July 17, 2025 • 23 mins
Our book club continues with Lauren Graham’s debut novel, “Someday, Someday, Maybe.”
Find out why Tara isn’t a fan of this book, but the unexpected nostalgic reason why Suzanne actually liked it.
Plus, we question where to separate the characters…Is Lauren Graham, Frannie, and is she also Lorelai?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I Am all in again. Oh, I.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Am all in Town Meeting with Suzanne French and Tara
suit An iHeartRadio podcast. Hey guys, welcome back to another
episode of I'm All in Town Meeting, but this time
we're doing a book club.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's myself, Tara and Susanne.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Today we are talking about Lauren Graham's book Someday Someday Maybe,
and we were talking about how we did Kelly Bishop's book,
and then we were like we should keep this book
club going, which you know, I don't know about you, Suzanne,
but like I love reading, but I sometimes need to
like force myself to sit and read. And this is
(00:55):
like a nice force myself to read a book. I like,
have you ever been on Goodreads once or twice? I've
been on Goodreads for like ten years, and I put
all the books in my like want to read list
and like have read list, and I like not review.
I don't I don't like write reviews. I just like
to give myself like stars on like how I like
(01:16):
the book. And then I have a lot of friends
I follow and so and then you usually put like
a book challenge per year and I always put ten
books per year and I always end up at like
six or seven. I don't think I've ever actually hit
my goal.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I love to read, and I'm a physical book like
I physically bought the book. I just like reading a
book versus I feel like I spend too much time
on devices already. I don't want to look at a kindle,
so I love to like sit and read in a
nice environment, in a nice room. I just there's just
(01:55):
not time for that, you know what I mean, Like
this life that we all are eating is so hectic.
I feel like I never have time to just sit
down and disconnect with the book. So yeah, I don't
even I wish I could read six or seven books
a year. I can't even get that many.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I've had a Kindle for a long time, actually have
the I have the Kindle paperback, which does not look
like it actually looks like a physical book, so it
doesn't hurt your eyes. For me, I noticed that I
was reading a lot, and then I was just like
I didn't know what to do with the books. So
for me, it was like instead of just throwing it out,
like I mean, mind you, I have a bookshelf behind me,
(02:32):
so clearly I collect books like I have my whole
Harry Potter and Twilight, and like I have a bunch
of other books, but all those one off books, Like
I was just like I just want to like get
a kindle. But in recent years I got a Audible
membership because of someone who well, I work in podcasts,
but I also listen to podcasts. I found that I
(02:53):
really liked listening to books, and I feel like I
got more done. Like I was finishing Lauren's book this morning,
but I did it while I was like cleaning my
room and like like I started laundry. Like you know,
I kind of like it because it I can kind
of do more at once.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
But I still like having my kindle.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And I always when I go on vacations, Uh, I
love taking my kindle because I feel like if I'm
by the pool or I'm on the plane, like that's
a place where I can I can read.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, it's definitely easier from the packing perspective to not
have it.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, and you know, for me, I think another thing
is I hate creasing a book.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Sorry, this off topic, we'll get to the book.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I hate creasing a book, and so I always felt
like I was ruining like a paperback. Yeah, because I
like it to be like in pristine shape. So I
feel like it's just like that's a little OCD in
me of Like.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
No, I totally like the spine. This spine is not
broken at all, Like I don't. That drives me crazy too,
Like when.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
People yeah, so far, oh my god, oh my god,
when people like roll book, I'm like, oh no, no.
Like I when I was organizing we did construction my
house and I was reorganizing my bookshelf and like making
it everything in order, one of my Harry Potter cover
books had a tiny tear in it and I almost
(04:16):
lost it. But I was like, the book is fine,
it's just the cover that's like torn, but like it's fine.
But speaking of the book, I I did the audiobook
of this.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Which is read by Lauren herself.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Right, yes, Lauren reads it, and I guess I'll just
straight up say it. I wasn't the biggest fan of
the book, and I don't know if I would have
had a different perspective if I read it instead of
listening to it. And the reason why is because I
felt like I was listening to Laura Gilmore. Oh yeah,
(04:48):
and it was really difficult but then I also was like,
the character of Franny.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Felt a lot like LAURAAI.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, I don't know if it if you thought of
it the same way.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So yeah, So I I actually have the audio book
of it, although I've only I had started listening to
it a long time ago, like maybe two three years ago,
and never finished the audio version. But I have read
the paperback before, so this was the second time I've
read it all the way through. And I can definitely
(05:23):
see that point because there's just a quirkyn there's just
so much overlap between Lauren and Laurala. I it's hard
to separate them sometimes. So I can totally see that,
and I from what I've read in the past this
it's a novel, so it's fictional, but it's loosely based
(05:44):
on Lauren's own story. It's not autobiographical, right, there's based
on it, and so I think there's definitely some overlap there.
