Houselights from The State News

Liz Nass and Claire Donohoe go full Dewey Decimal, remembering their favorite books read for school or personal enjoyment.

What is Houselights from The State News?

The State News discusses issues and the cultural impact of entertainment news including TV & film, fashion, music and more.

Liz:

Welcome back to House lights, your one stop shop for everything you need to hear about this week in the world of entertainment. As always, I'm your host, Liz Noss, joined by my beautiful, wonderful co host Claire Donahoe. And this week, we're getting literate.

Claire:

How long did it take you to come up with that intro

Liz:

there? Twenty seconds, actually.

Claire:

Oh, off the top of the

Liz:

the cuff. We're we're riffing today.

Claire:

Love it.

Liz:

I'm riffing today. Claire actually came very prepared, but I'm just gonna bounce off of her. You look like a book reader today.

Claire:

Thank you so much.

Liz:

Sorry. I didn't say what the I just said we're getting literate. We're gonna talk about books, books, books.

Claire:

You look like a book reader because you're wearing glasses.

Liz:

Thank you. They're flutter. They're glasses for my screen injure tendencies. They're blue lights.

Claire:

But today, we're gonna talk about books and reading and no screens. Unless you read on a Kindle, in which case

Liz:

You're weird.

Claire:

But it's okay.

Liz:

Oh, thoughts on that?

Claire:

I'm personally not a Kindle person.

Liz:

Oh, me neither. I like a page. Yeah. Like a page. I like

Claire:

to write. But Kindles are very accessible in the sense of you can keep a lot of books on there at once, you could travel with an easy read, you don't have to lug around a lot of books. So I I understand Yeah. But it's not for me. Anyway, let's talk about books that we love or don't love.

Claire:

But I think most of my notes are just books that even if I don't love now, I have a deep special spot in my heart for for nostalgia factor. My notes are divided into just like relationship to reading as we usually start out with and then, you know, like books I've loved through the years, what I'm reading why I think reading is the best. For some additional context, I'm an English major, which we'll get into. Reading and writing I want reading and writing have been the only academic subject that I have ever, ever been interested in in my life. Same.

Claire:

So

Liz:

I was so bad at science.

Claire:

I can't do a simple fraction still.

Liz:

I can't read a graph.

Claire:

But I did read all of the My Weird School books.

Liz:

So My Weird School. Will start. Yes, please do.

Claire:

So as a kid, I was a huge reader. I'm gonna shout out my parents. My mom is a huge reader. And both my parents were just really good about making sure, like, I read before bed, like, I I mean, also it was before the the boom of, like, a nine year old having an iPhone, so I think that helped out. But they were very good about my mom loves the public library.

Claire:

She's constantly talking about wanting to, like, work there after she retires. So we would go to the library, we were I don't know. We're just like a big reading house that was very encouraged. So with that said, combined with my inability to do math or enjoy any type of, like, science y numbers y situation, I became very into reading, would read on my lap, like when the teacher started the math lesson, for example, under my desk. I loved writing fiction as a kid, which then made me want to write more so I could or read more so I could write more fiction.

Claire:

Fortunately, I do have the ability to visualize in my head. And you might be thinking, don't we all? No. My younger brother once told me that he doesn't like silent reading because he finds it boring, regardless of what book he's reading because he has and there is a scientific term for this, something maybe that begins with an a. I used to be very fascinated by this in high school.

Claire:

You so much. Afantasia? Is that yeah. And that is when you cannot visualize pictures in your head. So my brother was never really bothered by movie adaptations of books.

Liz:

That is so interesting.

Claire:

Said, he goes, you know, we we would we would read a book in language arts class and then we would sometimes be allowed to, you know, watch the movie in class. Or even if a movie was coming out, kids are talking about it, whatever it is. And Jack would say that he he didn't understand why people were so upset when they talked about it or why it was challenging the image they had in their head. He had no image in his head to be challenged. Fortunately, I do have that and I do love silent reading and I loved that as a kid because I had a very vivid imagination.

Liz:

Oh, yeah. Was constantly getting those reading renaissance points.

Claire:

Oh, yep. Those March's reading month calendars Oh,

Liz:

yeah.

Claire:

Taped next to my bed, literally like touching my pillow. I mean, I would keep it within inches of my face so that I could take my little pencil and before bed each night, cross off my thing.

Liz:

Wow. That's super nerdy.

Claire:

Yeah. But yeah. I mean, I was nine. So Hey.

Liz:

Loved it. Yeah. No. I've always been I I I've always been a big reader, always reading books. I was a big public library kid as well.

Liz:

Love it. Attended, like, all the events. If I went to my old public library, I think that I would start to cry Mhmm. Or something, like, because that's hold just so much memories. I actually designed the playground for the library that was in my town because I was a library regular.

Liz:

Wow. Boom. Boom. But, yeah, my mom is an English teacher, so she was always reading to me, reading with me, whatever. Yeah.

