think, more than I think he is.
He's like 12 times bigger.
He actually has a really good sense of humor.
He's trying to be really nice and the things.
But it's clear that he's not lying.
He doesn't even have any...
And listen, I had a lemon car.
I actually drove a car with an overheating engine.
I know what is the frequency that someone would need to have their car.
in the shop or actually have it.
It's just telling you to, it's kind of a break.
All right, so we're going to have a...
my my peak if you will is that I got to spend two days at the barn two separate
barns last week because the physical therapist that I've been volunteering with
so tired and I was so tired of having to do it against my medications and the loss
of energy.
So when you're away from the hometown, I found out that the barn, I was obsessed
with it.
It was like straight out of the drive for cattle farm.
So I'm happy I could get it.
called Barnyard.
And I went online, sure enough, they also do houses.
They're gorgeous.
she has a
monies in her horse's car, and I was like, I don't think I would call them.
I was like, I know it.
I also got two, four new kids.
These are kids that only work for a woman.
One of them, who might play possibly the biggest kid I've ever encountered, she
wanted me to know.
his voice is like Mickey Mouse.
It's the tiniest little voice ever and it's high pitched.
I'm not gonna go into like his personal stuff, but he...
sat me in a little child chair, had the belt put on, and didn't talk to us
whatsoever.
Got on the floor.
He was like chatting with us all the time.
He's not forming.
like complicated sentences, but you can sort of understand what he's trying to
say.
And he was just the happiest kid in the entire world.
It was, we were all giggling afterwards.
It was just delightful.
I will say though that I got.
got horrible seizures from wearing foreign boots for two days in a row and walking
into the house in steps each day.
So, it was really, not...
that anyone from ARIET is ever going to hear this, but maybe get some nicer barn
boots that don't cause blisters.
Sure.
So I had my last day of teaching this past week and then I packed up my classroom
because as I have previously mentioned, I'm not teaching at my school next year.
And I decided to form a self -help group for Target Party because in June 2020, I
left teaching back September of 2023.
now I'm leaving teaching again.
So I said, I just like to celebrate.
So I was like, and the Celtics were having a game that night and I was like, let's
just get some people together and have some bevs and kick off the summer.
And because typically, there's usually some kind of big like, and school year
celebration with teachers.
But since I'm leaving, and since they treat me like I'm talking to my house, I'm
like, no.
I know a lot of people from the school that they didn't come.
So.
I just decided to throw a shindig.
So we went to High Street Place.
We were going to go to Cisco, but Cisco is all outside.
It's a...
a beer garden from the Seaport.
I also had somebody that I invited to come as a truck driver to the park, and then it
was supposed to rain.
But I was like, no, there's a lot of people out there.
So the day started at 1 .30.
With two of my best friends, we went to legal harbor side, then we did get a drink
at Cisco after it stopped raining.
We barely finished our drink.
I don't even know if I told you guys this, we barely finished our drink.
It was so humid.
that the three of us were like up high.
And we were like, is there a problem?
And one of us, Ellie, was like, who is it that's going to help?
We were like, no.
We need to help.
like, get a pair of fish and it is more wholesome outside.
Cisco has these fake plastic grass mats on the ground.
And so that it looks like you're on a lawn, even though you're like in the
middle of the seaport with all these financial buildings.
And they were just filled with water.
And they have tents and canopies and stuff.
And just like everything was just captured in the air.
And it was like being in a sauna.
It was disgusting.
So we had to pull out of there.
And the times three plays, the cell gets locked.
had great company, had great food.
I'm a little bit, some people are like, I'm a little bit into like different parts
of my life altogether.
It's a lot of pressure.
I'm like.
Yeah, but you're gonna have to stop.
You know what I mean?
It's just so much pressure.
Like, all these people want for life and parents want for life.
It's like, if your friends be real, then they should not be wrong.
in my opinion.
I love it.
I love bringing people together.
I think it's hilarious what people end up connecting about.