I overall, I liked it. It's not my favorite book ever,
but I guess I had to rate it, like on
a scale of one to ten, i'd probably give it
(06:07):
a six or a seven, Like it's just kind of
in the middle. What I really liked about it, And
this might be why I liked it maybe more than
you did, is that Franni. Both Franny and Lauren are
of similar age to me, So I can really relate
(06:27):
to Frannie being, you know, in her early twenties, starting
her career, you know, trying to figure out how things work,
and feeling awkward because she doesn't know, you know, when
she walked by the set of the commercial she was
going to be on and she didn't know the check
all them, you know, I can, I can totally relate
(06:48):
to that, and I just really I thought she did
a good job of connecting to that kind of early
nineties vibe because I just remember that so clearly in
my own life, and I know so for the folks listening,
if you read the paper version, she's got like her
(07:10):
her date book, her file facts in the story, and
it's got like her own notes for what she was
doing each week. And I don't know how they translated
that into the audio version, but it just, you know,
like where she's got just her whole week is written
out on a physical piece of paper.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
We did it back then, like we didn't have smartphones
that we kept everything in like it literally was a
very analog world.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Which is funny.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I still keep like I have a paper and notebook,
even though like my calendar is on my phone, like
for at least for work, I keep everything on a
paper and notebook, like dated to do lists and stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, so I just love, you know, just how she
portrayed life in that time period, like the Answering Machine.
You know, she started each chapter with her Answering Machine
messages and you know, having to use a payphone to
(08:13):
call someone because you're not you're not emailing, you're not texting,
like you literally had to make a connection with somebody
personally over the phone and it. So I liked it
from that aspect, and it just kind of made me
nostalgic for that period in my own life. And so
maybe that's why I liked it a little bit more
because I did think the story itself was a little
(08:36):
I thought it was thin in some places and then
too thick in other places, Like some parts of it
I thought were really drawn out, and other parts of
it I felt like she didn't really flesh it out enough.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So yeah, I for me, I agree with that, like.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I did. I did like the you know, wanting to
follow your dreams and you know you're working really hard
and you're not giving up and same as you. Like
I in my twenties, I was like asking questions and
I was lost, but I was figuring it out, and
like working in entertainment, I kind of felt like that
connection to it. I just felt like seventy percent of
(09:20):
this book was audition rooms and it went and I
understand the point of like you had to make it
to the end of she go, she got the job right,
but like I didn't need the whole.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Book to be audition, audition, audition.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
And then it was like sixty percent into the book
and then finally there's like a little relationship. Yeah. I
was like, could we have gotten to this like way sooner?
And like I love a romance, so that's me. But
I just felt like I've I don't know about you,
but I thought that the relationship storylines.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Weren't fleshed out.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, and then the audition storyline was like so flashed out.
I kid you not I said this to you before
we started. I finished this book twenty minutes before we
started this podcast because I could not get if it
were me like reading this for fun I would have
stopped this book because the first like ten chapters maybe
more fifteen were just audition rooms, and.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I was like, it's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It's the same thing in a different font basically, like
and I understand, like that's the hustle of it all,
but it just seemed like it was going absolutely nowhere.