Liz:

And, yeah, I was the kid also reading fiction in the back. I can read this in my cover letter if you'd like to hire me. Shout out. I time of year. At the top of the at the my top of the cover cover letter, I talk about news, which I wrote in second grade on a piece of computer paper, and I would pass them around.

Liz:

Wow. And then I made an e magazine as well. What does it stand for? Elizabeth. Anyways

Claire:

but She's always been creative.

Liz:

She's always been a little bit of a journalist. Always been a little bit of a writer, reader.

Claire:

Yeah. Right. Involved in the arts from a young age.

Liz:

By the way, I've never heard of my weird school.

Claire:

Okay. So they're

Liz:

Let's get into it.

Claire:

So, yeah. Let's let's let's talk about our faves. Realistic fiction. So I'm gonna start with elementary school, which is

Liz:

when I haven't heard realistic fiction as a genre in so long. Okay, Dewey Decimal.

Claire:

Mhmm. I'm trying to get back to the amount of books I don't know that I'll ever recover. I was like eating them as a kid.

Liz:

Oh, yeah. Like,

Claire:

was comp exactly. Taylor's doing this motion. That was me all the time. Reading all the time. Now the phone is killing us all.

Claire:

But anyway, that's not the phone's fault. I need to be an It kind of is. It is. But I need to be an adult and be like, oh, I can't read. You can still read.

Claire:

You still know

Liz:

how You could put it down.

Claire:

You could yeah, you could put your phone down and pick up a I ordered books today actually in honor of this episode on Thriftbooks, which you introduced me to.

Liz:

Thank could buy your books

Claire:

on Thriftbooks, shop secondhand in any way you can. Thank you so much. This is super sustainable. Okay. So with that said, I'm trying to get back to the volume of books I read as a kid.

Claire:

This is not at all a full list. That's crazy. But some that jumped out at me just off the top of my head.

Liz:

That I'm liking?

Claire:

Realistic fiction is was and kind of still maybe is like my favorite type of

Liz:

you say realistic fiction, do you also mean historical fiction?

Claire:

I I did like some historical fiction when I was younger. I really liked the like American Girl Doll books.

Liz:

I was literally just about to say that.

Claire:

I loved the American Girl Doll books. I wasn't really even a big American Girl Doll kid, but I I quite liked the books. And then I would I would immediately I would like to read two books at once because I just thought that that was like a

Liz:

cool Oh, I could never do that.

Claire:

I wasn't a fact that I would do it. So I would I would pair my historical fiction American Girl Doll with Geronimo Stilton, if anyone is familiar. That's a cartoon mouse and every couple of words are in a different font or color. It's not at all an accessible read. And I probably actually What's that?

Claire:

I actually probably wouldn't recommend it to children learning to read. I mean, or maybe, if there's some type of like science. But anyway, very different things. So those two occasionally sci fi. One of our authors in April, which shout out, love authors in April.

Claire:

Keep that around, please God. I believe I could be wrong was the guy that wrote Michigan Chillers? Yes. So those I

Liz:

met him. He gave me an autograph.

Claire:

Love it. That man whose whose name I'm blanking on, so sorry. But I read a lot of Michigan Chillers, I don't think I would reach for that now. I think it was just kind of like I was on a wave. The Clementine series, my Weird School, Series of Unfortunate Events, ate that up.

Claire:

Harry Potter, kind of. I and I have a category of I feel dumb when people ask if I've read blank and I have it. Harry Potter is on there because I never finished Harry Potter. My mom was reading it aloud to me while she was pregnant with my younger brother. And then when he was born, she had to take care of the now, you know, real baby in front of her.

Claire:

And I just like didn't pick up the books again. Interesting. That's that's no one's fault except my own, really. I should have picked them back up. But I read Half of Harry Potter, Sammy Keyes, which was kind of a detective comedy crime type of Loved those.

Liz:

I read Nancy Drew Mhmm. A lot.

Claire:

Loving that. The City of Embers or Ember? Do you know what I'm

Liz:

talking about? That's great. Yes. I've heard of this.

Claire:

Yes. So we read that as a class in, like, fourth or fifth grade. And then I think I went on to go to the elementary school library and get more. I dabbled in the Magic Treehouse, didn't we all? Those fairy books that I can't for the life of me remember the name of.

Claire:

And then the boxcar children.

Liz:

Oh, yeah. Mom Totally into the boxcar.

Claire:

My mom kind of put me onto them at our, public library. So do you wanna talk about your elementary school reads?

Liz:

I do wanna talk about that. So elementary school, I see that you said you dabbled in Magic Treehouse.

Claire:

Yeah.

Liz:

Well, I was a master in Magic Treehouse. That was like my first, like, favorite, like, novel y kind of books. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Liz:

Shout out to my first grade teacher, miss Sigerman

Claire:

Love.