And like a lot of the people that I invited to this are like people I met
through Ellie or people I met through Mark, like.
And people are like, I don't even know someone's got like Seth.
I know Seth because of Molly.
I know Elora and Tori because of her.
And I know Aaron because of them.
Like it's, I mean, I actually made a family tree as a house for all the people
that I've met.
at this thing.
And I freaking love it.
Can I say that, that, that she has a conversation that I always wanted to have?
Okay, so take it away.
I do!
gals
We walked in and she was like, the hosts are here, the hosts are here, I need to
get a picture.
literally called you guys celebrities at lunch.
And then when you guys got there, I'm pretty sure she was like, so lap time or
something ridiculous like that.
And I was like, my Lord.
so shout out to Ellie for making us feel, you know, like we're part of E or
something.
it was, yeah.
And we did get a picture and I will say high street place really decked the place
out for pride and for the Celtics.
They had like,
balloons that smell like friables from the salt nests.
They have adjacent canine life -size cutouts.
They have all these beautiful rainbow balloons that are very flowery.
They're sort of like the hot places for their photo ops.
I feel like we got a pretty good one.
And we posted it.
on Plans Are Booked.
I thought that that was really adorable.
In other news, I just have been on the internet.
all the time this weekend because I don't know if you guys know this, but the
Marathon Street of Normal People was this weekend in England, in London.
And it was like a...
charity thing that you had to like either donate or buy tickets to.
And obviously I couldn't go to London on a dime, but if I could have, I would have.
And...
I feel like grant was a lottery because then after you like made a donation they
picked a certain number of people to attend and it just not showing up and now
it's like
these like photos and like clips of it popping up on my Twitter.
And it is just like an absolute delight hearing these people talk about one of my
all time favorite shows.
There are some pictures of Daisy and Paul that I'm just like, if you don't end up
together, I literally give up.
Like, I just don't understand.
And some of the pictures are like the way that they're like holding each other and
the way that they're like looking at each other.
People on the depths of the internet have found mirror images of like when they were
filming normal people, like behind the scenes photos.
And I'm like, that was six years ago that they filmed this.
It came out four years ago.
And here we like, they're still looking this way at each other with each other.
It's just kind of like, almost all these areas.
the facts from my experience.
And I hope you should look it up and see if you can do that.
any interest in normal people whatsoever, because it's bringing me a lot of joy.
Okay, just also need to go back to your re -retirement party for a second.
For people who have not been to High Street Place in Boston, it's a very cool
like food hall marketplace type situation.
Steph and I walked in and this girl passed us holding something that immediately
caught my attention.
She was drinking bubble tea, but out of a teddy bear shaped cup.
And I just tapped her on the shoulder and I was like, I'm so sorry to bother you.
Where did you get that?
And Steph and I...
got the answer from her we turn right back around and found this place called Noble
Castella.
You can get any flavor of bubble tea, matcha, whatever in these teddy bear cups.
It's expensive, it's eight dollars, but then you get to keep your teddy bear.
Steph has already made iced coffee in hers.
I can't wait to use mine.
I'm going to put for those who are local to the Boston area, I'm obsessed with this
thing called the red dragon iced tea from Sofra bakery.
And I'm going to put that inside my beer.
And I also had two heavenly slices of pizza from tender onies, which is one of
chef Tiffany Faison's many outposts around Boston.
And I didn't get the giant pizza.
It was unbelievable.
I got slices because.
reminded me of like a gourmet version of Stouffer's French bed pizzas, which used
to be like my go -to.
you know, once I actually was young, I had a heart of peace, like crispy, and I could
just put the cheese in the sauce.
forward to eating that in the future.
on other food related news.
This week, I went back to this restaurant in Somerville called Josephine, which I've
been to a couple of times now, and they had a new spring menu item, which was
burrata with smashed avocado, and then this like delicious dressing situation.
And I don't know why I was a bit hesitant, like, these are a lot of soft flavors.
Is this gonna taste good together?
you?