And even thinking back, I was like, there was no
like sitting on the edge of my seat moment in
this book at all.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Like it just felt like flat the whole way through. Yeah,
at the end when.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Literally like the last line is literally like beep and
then the book ends, and I was like, well that
was the excitement that I you know, but but yeah,
it wasn't like I wasn't like I need another book.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I just was like, Okay, well it's over.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah. I definitely thought that the part with Dan I
wanted more of that, Like I felt to get to
it fast enough, and because she spent so much time
on James. But at the same time, I don't know
how to explain it, like I didn't really like the
stuff with James either because he I don't know, it
(11:23):
was it was clear that he was kind of using her,
and I wanted her to pick up on that earlier.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yes, yeah, yeah, instead of chapter seventeen when we're like
finally right, it's.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Like way towards the end of the book when she
finally realizes that I wanted her to have some kind
of confrontation with him, Like I wanted her to like
just give him a what for. And we didn't get that,
Like we know that he called and she ignored his calls,
and that was like the only resolution we got. I
wanted her to have like a conversation with him and
be like you jerk, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, yeah, nothing happened. There was no conflict.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, exactly exactly I wanted. I wanted a little more
of that.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And by the way, you said, you rate it, what
a six? Six out of ten?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, six to seven?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So on on good Reads, when you finish a book,
there is a five star rating, and I personally gave
it a two, and I.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Like, but that's why, Like, I don't think it was
a bad book.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I would probably never go back to it, and I
don't need a sequel to it, but it just it
went nowhere.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
What was the consensus on good Reads? What did other
people rate it?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
So I actually pulled it up because I was looking,
so out of five stars, the overall rating was a
three point five to three.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Okay, so about seven out of ten.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes, so yeah, And then I'm scrolling I mean people's reviews,
like people write reviews, and they're pretty.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Long, so I'm not going to read you.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
But you know, there was like the one on top
is a three out of five. There's a four, there's
a four, there's another two. I found it interesting that
a lot of there was a mix of I love
Gilmore Girls so much and I wanted it, and then
there was another one where it's like, oh, I didn't
know much about Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls, but I
(13:09):
watched Parenthood and like stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
And the main thing that.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
People said were I read this because of Gilmore Girls,
and Franny was basically Laura l I slash Lauren. And
I was like, I think that's the hard part is
because I wanted to separate the two really badly, and
that's why.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I said, like, maybe it was me listening to the.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Audio book that felt that way, but at the same
time I kind of took that element out of it,
and actually the context of the book, the way the
mannerisms a little bit and stuff just felt very Lauren
slash Laurli. And I think that was hard, And I
don't think that it's a bad thing. I think that
(13:56):
means Lauren then created this care and world. Like think
about it, like a lot of actors kind of play
the same type of roles, like not all, but there's
a lot like you have a heart throb, or you
have the girl next door, or you have the nerd. Like, yeah,
Lauren has created this character so well, and it's very
(14:19):
hard as someone who has played Lorli Gilmour for uh
seven seven seasons, seven seasons plus the revival, like you
know this person so well. It wasn't like she was
two episodes in. And then also, if you think of Parenthood,
there's a little bit of Lauren in Parenthood, right, Like
(14:41):
you can't deny it. So I think that it's it's
well written, right like, I don't think it's a bad book, like,
but I just think that it was hard to I
wonder if the entire and sit by the way, she
has another book, right.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
This was her only novel. Her others are more.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Essays, got it.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I didn't know if she had another novel because I
was gonna say, maybe if you took the entertainment industry
out of this and you created just like a love story,
girl next door working in a coffee, maybe we could
have had a different feeling. But I think because it
was trying to be an actor the whole time, I'm like, well,
this is just Lauren. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And that's kind
(15:23):
of what people were saying online too.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I remember several years ago, now I don't know, time
fly so fast. It's probably five or six years ago now,
there was talk that she was writing a not necessarily
a sequel to it, but like some sort of a
companion book to it. So I don't know whatever happened
with that, if she just abandoned that for whatever reason,
but I think if she did come out with I
(15:57):
liked Frannie as a character, and I would probably if
she wrote another book that was part of the Franny universe,
I probably would read it just to see what happens
to her. But yeah, so she It's also worth noting
I think that she wrote this while she was shooting Parenthood,
(16:20):
so hmm, she because I've seen in interviews there was
she was making a comparison to the Gilmore set versus
the Parenthood set, because on Gilmore she was in every
single scene, whereas on Parenthood, which is a larger ensemble cast,
she wasn't in every scene and so had time in
her trailer to sit and write this book. And so
(16:42):
I think that that might inform some of it as well,
because there might maybe there's like a little bit of
Sarah Braverman in there. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I have to go back and watch Parenthood. It's been
I know Amian Danieler are just starting it. Yeah, but
it's made all of this Parenthood talk. I'm like, hmm,
maybe it's my next binge.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I know.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