Liz:

Which, like, she's, like she's probably dead now. But she like, rest in peace. Love her. She's an icon. Anyways And we thank you.

Liz:

And we thank you. Judy b Jones

Claire:

Okay.

Liz:

Was really big into that. I see down here that you said you feel dumb, and people ask if you've read Dork Diaries.

Claire:

I've never read

Liz:

Dork Diaries. Diaries also, like, if Liz had a number one bestsellers list, so you know, I feel like New York Times does. Uh-huh. The dork diaries was on top of every single one. Wow.

Liz:

Every single I had the one where you could take a dork diary and fill it in yourself. Woah. Oh, yeah. I was really into the diary format Yeah. Of books.

Liz:

Yeah. And I know I've always I I don't know. I've always kind of been into that. And another one, the historical fiction we were talking about, American Girl Dolls. There was this series of, like, historical fiction diaries.

Liz:

Mhmm. And it was like, some of them were, like, old medieval prince princesses. And there were other ones the one one that, like, sticks my head so much, this diary of a girl that grew up on the dust bowl. I guess, I would say that was my favorite book as a kid. Can't remember what it's called.

Liz:

But that really left a mark on me.

Claire:

Clearly. If you can't remember what it's called.

Liz:

Hey. Anyways. Anyways. But, yeah, Harry Potter, I read all those. Yeah.

Liz:

Middle school is where I really start to get into it.

Claire:

See, middle school is really hard for me to remember because it's it's blending with, like, the end of elementary school and the beginning

Liz:

of high science thing? That if the seventh grade, most people don't don't remember anything that happened because of your hormones?

Claire:

Thank you for saying that because someone showed me a video. This is super off topic, but someone was one of my close friends who I've known for many, many, many years was showing me this video of something from high school and then we're talking about even further back. And I genuinely I had to look her in the eye and be like, I'm so glad you have this because actually, I cannot call this to memory. And usually when someone says something and gets the ball rolling, can kind of like Right.

Liz:

Right. You're like, oh, yeah.

Claire:

Oh, so and so. I really struggled with middle school. So No. That's And I thought there was something wrong with me. No.

Claire:

No. I'm wrong with whole thing. Your body

Liz:

is going through so much, like, puberty wise, that you're like, you literally like, the hormones, something about it, you'd like, most middle schoolers forget

Claire:

And you know what? Everything. For the best. I always tell my younger brothers, like, middle school is just kind of a time you have to go through.

Liz:

It's the ugliest you'll ever be. It's the most annoying you'll ever be. You're so sad. You're so weird.

Claire:

But you're so hyper too. Like, you're sad but, like, full of, like, a strange, horrible, unharnessable energy that nobody wants, not even you. Yes. One of my brothers out of the three will cite middle school as like one of his like most nostalgic times and I had to tell the other two that he was lying. I was like, don't listen to his advice on this, you two, the younger too.

Claire:

I was like Jack says that? Yeah. Jack's like,

Liz:

middle school

Claire:

is so great. Maybe that's because he can't remember it. Middle school's awkward. And everyone's doing weird things with their hair and wearing infinity scarves.

Liz:

I had a sidebar.

Claire:

I had no eyebrows.

Liz:

I was wearing skinny jeans.

Claire:

I had teal braces and not just teal braces, but a teal power chain.

Liz:

I can totally Oh. Picture that.

Claire:

And rubber bands.

Liz:

So hard right now. Did you also have Under Armour, like, headbands?

Claire:

Yes. Because I was playing

Liz:

You're playing

Claire:

soccer? Yeah.

Liz:

That's you're literally my friend Morgan. Dude, I was like I could Like You guys are the same in my head right now.

Claire:

Jojo Siwa, like Yeah. Like, hair salchamation type stuff. Yeah. And you're wearing those horrible gym shirts that you write on in Sharpie?

Liz:

Yeah. Wow. Oh, yeah. I had just like a couple hoodies that I would wear over, like, a pair of skinny jeans

Claire:

Oh, yeah.

Liz:

And a pair of combat boots.

Claire:

Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes. Gross. Like, you You're seen on her.

Liz:

It's actually making me sick a little bit.

Claire:

I have this very I'll show you a picture after. I'm It's like horrifying just and you know what? Middle schoolers don't look like that anymore. And why? Because they're not reading.

Claire:

Because phone. Because phone. Because they're they're not reading weird equally as cringey storylines about dorks.

Liz:

This is true.

Claire:

So what did we read in middle school that we can remember?

Liz:

I was thinking about I remember the book What I wanna say that I was reading in middle school. Talking about

Claire:

phone, Wattpad. You can be vulnerable. I was posting things on Wattpad.

Liz:

I was also posting things on Wattpad.

Claire:

Not fan fiction. There's wrong with that. I was incorrectly using Wattpad and writing about things that I had no business writing about at the time, which we won't get into.

Liz:

So what is it?