It was the best thing we've had the entire year.
I have thought of.
it many times since.
And I'm like, how soon is too soon to go back for burrata and avocado?
isn't that the place that told us they didn't have mozzarella sticks and then we
saw people have mozzarella sticks so we need to redo where I can have a mozzarella
stick.
don't think I told you guys that when I went to Brighton Bodega a couple weeks ago
with Jen who had never been there before that we like ordered two things that we
didn't really like.
It was really upsetting.
Okay.
I know.
Okay.
One was a
burrata salad that was like, like absolutely covered in diced multicolor
tomatoes, but it had like no sauce or like anything like they put oil on it and I was
like, that doesn't do anything.
So it was just super bland and we ate maybe half of it.
And then the other thing was a peanut butter and jelly Rangoon, which can I just
tell you,
it was a wonderful -
filled with warm peanut butter.
And then they gave us like a sweet chili sauce to dip it in.
And we were like, what's the jam part?
And they were like, the sweet chili sauce.
We each managed down one.
And they were like, do you want to pack these up?
And we were like, absolutely not.
So don't get either of those things when you go.
Everything else we ordered was amazing.
And most of it was things that I've had before.
But we like went out on a limb on those two other things.
And I love burrata.
so I was really excited to see a new burrata twist on the menu.
So planned.
And I love that place, but those two items are rich.
So you should take me to Jessica's, because that's what I'm saying.
My other favorite was that it was an old, huge student in Hollywood.
I'm coming to this recording after just having been in Hull for the last two days.
My cousins are like in the mode where they're now like coming down every weekend
and we like everybody packs their lunches for the beach and we hang out there for
the full day and then we're like.
walk off the beach and we're texting each other all the walk home like about where
we're gonna have dinner.
It's just like such a wonderful time of year where like the beach is just like
full of all the people that I've known my whole life like the neighbors that we've
seen a million times over.
The ice cream truck returned today for the first time.
I mean it's just like signs of summer and last night there was this like epically
beautiful sunset.
I posted one video of it on Instagram but there about 70 on my phone.
It's just one of those nights where you're like
I want to just implement this on my creative so I'm delightful, and I'm just
saying it's like beautiful summer.
I like to, when I feel like summer is gonna finally hit, which is kinda like
ending this weekend because I don't have school tomorrow.
I always like to watch the rest, mow back to summer.
Like Sandlot.
Or now and then.
Sometimes it's just like, not easy.
Like a banana bike needs to be involved.
It's so, it's just so, and I'm -
watch those movies like...
at some point at the beginning of the summer and I'm just like It just it's like
one of those like a pink lemonade You know what I mean?
Like it just like hits you and you're like, this is just In the book we're
talking about today takes place during the summer.
So that's kind of a fun segue as well
So I don't know how I found out about this book.
I was racking my brain.
I think I literally just saw it at Brookline Booksmith and was like, this
looks interesting.
So this Golden State, I, nobody told me about it.
I just found it.
And then I was telling Molly and Steph, I was looking for a different book in my
house because I have four or five to be read piles in my house.
I was looking for a different book and I saw this Golden State buried at the bottom
of this pile and it's the last pile I looked at.
I was like, what's this one again?
Then I looked at it and I was like, this is like a YA mystery.
I had just come off reading Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
I was like, I would love another YA mystery.
That sounds terrific.
I started reading it and basically,
The very brief version of what you need to know about this book to know whether or
not you would be interested in reading it is there is a girl named Poppy.
And Poppy goes by a different name every place that she lives because her family is
on the lam.
And they have been since she was a little girl.
And she has a younger sister whose name is Emma.
And they're only allowed to use their real names within their house.
They can't use...
their real names anywhere else.
And from the start of the book, not only do you not have any clue as to what
they're on the lam from, but Emma and Poppy also don't know.
And Emma's at an age where like she's starting to get a little curious and Poppy
is getting to an age where she is very sick of not being able to put down any
roots.
She's not able to like stay in touch with friends once they leave a town.