I'm I'm thinking I need to go back and watch
it too. I've seen it once or twice and I
loved it. I just haven't watched it recently, but I
was thinking the same thing. I should probably start it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
It's just a sad show.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
It is so definitely not it's not Gilmore Girls.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, and also to pivot a little bit spoil if
you watch nine one one and you're not caught up,
giving you a second to fast forward.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
But Peter Krausey right, Krawsey.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Krausa, I think, yeah, Krassa.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
He plays Captain in nine one one and they just
killed him off. Do you watch nine one one?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
I haven't watched the current season. I watched some of
the early seasons.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
This show is about to go downhill. This is like
Derek Shepherd dying in Grey's Anatomy. It will never be
the same. And I was I think that's also why
I want to go back to Parenthood, because I'm like, well,
now he's dead in the show I watched, so I
need to go back to another show. Yeah, anyway, if
you fast forward, you can come back now. But I
(18:05):
think overall, like, I mean, I don't know if there's
any other specifics he wanted to get into.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
But no, not really.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I it was enjoyable, but not you know, not it
got me to read.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, I mean it was a pleasant way to spend
some time.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it was just it was a
light book to read.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
But I did find myself like.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
As I was listening to it, if I kind of
not dozed off, but if I just kind of like
my brain veered into a direction while listening, if I
picked back up, I didn't miss anything.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yeah, Like and then.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I read on a good Reads review someone said I
found myself skimming through some chapters, and I didn't miss much,
Like I was just I was just trying to get ahead.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Some parts were really like wordy. Yeah does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Like I was just like, this could have this this
half this chapter could have been or this chapter could
have been like half as long.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Sometimes she does put too much
in a sentence. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The one part that I really loved about this book,
I have to say, was the use of the of
the answering machine and the voicemails. I think that was
so well done in that time. And like, I don't
know because then at the very end, when like everyone's
calling her to congratulate her and they saw this show,
(19:27):
I was like, it was just kind of like a
It started with Hey, it's your dad, like you know,
blah blah, and yeah's it going over that? You know.
I can't remember what he said at the beginning of
the book, but it started with that, and it ended
with like, we're so proud of you, and like her
dad didn't like fully believe in it at first that
she would get this job like this acting gig, but.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, I think it was a nice little touch to
the book.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And because that, you know, going
back to what I was saying before, that was how
we communicated with each other. If you couldn't they didn't
answer their phone, you had to leave them a message
because you had no other way to communicate with them,
like you couldn't text them or you know whatever. So
there was a lot of you know, endless answering machine.
You know, that's why we call it playing phone tag,
(20:13):
you know, like you'd leave a message for someone and
they'd leave a message for you. Like that's just what
it was. And I thought that was a clever device
the way that she incorporated that into the book for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, I think we are going to do another book, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Think we talked about doing all of her books, so
we have.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
The we were gonna do it in order. Yeah, so
the next one, looking it up.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I think the next one is the one that.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
She did talking as fast as I can.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yes, that's the one that came out like right around
the time of the revival.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yes, which I have read before, have you?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, and I did do this one. So actually, this
was the.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
First book that I ever listened to as an audiobook,
was Lauren's was Lauren's book because I was like, I
don't know. Her voice is like comfort to me because
of kill Moore girls, and I do remember loving this book.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So the next book we're going.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
To be reading is Talking as Fast as I Can,
which is uh a, this was personal essays of her,
but it's it's Laurence. So now we're gonna ge Lauren.
I don't know when we're going to finish it. We'll
keep everyone updated on when we'll talk about it. But
that'll be the next one. And then after that she
has two more books, so there's a total of four.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah, and the one, the one after Talking as Fast
as I Can, is really short. It was it was
a graduation speech that she gave it her high school. Oh,
but then she expanded it a little bit, so it's
it's more like a motivational kind of thing. It's real
short and cute.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah. Is that in conclusion? Don't worry about it. Yes,
let me see how many pages it is.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
That that will take like an hour to read.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Oh, it's fifty two pages.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
So maybe maybe we tack on that, tack this on
to the next one. Okay, so let's tack this one
on to Talking as Fast as I Can because fifty
two pages is yeah, nothing.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, I kind.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Of hope she does more. I kind of like this
side venture for her. Yeah, alrighty, well, thanks for listening, guys,
And if you didn't read the book and you want
to read it, it's available basically anywhere. You can pick it up,
you can listen to it, you can buy it online.