Claire:

Like, just like personal accounts of like mental health struggles that I personally did not have any business talking about because I wasn't dealing with that. Okay. I was doing a lot of, like

Liz:

I'm canceling you.

Claire:

Yeah. Yeah. No. It was like I was I don't know. I had supportive friends for some reason.

Claire:

I don't know. It's probably beautifully written. I did not know that

Liz:

Worry about the ethics.

Claire:

Yeah. Yeah. Ethically, I was 13 and, like, making no sense. And I was like, I'm gonna write about this, like we're not here to talk about my authorship of of what Horror

Liz:

and fan fiction moving on.

Claire:

So that yeah. Holding space for the fan fiction more so than the freaky stuff I was

Liz:

doing, I guess. Anyways. Can remember

Claire:

real books, real texts, not to say that your fan fiction was not a real text, I can remember The Book Thief because we had to read it for school and we got to watch the

Liz:

movie and people cried. Had just as much content, if not more funny. The Divergent series? Oh, yeah. That's I was I was about to say the Divergent series was Devoured.

Claire:

Nope. Not Devour. Devour.

Liz:

She devoured all of it. And what, fashion would you have been in?

Claire:

Oh, god. I always said

Liz:

I thought was really smart, so I always said that I was gonna be an erudite.

Claire:

I thought you said fashion. I was like, I just admitted that I wore infinity scarves. What more do you want me to say? The okay. I actually don't I don't know because I don't remember what they are.

Liz:

There's dogless, and they're brave. No. There's Erudite, and they're smart. No. There's candor, and they're, like the judges, they're, like, honest.

Liz:

Mhmm. There is Amity, and they're kind they're farmers, though. And then there's oh, what's the other one? Oh, and then there's

Claire:

I could be Divergent.

Liz:

Why can't I just No. It's not freaking Divergent. It's the one where they don't look in the mirror, and that's the one that Triss is in. Thank you.

Claire:

I don't know that I

Liz:

selfless. Okay. They run the government.

Claire:

Oh, wait. Selfless people do not run governments.

Liz:

Well, that's why they were trying to fix it.

Claire:

I'd like to be in that

Liz:

one, I That's the point. Yeah. But then you have to wear gray.

Claire:

Oh.

Liz:

And you can't look in the mirror.

Claire:

If you call yourself selfless, are you actually Well, that's like wait.

Liz:

I think that was like a nuance in the book.

Claire:

Oh. Well, was Maybe or maybe I'm picking that up. So I wasn't picking up.

Liz:

I could be actually reading more into it. Did you read The Hunger Games? Oh, yeah. I read all the Hunger Games books.

Claire:

I did not.

Liz:

I read all the Divergent books, including the one from Forrest's perspective. Thank you. It's funny on this list of your, like, I feel dumb people ask if I've read Twilight. I did not read Twilight

Claire:

I did not either.

Liz:

As a kid. I had Midnight Sun, which is the first book in Robert Penson or Robert Penson's Edward's perspective. Not the actor. Edward's perspective. Read to me bullet points from Mia Han, my roommate.

Liz:

Love it. Because she read all of the Twilight books.

Claire:

My mom read all of the Twilight books and I have this very distinct memory of, like, we used to have this old bookcase and it was like like just the volumes of them just taking up like a whole shelf. And I never I don't know what and all with the Harry Potter ones too. And I never in my my years living in that house thought to pick one of them That's crazy. Yeah. They were staring me down and I just never did it.

Liz:

No. I watched all the movies many, many, many, many times of Twilight. I've I read all the Harry Potter books. Okay. Trying to think of a

Claire:

little series.

Liz:

The Selection?

Claire:

See, that's another one I people bring up all the time.

Liz:

The one in the little dress?

Claire:

Yeah.

Liz:

Yeah. Read those. I'm trying to think of, like, more of the dystopian ones because I was a big dystopian girl. I couldn't get into Percy Jackson. Never read any of those.

Claire:

First one.

Liz:

The Lightning Games.

Claire:

I'm not I'm not a very dystopian sci fi and I'm I'm I'm similar with movies. I have a hard time with that genre because I'm like, this wouldn't happen. And before everyone's like, okay, you have no imagination and you suck, I offer you, sure, you could have that opinion, but I just don't it's just really hard for me to, like, consider that. Thank you for listening to that small aside.

Liz:

Well, I just want everyone to consider that. What's it? No one said. You're very grounded. Thank you so much.

Liz:

Thank you for saying I'm grounded. I just didn't know where you're you were going to end. I I was just kind of Riffing?

Claire:

Yep.

Liz:

Sorry. I just pulled my ring right off my finger. All good. I'm trying to think of any more Claire is completely derailed with the podcast episode. Okay.

Liz:

High school. Anyways Well,

Claire:

you didn't say any other middle okay. I'll give you the sun.

Liz:

I don't

Claire:

know if

Liz:

I read

Claire:

that in middle school or high school. I think it was middle school. That's a great

Liz:

I'm honestly trying to remember middle books.