She's very smart and she's like, I want to go to college and like applying would be a
problem because like, she doesn't even know where their family gets money from.
Like they just pull up to certain places and her dad says that he's like picking up
an envelope of stuff and then they get a new address and away they go.
And she's turning 18 and she's like, I need to find out some things.
And on a whim.
at the very beginning of the book, she does like a spit DNA test that you kind of
are like waiting throughout the book for that to like come to fruition and like,
find out what it is that's going on.
This book has a bunch of different twists.
It has a bunch of different things going on.
So it's like, how do you trust people that basically, I don't want to say have lied
to you your whole life, but have omitted the truth?
How do you...
survive in a situation where it's like, if you go, like if you veer from the planet
all you're putting your entire family at risk.
Their entire motto is do whatever you need to do to keep us together.
That's like, like their entire childhood, that's how they operate.
And she's starting to have these like bigger dreams.
And she doesn't really know what to do with them.
Because she's like, if I have these dreams, I'm sacrificing everybody in my
family.
And I don't even really know what the consequences would be because nobody even
trusts me to tell me what it is that we're hiding.
And then in the midst of that, she has her first love, which makes her like take some
risks that she normally wouldn't take.
And it's just this like really intriguing page turning story.
And it sounds like, you know, like a big mystery and like there's going to be these
reveals and twists and there are.
But in the midst of it, I also like cried.
I cried reading this book because of the sacrifices that they're making, because of
the unknown.
When things are revealed, it's not what you think it's going to be.
And it's just, and everybody in her family kind of has like a different reaction to
having to hide all these things.
And they like push it down and deal with it in different ways.
And you watch that unfold and you just see how different people.
to having fear, knowing what the consequences are.
And it just really surprised me.
This book really surprised me a lot of ways.
And I was shocked that I hadn't heard about it before because it's really good.
And I love it.
And everything I've been doing so far, I think, has also helped.
I think having just come off of All My Rage, this, to me,
this read like clear YA compared to that one because that one, I don't know if it
was the writing style or somehow that felt more serious, even though they're both
very serious topics.
This one felt like to me it was very clearly in the YA genre.
With that being said, one of my favorite, it's not like a trope, but it's like a
plot.
discovery thing is when children realize the parents they thought they knew or not.
There's some, even in adult literature, there's something about a character having
to reconcile their self -image of their parent growing up with discovering the
person is not who.
Not even in necessarily this scenario, which this is like a very drastic
scenario, but like, I can't even think of like a...
them.
There's something so true about them.
Maybe it's, you know, some sort of self -stopped, just a whole childhood versus
having to go, you know, like, to the church.
on the way that you thought they were.
I also...
Yes.
an adult and you're like, they're actually not very good at adulting and they just
fooled me this whole time
think it because in this story, you're it's like very drastic.
You're learning the secrets that were kept and who the parents truly were before.
So this is like the most extreme version of that.
But I feel like maybe it's like primarily in women's literature.
I just there's something about reconciling your parents aren't who you thought they
were, you know, that I just love.
I love this book.
I also had not heard of it until Caitlin was like, I read this and loved it and we
should discuss it.
I didn't know if it was a YA or not when I started it.
And I think I was maybe one chapter in when I was like, I think this is YA, but
also I would totally believe if it isn't because it just covers so many mature and
intense topics.
I agree with everything that both of you have said.
There were two things that really stuck out to me.
The first is that it was reminding me so much of Tara Westover's Educated
because...
she's like with a dad, unless I'm a credit -based girl, they can't let you do.
He's very, like, radical because you just don't know what's happening with her about
you.
Just the idea of being a good teacher as a young adult and just like your entire
family.
squandered by your circumstances.
So it reminds me a bit of that.
But also there is a professor in this story.
Poppy's taking a summer math class at Stanford.
she's naturally gifted, which I was like, my God, she's like good will hunting, but
Poppy.
And the professor really takes like a keen interest in her from the very first day.