And we'll see you next time Meeting a journey. Hey everybody,
(23:05):
and don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am
all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio
dot com
I Am all in again. Oh, I.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Am all in Town Meeting with Suzanne French and Tara
suit An iHeartRadio podcast. Hey guys, welcome back to another
episode of I'm All in Town Meeting, but this time
we're doing a book club.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's myself, Tara and Susanne.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Today we are talking about Lauren Graham's book Someday Someday Maybe,
and we were talking about how we did Kelly Bishop's book,
and then we were like we should keep this book
club going, which you know, I don't know about you, Suzanne,
but like I love reading, but I sometimes need to
like force myself to sit and read. And this is
(00:55):
like a nice force myself to read a book. I like,
have you ever been on Goodreads once or twice? I've
been on Goodreads for like ten years, and I put
all the books in my like want to read list
and like have read list, and I like not review.
I don't I don't like write reviews. I just like
to give myself like stars on like how I like
(01:16):
the book. And then I have a lot of friends
I follow and so and then you usually put like
a book challenge per year and I always put ten
books per year and I always end up at like
six or seven. I don't think I've ever actually hit
my goal.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I love to read, and I'm a physical book like
I physically bought the book. I just like reading a
book versus I feel like I spend too much time
on devices already. I don't want to look at a kindle,
so I love to like sit and read in a
nice environment, in a nice room. I just there's just
(01:55):
not time for that, you know what I mean, Like
this life that we all are eating is so hectic.
I feel like I never have time to just sit
down and disconnect with the book. So yeah, I don't
even I wish I could read six or seven books
a year. I can't even get that many.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I've had a Kindle for a long time, actually have
the I have the Kindle paperback, which does not look
like it actually looks like a physical book, so it
doesn't hurt your eyes. For me, I noticed that I
was reading a lot, and then I was just like
I didn't know what to do with the books. So
for me, it was like instead of just throwing it out,
like I mean, mind you, I have a bookshelf behind me,
(02:32):
so clearly I collect books like I have my whole
Harry Potter and Twilight, and like I have a bunch
of other books, but all those one off books, Like
I was just like I just want to like get
a kindle. But in recent years I got a Audible
membership because of someone who well, I work in podcasts,
but I also listen to podcasts. I found that I
(02:53):
really liked listening to books, and I feel like I
got more done. Like I was finishing Lauren's book this morning,
but I did it while I was like cleaning my
room and like like I started laundry. Like you know,
I kind of like it because it I can kind
of do more at once.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
But I still like having my kindle.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And I always when I go on vacations, Uh, I
love taking my kindle because I feel like if I'm
by the pool or I'm on the plane, like that's
a place where I can I can read.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, it's definitely easier from the packing perspective to not
have it.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, and you know, for me, I think another thing
is I hate creasing a book.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Sorry, this off topic, we'll get to the book.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I hate creasing a book, and so I always felt
like I was ruining like a paperback. Yeah, because I
like it to be like in pristine shape. So I
feel like it's just like that's a little OCD in
me of Like.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
No, I totally like the spine. This spine is not
broken at all, Like I don't. That drives me crazy too,
Like when.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
People yeah, so far, oh my god, oh my god,
when people like roll book, I'm like, oh no, no.
Like I when I was organizing we did construction my
house and I was reorganizing my bookshelf and like making
it everything in order, one of my Harry Potter cover
books had a tiny tear in it and I almost
(04:16):
lost it. But I was like, the book is fine,
it's just the cover that's like torn, but like it's fine.
But speaking of the book, I I did the audiobook
of this.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Which is read by Lauren herself.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Right, yes, Lauren reads it, and I guess I'll just
straight up say it. I wasn't the biggest fan of
the book, and I don't know if I would have
had a different perspective if I read it instead of
listening to it. And the reason why is because I
felt like I was listening to Laura Gilmore. Oh yeah,
(04:48):
and it was really difficult but then I also was like,
the character of Franny.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Felt a lot like LAURAAI.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, I don't know if it if you thought of
it the same way.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So yeah, So I I actually have the audio book
of it, although I've only I had started listening to
it a long time ago, like maybe two three years ago,
and never finished the audio version. But I have read
the paperback before, so this was the second time I've
read it all the way through. And I can definitely
(05:23):
see that point because there's just a quirkyn there's just
so much overlap between Lauren and Laurala. I it's hard
to separate them sometimes. So I can totally see that,
and I from what I've read in the past this
it's a novel, so it's fictional, but it's loosely based
(05:44):
on Lauren's own story. It's not autobiographical, right, there's based
on it, and so I think there's definitely some overlap there.