Claire:

It's hard. It's hard. Middle school was unfortunately outsiders.

Liz:

Really like that. Okay. I'm just thinking now I'm trying to think about, like, class books that I read.

Claire:

Then I was gonna say middle school is the time where unfortunately reading started to creep in and feel like a chore. Yes. A lot of the books I

Liz:

were Problem.

Claire:

And and if we get into high school, this is I really could not remember any from high school except and I wrote this. Unfortunately, I cannot remember more books. I actually fully completed reading in high school, which saddens me. And then I went on to declare English as my major in college.

Liz:

That's actually so real because I was thinking about, like, okay, what books because, like, I can tell you my favorite, like, AP lit books Mhmm. And, like, I guess, a couple of my favorite, like, books that I read for fun. Because I had a really weird phase, like, when I was, like, 15 where I was reading every single day. But then I fell off when I started taking AP lit immediately.

Claire:

Right. Because it feels like a everything feels like a chore

Liz:

Well, because then gets harder and then you're like, oh, and then

Claire:

you have no motivation. Well, and enter phone. By now, everyone has phones.

Liz:

By now, everyone phones.

Claire:

Everyone phones. So

Liz:

I had a quick this is what I was thinking about when you were doing your aside that I didn't really understand.

Claire:

I just wanted to

Liz:

I did you ever get yelled at by a by a parent that was like, I just bought you that book. What do you mean you're already done with it? Because I had that no. Okay. This it wasn't my mom because my mom understands getting through a book really quick.

Liz:

But at some point, my dad was like, I just bought that book. You need to slow down and really take it in. I'm like, but I liked it. So I

Claire:

There's no rules

Liz:

for me. I read it really I was just wondering because we're both avid book readers, so I didn't know if you ever got like the

Claire:

No. Because Bruh.

Liz:

If I Okay. So that's just like

Claire:

No. But like, if I did get that, because my mom reads books really, really fast, so if she ever tried to hit me with that, it would be like, what are you talking about? You literally finished that

Liz:

huge book in life. She would have been, like, in reverse.

Claire:

Yeah. So she would never say that.

Liz:

No. She and my dad didn't read, so I couldn't really be like

Claire:

Yeah. Yeah.

Liz:

Numbers guy. Big numbers guy.

Claire:

Awkward. Awkward.

Liz:

But anyways, high school, I think I can give you a couple books that I read for fun and a couple books that I Okay. Really liked in class. Probably still one of my favorite, favorite books of all time that I read for AP Lit and still is, like, one of my favorite books, period, is The Poisoned Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

Claire:

See, I was supposed to read that.

Liz:

There's a lot

Claire:

of books that I read.

Liz:

You didn't oh, that's a good one, though.

Claire:

See, that's what I'm saying.

Liz:

You shouldn't have fake read that one.

Claire:

That's what I'm saying. That's a good one. I know. I'm ashamed.

Liz:

I'm ashamed. No, but I feel like in high school, like, I was actually reading and then I got to college and now I fake read.

Claire:

See, now I'm trying to I'm the opposite. I'm trying to actually, in the final months of my degree, really, when I am assigned to reading, do the

Liz:

type of the Joan Didion class in which I've I've I have really had a spiritual awakening Yes. In this Joan Didion class. Yeah. Gets that. But Poison Bible, I really like The Great Gatsby.

Liz:

Oh, That was really great.

Claire:

And I did read that. Full.

Liz:

I actually just found a free copy of it at my local thrift store. It was all tattered and gross, I'm like, I'm gonna put notes in that. But anyways, I don't

Claire:

know why

Liz:

I did that with my tongue. Okay. Sorry. That's fine. Other books for class that I really like.

Liz:

Oh, can I tell you one that I really hated for class?

Claire:

Yeah.

Liz:

And you know what? I'll give you two. I'll give you two that I love. Lucky me. I really, really hated The Odyssey.

Claire:

Yeah.

Liz:

Didn't I I really, really hated that. It's so boring. And I stand by that. And also go see that movie, though, that they're making about it. They're making a adapt adaptation of Odyssey.

Liz:

I'm like, Michigan will be good. I'll probably still hate it. And then Fahrenheit four fifty one, I really didn't like. And I know that I should like it because it's technically dystopian, but I really hated that. To read that.

Liz:

And also, any sort of and this is more, I guess, like because I feel like they pushed this on you in, like, more middle school. Mhmm. So we're going back a little bit. Any sort of any sort of survival book?

Claire:

Oh my god. Yeah. Like, the book Hatchet?

Liz:

Oh. Worst thing I've ever read.

Claire:

Oh, I liked Hatchet. Oh. See, that was the type of Do

Liz:

you like it?

Claire:

There's a dystopian feeling because it I mean, that could happen. It's not quite dystopian, but that was, like, as far as I would go with, like,

Liz:

this is a crazy put in that situation.