The professor definitely thinks she's being abused as she tries to figure out
why she can't like, doesn't have a computer, she doesn't have access to
email, she's not allowed to like do certain things.
They try to get her an internship and she turns it down.
Like there's a lot of things where the professor just sees like red flag after
red flag after red flag, but she never gives up on her.
She just continues to try to.
sort of like open things up, like see if she'll come off of it, like continually
there's a lot of opportunities for her to think about things in a different light.
And Gail and Prachi also have the first love story, so she meets a guy, he's not a
scary, and they just like really have the blinding eye vision of something to each
other.
He has an interesting backstory to what it's not.
is a very public figure.
She's a politician.
His dad is supposed to be the founder of like a Google like company.
So he also is under a lot of pressure to behave in a certain way and not talk about
certain things.
And they just kind of find this like kinship in their isolation, I would say.
And their relationship unfolded in a way that I wasn't expecting.
I'm not going to say more because I want people to read it and enjoy it, but I am
always rooting for a happy ending.
That's just like how I'm hardwired.
And in these stories, you just kind of never know where it's going to go.
And I was.
prepared either way with them, that they could wind up together, they could not
wind up together, but I was gonna be happy either way just because of how they impact
in each other's like view of the world.
trajectory.
and trajectory.
I also thought Steph is great at like predicting where stories are going.
I really not.
I didn't see the identity of the parents at all.
Like when it finally got revealed, I was like, my God, this is like so much more
involved and insane than I thought it was going to be.
clearly taken from true crime stories.
yes, but I also felt like it really paid off.
Like the feeling you had the whole book where you were like, why are they always
on the run?
Why do they keep doing this to their daughters?
Can I just interject that at one point I did wonder what if one of them is having
like a mental illness and it's all built up in their own head and it's not a real,
you know?
yes.
And also, I just want to say, I put a little sticky on this is page six of this
book, like early, where she just says, this is Poppy's voice.
Usually I saw it coming a month, a week, definitely a couple of days in advance.
This one I hadn't sensed at all.
I thought for sure I get to finish this school year.
It's like you keep feeling her disappointment and also her desire to like
keep her heart and mind open to new people and new experiences, but knowing she's
just going to get.
like kicked down over and over and over again.
I loved this.
I thought it was really interesting and I didn't know where it was going so I just
kept wanting to know what was gonna happen and also I love a short chapter.
This book has really short chapters in a way where I would finish one and be like,
I can do one more or I can do one more and then you wind up finishing the book faster
anyway but I appreciated that there were these little like breaks to let you decide
if you.
want to always get off the spot on anything, but I actually was mad that I
didn't get corrected.
I'm going to finish up my time book where the parents' back story, because I was in
love with America, was kind of...
It obviously is explained, but like I want to know what they were thinking in their
minds as they were living through that.
But I also want to...
see you all.
I've seen you.
agree and also in my head like when I was reading the book you find out like
when the traumatic thing happened that led to them being on the lam, like the mom was
already pregnant with Poppy, but then she has Emma, her younger sister.
And I'm like, on what planet did they think it was a good idea to have Emma when
this is now you've got four people you've got to try and move around.
And there just wasn't like really an explanation for that.
And I don't think that spoils anything for anybody.
It's just like that doesn't come around.
And I feel like in a prequel or a sequel,
we could get mid -prime time, and it also sounds bad, but it's been such a great
career that I wanted to know more about.
This is obviously relevant, and I think that that's a hot topic to stick in the
DAP party.
And it's just in the...
mention of his backstory, you're like, I need to know why he made that choice.
And I feel like I would like to know more about him and kind of how it all unfolded.
And yeah, it just, there's, there's a lot there that she could dig into a little
more.
I think this would be an unbelievable short TV series.
Eight to 10 episodes, I think would be brilliant.
I feel like you know who would do it fantastic?
Cadley Mack.
yeah, Karina Adley -Mackenzie.
She's doing the adaptation for We Were Liars, which I believe that they're
combining the prequel and the original.