I overall, I liked it. It's not my favorite book ever,
but I guess I had to rate it, like on
a scale of one to ten, i'd probably give it
(06:07):
a six or a seven, Like it's just kind of
in the middle. What I really liked about it, And
this might be why I liked it maybe more than
you did, is that Franni. Both Franny and Lauren are
of similar age to me, So I can really relate
(06:27):
to Frannie being, you know, in her early twenties, starting
her career, you know, trying to figure out how things work,
and feeling awkward because she doesn't know, you know, when
she walked by the set of the commercial she was
going to be on and she didn't know the check
all them, you know, I can, I can totally relate
(06:48):
to that, and I just really I thought she did
a good job of connecting to that kind of early
nineties vibe because I just remember that so clearly in
my own life, and I know so for the folks listening,
if you read the paper version, she's got like her
(07:10):
her date book, her file facts in the story, and
it's got like her own notes for what she was
doing each week. And I don't know how they translated
that into the audio version, but it just, you know,
like where she's got just her whole week is written
out on a physical piece of paper.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
We did it back then, like we didn't have smartphones
that we kept everything in like it literally was a
very analog world.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Which is funny.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I still keep like I have a paper and notebook,
even though like my calendar is on my phone, like
for at least for work, I keep everything on a
paper and notebook, like dated to do lists and stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, so I just love, you know, just how she
portrayed life in that time period, like the Answering Machine.
You know, she started each chapter with her Answering Machine
messages and you know, having to use a payphone to
(08:13):
call someone because you're not you're not emailing, you're not texting,
like you literally had to make a connection with somebody
personally over the phone and it. So I liked it
from that aspect, and it just kind of made me
nostalgic for that period in my own life. And so
maybe that's why I liked it a little bit more
because I did think the story itself was a little
(08:36):
I thought it was thin in some places and then
too thick in other places, Like some parts of it
I thought were really drawn out, and other parts of
it I felt like she didn't really flesh it out enough.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So yeah, I for me, I agree with that, like.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I did. I did like the you know, wanting to
follow your dreams and you know you're working really hard
and you're not giving up and same as you. Like
I in my twenties, I was like asking questions and
I was lost, but I was figuring it out, and
like working in entertainment, I kind of felt like that
connection to it. I just felt like seventy percent of
(09:20):
this book was audition rooms and it went and I
understand the point of like you had to make it
to the end of she go, she got the job right,
but like I didn't need the whole.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Book to be audition, audition, audition.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
And then it was like sixty percent into the book
and then finally there's like a little relationship. Yeah. I
was like, could we have gotten to this like way sooner?
And like I love a romance, so that's me. But
I just felt like I've I don't know about you,
but I thought that the relationship storylines.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Weren't fleshed out.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, and then the audition storyline was like so flashed out.
I kid you not I said this to you before
we started. I finished this book twenty minutes before we
started this podcast because I could not get if it
were me like reading this for fun I would have
stopped this book because the first like ten chapters maybe
more fifteen were just audition rooms, and.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I was like, it's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It's the same thing in a different font basically, like
and I understand, like that's the hustle of it all,
but it just seemed like it was going absolutely nowhere.