Claire:

I know. But it's definitely not a dystopian category.

Liz:

You read My Side of the Mountain? No. That'll ruin you.

Claire:

Oh my god.

Liz:

This kid Wait. That has a pet falcon pelt oh my gosh. I can't talk tonight. Pet falcon and that doesn't really matter. Mhmm.

Liz:

But he also lives in a tree on his side of the mountain. He carves there are chapters upon chapters of him carving out this tree to live in. Who cares? Anyways, one more survival book that really stuck with me because I hated it so much. Also in middle school, there's this book called Iceberg Hermit.

Liz:

And this guy gets, like, stranded in, I don't know, like, the Northern Circle, like, the North Arctic Circle or whatever. And at one point, you there's a freaking polar bear on the cover. Right? So you feel like it's gonna be about him and this polar bear, like, sort of like Life of Pi, but of course, Life of Pi isn't like that. But the polar bear, you think it's gonna be an integral part?

Liz:

It's not. They fight for, like, one chapter and he lives and it's fine. Okay.

Claire:

So misleading.

Liz:

Sorry. I just got so mad about that because I don't really care about survival books.

Claire:

And thank you for that take.

Liz:

Obviously, I do.

Claire:

Yeah. You keep lying,

Liz:

but Sorry. Sorry.

Claire:

I will offer you a a middle school transition to high school. We have not talked about George Orwell and all of the reading required to do at least in my school district. Read Animal Farm. We read whatever that other one close to Animal Farm is that I probably didn't fully read.

Liz:

Clearly.

Claire:

In high school, read nineteen eighty four. I did not I was never assigned Fahrenheit four fifty one and I need to read that. At the time, I did not like George Orwell because I was like, what are we doing? Now living in 2025, being an adult, phone, I we needed more George Orwell. We needed to read more of him.

Claire:

And I Yeah. It scares me to think that they're not reading him anymore and I like him now.

Liz:

That's so interesting because I was not assigned to any George Orwell. Interesting.

Claire:

That was like our, like,

Liz:

business. I just saw the adamant.

Claire:

Loved that. I didn't like oh. I wrote that. I didn't love it. I remember reading it, actually, but I didn't love it.

Liz:

But I know. I read Animal Farm on my own. I've never read Nineteen Eighty Four. You should read it.

Claire:

You should read it. I think you can actually like have a copy. Give it to you. Alright. You know what I did like, in a strange way?

Claire:

Two books I was not expecting to like based on the fiction finding narrators that I really saw myself in as a child, etcetera. Lord of the Flies Fine. And The Kite Runner. The Kite Runner. Yes.

Claire:

The Kite Runner really stuck with me.

Liz:

What is the Kite Runner's, like, brother book or, like, sister book? It's a great book. Because that's what I read and I really, really liked that.

Claire:

There is totally a series that I'm blanking on and it's been sitting on my the tip of my tongue whistle episode and I'm going to remember it right when we wrap but just needed to stop.

Liz:

Keep going because I want to find what this book is Okay.

Claire:

I hated Jane Eyre. Woah. I had to read that for

Liz:

so long. I don't think I've ever read that.

Claire:

I didn't it. The County Monte Cristo didn't like it. Hey. Because it was What are you talking about? Because the County

Liz:

Monte Cristo is great. Because it

Claire:

was assigned I'm sure I'd like them now, but it was assigned to summer reading transitioning into high school and it's so dense for what I was prepared to do at the time. I I just felt like I wasn't really taught how to, like, read a a book like that as a 13 year old. No shade to

Liz:

my teachers. Thousandth Sons.

Claire:

Yes.

Liz:

Is the book that, like, goes along with that. I never read of. It's like the person's next book. That one was really, really good.

Claire:

Love. But yeah, those all those books that I was assigned in high school for, like, summer reading, Jane Eyre was just pissed me right off because she's wasted 200 pages just for her to get with mister Rochester who in the movie that I watched because I could not bear to finish the book and I needed to finish my notes to turn it in so I could go to ninth grade, has the ugliest sideburns I have ever it's it's like two fuzzy socks growing down

Liz:

the side the So how do you feel about Pride and Prejudice?

Claire:

I actually have never seen that full movie, but Eva Eva Biva, the lovely roommate of mine Good. She's taking us to the theater and it is the twentieth anniversary showing.

Liz:

Oh, that's awesome.

Claire:

I have been meaning to both read that book in full and watch the movie in full. That's actually one of goals of 2025 is to read, like, five, like, classics.

Liz:

I've done both.

Claire:

And Well and I'm gonna read it soon.

Liz:

Love Brandon Prodigy. That's probably one of the only classics that I'm actually, like, love.

Claire:

Like, okay.

Liz:

Okay. Because I don't I don't love a lot of classics. Some really, really quick in high school, some books that I really liked as, like, I don't know, for fun. Mhmm. I really got into Leanne Moriarty, which is, like, Big Little Lies

Claire:

Yeah.