I don't know if they're doing like Flash, but I don't know how they're really doing
it.
But I feel like, yeah, she would be really good at.
But I'm telling you, we need our listeners to pump this book out.
Like, we're trying to, but we need...
Everybody's been told, as a further point, that I saw the e -book store the other day
and I was like shocked that it was like a copy of which else because I had no clue.
haven't heard anything else about it.
And I didn't look this author up, but I think I did look her up at one point and
she doesn't have any other books, I don't think.
Or if she does, they're not YA.
Now I'm, now I'm backtracking on what I said, but I, I am pretty sure if she had
other books, I would have already bought them.
I think this is her first book and also...
thought the entire time this should make it to the screen because the characters,
as you already said, are so rich, so layered, so flawed.
Like I could just easily see, and also the natural tension from the fact that they're
always on the run just sort of keeps your adrenaline up.
but then you get the love story, you get the mentorship thing.
There was really, it was so thoughtful and I loved it.
can tell you right now I know why I bought this book.
The epitaph at the beginning, California, I'm coming home, Joni Mitchell.
Joni's my girl.
Taylor and Joni are my girls, in case anybody was wondering.
And so that would have sold me right there.
If you have something about Taylor at the beginning of your book or Joni Mitchell,
I'm probably going to buy it.
Joan Didion is my third girl.
If you mention any of those three people, I'm going to buy your book.
Sorry, not sorry.
What are people reading?
I am currently reading a book called The Murder After the Night Before by Katie
Brent.
It was the cover that got me.
I got this at Belmont Books.
It's a hot pink cover.
This is a messy book in the best way.
It is about a woman and now I'm blanking on her name, which is so embarrassing.
holiday party happened one day and she starts looking to follow the boy as she
wakes up fully dressed in the night form with the strength and the men who those
concocted her and she doesn't have to tell him that she shouldn't.
remember meeting this person.
And she's on her way to work when she realizes people are kind of...
at her, looking at her, laughing at her, and when she gets into work, how do we put
our pulls into everything.
And basically a direct video is only a picture of her giving a screen time
because it's from a distance of look, and it's all the way in front.
And so she is worked at as a public relations, also working as a job worker.
it.
And when she heads home, she soon discovers that her...
best friend's last roommate has died of a disease in her bathroom.
And she has it from remembering someone who had been living with her for a long
time.
And she thought it was her good son who had inflated them.
That's what I thought was right.
it.
It's messy in the best way.
It's short chapters.
There's, I mean, I'm not that far into it.
I'd say I'm.
Very big time.
in, so much action has happened.
You feel for this person because her life is basically spiraling the drain.
And you want to know what the heck happened at this party that she just got
blackout drunk and has no recollection.
But you also want to know what the heck is happening with the best friend.
So it's a fun read.
I'm reading One Last Summer by Kate Spencer, who we mentioned last episode and
possibly the one before.
This is a story about a woman named Clara who is working at a startup.
And in the first couple of pages, her boss, the founder, is making an all
company announcement about how in order to help people have like great balance, work
-life balance and mental health, they're going to start initiating what they call
mini sabbaticals.
And she's a U .S.
citizen.
their team can nominate them for one if they think they need a break.
And she decides to pick on Clara in front of the whole company and say, like, you
are the most burnt out person here and your sabbatical starts right now.
So she uses the sudden time off to go to New Hampshire, to go to a summer camp
reunion.
So I am only 40 pages in, but.
I'm very excited to see where this goes as is well documented here on this podcast.
I'm a big summer camp person.
I went for most of my life.
The friends that I have from that time are still some of my best friends to this day.
So I can't wait to like fall down this New England summer camp rabbit hole.
and it opens just like on quite a dramatic note.
And I also love on the very first page, Clara is standing next to her assistant as
this announcement is being made.
And the thought that he says the same as the lady, that we just can't start, you
know?
And I just love that it's all, you know, points and events on a personal level.