And even thinking back, I was like, there was no
like sitting on the edge of my seat moment in
this book at all.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Like it just felt like flat the whole way through. Yeah,
at the end when.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Literally like the last line is literally like beep and
then the book ends, and I was like, well that
was the excitement that I you know, but but yeah,
it wasn't like I wasn't like I need another book.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I just was like, Okay, well it's over.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah. I definitely thought that the part with Dan I
wanted more of that, Like I felt to get to
it fast enough, and because she spent so much time
on James. But at the same time, I don't know
how to explain it, like I didn't really like the
stuff with James either because he I don't know, it
(11:23):
was it was clear that he was kind of using her,
and I wanted her to pick up on that earlier.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yes, yeah, yeah, instead of chapter seventeen when we're like
finally right, it's.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Like way towards the end of the book when she
finally realizes that I wanted her to have some kind
of confrontation with him, Like I wanted her to like
just give him a what for. And we didn't get that,
Like we know that he called and she ignored his calls,
and that was like the only resolution we got. I
wanted her to have like a conversation with him and
be like you jerk, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, yeah, nothing happened. There was no conflict.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, exactly exactly I wanted. I wanted a little more
of that.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And by the way, you said, you rate it, what
a six? Six out of ten?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, six to seven?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So on on good Reads, when you finish a book,
there is a five star rating, and I personally gave
it a two, and I.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Like, but that's why, Like, I don't think it was
a bad book.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I would probably never go back to it, and I
don't need a sequel to it, but it just it
went nowhere.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
What was the consensus on good Reads? What did other
people rate it?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
So I actually pulled it up because I was looking,
so out of five stars, the overall rating was a
three point five to three.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Okay, so about seven out of ten.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes, so yeah, And then I'm scrolling I mean people's reviews,
like people write reviews, and they're pretty.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Long, so I'm not going to read you.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
But you know, there was like the one on top
is a three out of five. There's a four, there's
a four, there's another two. I found it interesting that
a lot of there was a mix of I love
Gilmore Girls so much and I wanted it, and then
there was another one where it's like, oh, I didn't
know much about Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls, but I
(13:09):
watched Parenthood and like stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
And the main thing that.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
People said were I read this because of Gilmore Girls,
and Franny was basically Laura l I slash Lauren. And
I was like, I think that's the hard part is
because I wanted to separate the two really badly, and
that's why.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I said, like, maybe it was me listening to the.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Audio book that felt that way, but at the same
time I kind of took that element out of it,
and actually the context of the book, the way the
mannerisms a little bit and stuff just felt very Lauren
slash Laurli. And I think that was hard, And I
don't think that it's a bad thing. I think that
(13:56):
means Lauren then created this care and world. Like think
about it, like a lot of actors kind of play
the same type of roles, like not all, but there's
a lot like you have a heart throb, or you
have the girl next door, or you have the nerd. Like, yeah,
Lauren has created this character so well, and it's very
(14:19):
hard as someone who has played Lorli Gilmour for uh
seven seven seasons, seven seasons plus the revival, like you
know this person so well. It wasn't like she was
two episodes in. And then also, if you think of Parenthood,
there's a little bit of Lauren in Parenthood, right, Like
(14:41):
you can't deny it. So I think that it's it's
well written, right like, I don't think it's a bad book, like,
but I just think that it was hard to I
wonder if the entire and sit by the way, she
has another book, right.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
This was her only novel. Her others are more.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Essays, got it.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I didn't know if she had another novel because I
was gonna say, maybe if you took the entertainment industry
out of this and you created just like a love story,
girl next door working in a coffee, maybe we could
have had a different feeling. But I think because it
was trying to be an actor the whole time, I'm like, well,
this is just Lauren. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And that's kind
(15:23):
of what people were saying online too.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I remember several years ago, now I don't know, time
fly so fast. It's probably five or six years ago now,
there was talk that she was writing a not necessarily
a sequel to it, but like some sort of a
companion book to it. So I don't know whatever happened
with that, if she just abandoned that for whatever reason,
but I think if she did come out with I
(15:57):
liked Frannie as a character, and I would probably if
she wrote another book that was part of the Franny universe,
I probably would read it just to see what happens
to her. But yeah, so she It's also worth noting
I think that she wrote this while she was shooting Parenthood,
(16:20):
so hmm, she because I've seen in interviews there was
she was making a comparison to the Gilmore set versus
the Parenthood set, because on Gilmore she was in every
single scene, whereas on Parenthood, which is a larger ensemble cast,
she wasn't in every scene and so had time in
her trailer to sit and write this book. And so
(16:42):
I think that that might inform some of it as well,
because there might maybe there's like a little bit of
Sarah Braverman in there. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I have to go back and watch Parenthood. It's been
I know Amian Danieler are just starting it. Yeah, but
it's made all of this Parenthood talk. I'm like, hmm,
maybe it's my next binge.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I know.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
I'm I'm thinking I need to go back and watch
it too. I've seen it once or twice and I