Liz:

The Husband's Secret, all that stuff. It was, like, kind of, like, mystery. I got into a very big mystery. Sharp Objects and Dark Places by Jillian Flynn, who also wrote Gone Girl. Okay.

Liz:

Really great. Good. I'm trying to think of more, but, like, those are really stand out for me.

Claire:

Okay. Do we wanna talk about

Liz:

Let's not write those. What we're

Claire:

reading now.

Liz:

Yeah. I'll get on my Goodreads.

Claire:

We're both see, need a Goodreads because I love to make lists. I love to be held accountable, and I love to organize things and tell my opinion on them. So I totally need a Goodreads. Liz and I are both in a Joan Didion class. So we've talked about this before.

Claire:

We've been reading a lot of Joan Didion. Liz just finished The Year of Magical Thinking. I need to finish it still.

Liz:

So that was due for class.

Claire:

It was due.

Liz:

Jo Darta, come get her. Sorry. Come get her.

Claire:

Sorry. I just ordered a couple of poetry books today by the fabulous Richard Saikin and Ada Limon, I'm very excited. I love reading memoirs, poetry collections, short essays. Anne Patchett's one of my faves. This is the story of a happy marriage, which I recommend to everyone that I know.

Claire:

Which is sitting on my bedside table. Bad Feminist.

Liz:

Read by

Claire:

me. Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay.

Liz:

I've kind

Claire:

of like

Liz:

gave that to my mom.

Claire:

Bad Feminist? Yep. Yeah. I I've been liking the memoir y educational, like, intersection. Love that.

Claire:

I've been trying to read more of those because it's important in general and I think it's especially important right now, as I said, living in 2025 with phone and a government It's just nice

Liz:

to it's not selfless. About people's lives.

Claire:

Yeah. And also it's just yeah. It's interesting to kind of read. I'm a big journaler and I know Liz is as well. It's nice to kind of read Well, look at us.

Claire:

You wouldn't think that you I don't know, it's interesting like you wouldn't think that you would love reading through someone else's journal, so to speak. But we've been talking a lot about this with Joan Didion and we were talking about it when I gave my presentation on Yves Babbitts, like why people enjoy reading other people's experiences. And I guess it's kind of like the same reason why people like watching reality TV or like consuming art at all. You want to see yourself. You want to learn.

Claire:

And I personally think that with the time I'm in right now in my life, essay collections, memoirs, not only are they easy to read, they feel very

Liz:

I feel like I can take things away from it.

Claire:

Yeah. And it just feels I feel very connected to them, especially right now. I'm sure as like I continue to become an adult, I will as well. So tell Houselights your recommendations for memoirs, short story Sure. Collections, etcetera.

Liz:

Yeah. So What

Claire:

are you reading right now on your Google?

Liz:

So I just like you said, I just finished your magical thinking, give it four out of five stars. I don't know. I just thought it was really interesting. I'm literally looking at my review on Goodreads right now. Follow me on Goodreads.

Liz:

It's just. Anyways, I was just saying that, like, I really felt like I couldn't put it down. The only reason I was putting it down was because I wanted to stay where I was with the class. It's just, like, somewhat, like, the last chapters, which I don't did you read the 15 through 22? No.

Liz:

Okay. The last two chapters, I just think are some of the most beautiful, like, raw accounts of, like, grief ever. And I feel, like, specifically, like, feminine grief. I don't know. It's just you I feel like I can, like, see myself through, like, how I have grieved and also how my mother has grieved and just, like, I don't know, women in general.

Liz:

And I really like the way she talks about, like, self pity, like, fear of self pity. And, like, this entire book she's talking about so, basically, it's it's a grief memoir about her losing her husband. Sorry. Should have said that. It's a pretty well known book, guys.

Liz:

Yeah. If you don't know it, what are you doing? She's kind of, like, looking for answers the entire time. Mhmm. And I really love it because by the end of the book, she kind of sits in the fact that she just has to finish writing without getting any of the answers.

Liz:

And I think that's kind of beautiful because that's just kind of how life goes.

Claire:

Yeah.

Liz:

And I really liked it. But, yeah, I'm trying to I'm working through Joan Didion's other two books right now, snatching through Towards Bethlehem and political fictions, which I really do wanna read. I'm just having a hard time making myself sit down. I really wanna read

Claire:

The White Album as well.

Liz:

Yeah. For other book.

Claire:

Yeah. I've got a long list of of things of that nature.

Liz:

Oh, yeah. And then I also recently, in my bag right now, in my book in my book bag, I have I just bought a copy. I do I have this weird thing. I don't know if I even should put these on my Goodreads. And I actually haven't in the past.

Liz:

But I get these collections of, like, court documents, and I really like them. I most recently got the trial the Chicago Seven trial Oh, okay. And all the court documents with that, and it has a foreword from Aaron Sorkin. Very excited to start reading that. Okay.