And I can't wait to go out to live with him, because I think I'll finish pretty
quickly.
And then we'll go to the house and I'll do the house.
I'm doing my homework, which means the kid that I tutor got assigned summer reading
books.
He was given a very large list of books that he could choose his second book from,
but everybody entering seventh grade at his school was assigned the first book,
which is the graphic novel New Kid by Jerry Craft.
I find it very interesting that this is the book that was selected as the required
reading for everybody going into seventh grade at his posh private school, because
it is about a, it's based on the author's real life.
He grew up in Washington Heights in New York city.
He ended up wanting to go to an art school and instead his parents got him on a
scholarship to this like she private school where he was one of like four non
-white kids in the whole school.
And so the book starts on the 12th and the kids are reading like, you know, passive
aggressive comments about like, you're so much like the, you know, free algebra
teacher.
then like, he gets to class and the pre -algebra teacher is black.
So it's just like, it's these like aggressions that like the kids don't even
realize that they're doing, but, and you know, it's just, there's like a lot of
things going on there.
And I found it interesting because the kid that I tutor is not white.
And so I was very excited to see what his perspective is because he goes to a
predominantly white private school.
So this pool was like,
going into seventh grade has to read this graphic novel.
I'm like, this is like, did they roll up their sleeves?
Because this could really
And also, I found that the school was too hard for me to get in.
over the summer where they're not getting any guidance.
Like I know that they'll follow up in the fall about it and like they will obviously
talk about it as their like one shared read.
But like it's got a lot going on and like he didn't get a lot of information about
it beforehand.
He had never even read a graphic novel.
I had to like explain to him how you go through the panels and like how to look at
it and how to think about it.
And he's like, we want us to do, like, stick these very contradictions.
We want us to do stick notes to report our thinking, because we're going to be doing
a bunch of activities when we go back to school.
A little bit of a lot of it.
He's like, there aren't that many words here.
Like, I'm not even aware of that.
And I was like, we will work on that.
I was like, you really have to look at the pictures.
I was like, everything's dialogue.
There's no.
And he was like, I didn't really think about that.
And I'm like, yeah, you have to look at where these speech bubbles are coming.
from.
Like, did somebody find the details that I had to go over with because he had never
read a graphic novel before?
I think I actually taught someone how to approach this before.
So that was really interesting.
The book so far is really good.
I'm about halfway through.
It's won a bunch of awards.
It's been on the site two or three times for a long time.
I've never really...
I've never taught a graphic novel before actually.
And so.
there are a lot of times that I'm trying to be in line to see if I fit in
something.
And so this was kind of like a shrug to the bottom of my list because it never was
a good spot.
So I'm not going to have fun in it because I have to do really good things.
And I'm going to be doing some writing activities to kind of get you thinking
about what's going on.
I doubt that he really is that carefully looking at the pictures and there's like
one particular scene.
one of the kids gets called an Oreo.
And then like a picture
and the main character's name is Jordan and the other character's name is Jerry.
So Jordan is like, I know exactly what that means and then he draws a self
-portrait of himself where his head is an Oreo.
It's like white on the inside, black on the outside.
Anyways, there's just a lot of interesting things going on and Grout is picking up on
that.
of them because he's probably rushing through it and it's the summer and he's
12.
So I would first take a look at that, what the difference is going to have.
professional and I call him a lot of evidence in my project called The Go -Shit
Moments.
So I'm looking forward to that because I think it'll be good.
We'll have some good moments and some bad stuff.
It's not the bad stuff that I feel because I feel like, yeah, this is happening to
me.
I just have a feeling that there's going to be some connections there.
we're going to unpack a little bit and it'll be good.
I think it'll be really good.
I hope you'll give us an update when you guys get to the end.
If you want to follow along with everything that we're reading and loving,
you can give us a follow on Instagram at PlansAreBooked.
And if you have ideas for books you'd like us to cover or you think we should read,
you can send us a note to plansarebooked at gmail .com.
And until next time, our plans are booked.