loved it. I just haven't watched it recently, but I
was thinking the same thing. I should probably start it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
It's just a sad show.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
It is so definitely not it's not Gilmore Girls.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, and also to pivot a little bit spoil if
you watch nine one one and you're not caught up,
giving you a second to fast forward.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
But Peter Krausey right, Krawsey.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Krausa, I think, yeah, Krassa.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
He plays Captain in nine one one and they just
killed him off. Do you watch nine one one?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
I haven't watched the current season. I watched some of
the early seasons.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
This show is about to go downhill. This is like
Derek Shepherd dying in Grey's Anatomy. It will never be
the same. And I was I think that's also why
I want to go back to Parenthood, because I'm like, well,
now he's dead in the show I watched, so I
need to go back to another show. Yeah, anyway, if
you fast forward, you can come back now. But I
(18:05):
think overall, like, I mean, I don't know if there's
any other specifics he wanted to get into.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
But no, not really.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I it was enjoyable, but not you know, not it
got me to read.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, I mean it was a pleasant way to spend
some time.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it was just it was a
light book to read.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
But I did find myself like.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
As I was listening to it, if I kind of
not dozed off, but if I just kind of like
my brain veered into a direction while listening, if I
picked back up, I didn't miss anything.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yeah, Like and then.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I read on a good Reads review someone said I
found myself skimming through some chapters, and I didn't miss much,
Like I was just I was just trying to get ahead.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Some parts were really like wordy. Yeah does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Like I was just like, this could have this this
half this chapter could have been or this chapter could
have been like half as long.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Sometimes she does put too much
in a sentence. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The one part that I really loved about this book,
I have to say, was the use of the of
the answering machine and the voicemails. I think that was
so well done in that time. And like, I don't
know because then at the very end, when like everyone's
calling her to congratulate her and they saw this show,
(19:27):
I was like, it was just kind of like a
It started with Hey, it's your dad, like you know,
blah blah, and yeah's it going over that? You know.
I can't remember what he said at the beginning of
the book, but it started with that, and it ended
with like, we're so proud of you, and like her
dad didn't like fully believe in it at first that
she would get this job like this acting gig, but.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, I think it was a nice little touch to
the book.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And because that, you know, going
back to what I was saying before, that was how
we communicated with each other. If you couldn't they didn't
answer their phone, you had to leave them a message
because you had no other way to communicate with them,
like you couldn't text them or you know whatever. So
there was a lot of you know, endless answering machine.
You know, that's why we call it playing phone tag,
(20:13):
you know, like you'd leave a message for someone and
they'd leave a message for you. Like that's just what
it was. And I thought that was a clever device
the way that she incorporated that into the book for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, I think we are going to do another book, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Think we talked about doing all of her books, so
we have.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
The we were gonna do it in order. Yeah, so
the next one, looking it up.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I think the next one is the one that.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
She did talking as fast as I can.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yes, that's the one that came out like right around
the time of the revival.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yes, which I have read before, have you?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, and I did do this one. So actually, this
was the.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
First book that I ever listened to as an audiobook,
was Lauren's was Lauren's book because I was like, I
don't know. Her voice is like comfort to me because
of kill Moore girls, and I do remember loving this book.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So the next book we're going.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
To be reading is Talking as Fast as I Can,
which is uh a, this was personal essays of her,
but it's it's Laurence. So now we're gonna ge Lauren.
I don't know when we're going to finish it. We'll
keep everyone updated on when we'll talk about it. But
that'll be the next one. And then after that she
has two more books, so there's a total of four.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah, and the one, the one after Talking as Fast
as I Can, is really short. It was it was
a graduation speech that she gave it her high school. Oh,
but then she expanded it a little bit, so it's
it's more like a motivational kind of thing. It's real
short and cute.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah. Is that in conclusion? Don't worry about it. Yes,
let me see how many pages it is.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
That that will take like an hour to read.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Oh, it's fifty two pages.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
So maybe maybe we tack on that, tack this on
to the next one. Okay, so let's tack this one
on to Talking as Fast as I Can because fifty
two pages is yeah, nothing.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, I kind.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Of hope she does more. I kind of like this
side venture for her. Yeah, alrighty, well, thanks for listening, guys,
And if you didn't read the book and you want
to read it, it's available basically anywhere. You can pick it up,
you can listen to it, you can buy it online.
And we'll see you next time Meeting a journey. Hey everybody,
(23:05):
and don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am
all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio
dot com
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
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