Liz:

Start reading that tonight at the writing center. Nerd. Sorry. Okay. Like, in the past, I read the Ferguson report.

Liz:

They had, like, a whole book of, like, court documents. What's the other one that I had? The Mueller report had a whole book.

Claire:

Anyways She also loves a good beach read romance.

Liz:

I was just about to contrast that. To contrast, I also read a lot of beach read. I really, really, really love Emily Henry. My favorite Emily Henry is People We Meet on Vacation, Friends to Lovers vibe. Because I feel like Emily Henry does a good mix of, like, enemies to lovers and, like, friends to lovers, but people we meet on vacation

Claire:

Did you read Coleen Hoover at all?

Liz:

Oh, yes. Actually, one of books I would bring up so you've

Claire:

never I've never cracked open a Colleen Hoover.

Liz:

And let me tell you, I think that you're missing whimsy in your life. Okay. Because people say, oh, they're not that good. Does every book have to be literary genius? No.

Liz:

No. You have to have a good time. Over Christmas break, I read Verity. And that is, like, sort of, like, one of her murder mysteries. And my review for it is I don't care that's Colleen Hoover.

Liz:

I'm stunned. Like, what did I just read? Finished in seven hours. Clock it. Five stars.

Liz:

And my friend Miranda, who's one of the biggest readers I know, shout out Miranda Dunlap, former snoozer, former Housewives guest, she commented underneath. She, like, reads all I mean, she has, like, hundreds of books on her Goodreads. And she just said, true as hell, bitch. It's five stars from me. So take that.

Liz:

Wow. I don't know who I'm yelling at.

Claire:

Let's all take a deep breath.

Liz:

But I also really liked November 9 from Colleen Hoover, which also I gave five stars to.

Claire:

Okay.

Liz:

That book genuinely made me cry multiple times. But then but I kind of get it then when, like, I read Ugly Love. I put down Ugly Love. I started it, got about 50 pages, it was like, this is very stupid. You know

Claire:

what book that everyone, like, raves about but I just, like, have had to take a month long break from is The Idiot by Elif Bopman.

Liz:

They Okay.

Claire:

It's, like, won a bunch of awards. It's every time you look up, like, best young adult, whatever, I I just can't get through it. But I will finish it.

Liz:

By Dostoevsky? No. Oh. Okay.

Claire:

Elif or Elif.

Liz:

I don't know. I see. Yeah. Yeah.

Claire:

The idiot. Anyway, I just wanted to say that. What is a well, there's only been one book that's really made me cry and it's Tuesdays with Mori.

Liz:

Oh, yeah. I saw the play of that. Oh my god. That was really, really good.

Claire:

Yeah. What book would you give 10 stars to? What's your favorite book of all time? Spanning the years even.

Liz:

That's a really great question.

Claire:

I'll let you think. Mine Yeah, what's yours? Is Wonder by RJ Palacio, I believe is how you pronounce her last It's a children's

Liz:

Oh, so like Wonder, I thought you were gonna

Claire:

No, no. The book Wonder. The book Wonder. Okay. The children's book Wonder with the blue cover.

Claire:

That book is like why I, I don't know, feel like I wanna keep writing and like why I felt so connected to like literature as like a, I'm gonna say like elementary school or middle schooler. It was a gift from my mom. And I I don't know. It just has a very special place in my heart. And though like it's not of my like reading level now because I'm an adult, it will just like always be a fave.

Claire:

Like I just I don't know. I just love it.

Liz:

I have a book like that, the hell give I'm because I'm not really sure what my favorite book is. Yeah. I go back and forth.

Claire:

I the

Liz:

one I wanna say is just, like, I don't know, kind of out there. It's called shit. I wanna make sure that I'm getting this right. It's called Bagman. Okay.

Liz:

And it's by Rachel Maddow. And it's about Spiro Agnew, who was the vice president to Nixon. And it's just, like it's just really interesting. But, like, I feel weird saying, oh, that's my favorite book. Okay, freak.

Claire:

No one said it.

Liz:

A book that I have that's, like, that's it was, like, from my childhood and, like, always remember, it's called Counting by Sevens. And it's this girl who loses both her parents and she moves in with this family that lives in their nail salon. That's just, like, kind of Okay. I don't it's it's kind of, like, just like a grief book. I will always remember it.

Liz:

It's like that is, like, made a huge impact on me.

Claire:

And that's what books can do. Yes. You should read so your vocab is good, your empathy is good, and so you get off phone. Get off phone. Thank you so much for listening to us talk about our favorite books.

Liz:

Hope it was interesting. And hope you have

Claire:

some Get on Goodreads if you're not on it already. I'm saying that also so I can hear myself say it. So that I'll get on Goodreads and Accountability. We'll see you next week. See you next week.

Claire:

Bye.