April 18, 2024 • 48 mins
Emily Berg, manager of Books & Books at The Studios of Key West, joins Gwen Filosa for a chat about whether audiobooks count as reading, the store's Banned Books display, the disturbing and endless success of V.C. Andrews and Go Ask Alice, Independent Bookstore Day is April 27, 2024, and the sheer horror of 1999's The Blair Witch Project.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Key West Sidetracks. I'm Gwen Filosa. I'm digital
editor at the Keys weekly newspapers down here in beautiful
Key West Florida. And my guest today is Emily Berg.
She's bookstore manager at books and books, which is located
at the studios of Key West at 533 Eaton Street.
(00:20):
And here's the interview. I hope you enjoy it. Emily Berg,
thanks for coming on the
Speaker 2 (00:24):
podcast. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now, you're the bookstore manager at books and books. Uh
It's at the studios of QS downtown on Eaton Street.
Uh What's going on? You have so many events. Uh
you bring in writers, you have all kinds of uh
authors and signing. So what, what's, what's coming up? Big day?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, normally this time of year we'd be winding down.
We wouldn't be doing so much in the summer. Give
all of us a little break and uh and give
the audience a little break too, but we do actually
have a pretty big event. The end of April. Saturday,
April 27th is independent Bookstore Day, which is a um
(01:05):
I wanted to say national holidays, national holiday, but of,
of independent bookstores. Uh it's a day where um there's
exclusive products and all sorts of fun stuff. We're going
to have a golden ticket prize. So we're going to
hide a golden ticket somewhere in the bookstore. And if
you find it, you get 12 free audio books through
(01:27):
Libro FM.
And, and then that evening, we have Lydia Millet who's
a national book Award finalist who will be in the
Pear House Courtyard. So if you haven't been to the
New Pear House, which is where the artist and residents
live at the studios of Key West um in that
beautiful courtyard, we're having this amazing author talking about her
(01:48):
new book, which is called We Loved It All. And
it's essays about her life and she's a novelist, but
she tends to have an environmental twist. So this is
an essay, the series of essays that she's written about,
you know, the conflicting feelings of having Children in our
changing uh planet on our changing planet. And uh yeah,
(02:11):
it's a great book and I'm really hoping we get
good people out for it even though it's the end
of April. And I know everyone's kind of tired.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
It's, it's, it's cut us, we're all tired all the time.
It's so much fun things to do. But then you
have your two jobs. It's a lot. But we, but we,
but it's, it's worth it for right now. So. Independent
bookstore Day. That's great. That's great. Now, um what
we, we know each other a little bit. You know,
I don't read,
(02:40):
I know how to read. I read, I read on
my phone. I used to be such a reader but
I've gotten into audio books and I've got to say
it's changed. I li one was a, a very traumatizing
murder book about the Slenderman murders. Do you remember? Actually
she didn't die? But it's about Children anyway. And mental illness. And,
(03:02):
but the Britney Spears
Speaker 2 (03:03):
autobiography, I listen to that one too. I loved
Speaker 1 (03:06):
it. I think every woman should, should or everybody. I
didn't know any of that because I don't really follow,
you know, in the nineties, I was, I was in
college and working three jobs, had a girlfriend. I, I
didn't know but
just her upbringing and her experience is kind of terrifying.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, it was. I like to, I, well, first of
all audio books are reading so don't feel bad about
it counts. Yeah, I think it counts. I think it counts. Um,
people always come in. They're like, oh, I don't read
but I listen. Well, it's, you're getting the knowledge and, um,
so, but I like, uh, listening when it's like a
celebrity biography, celebrity memoir or comedian memoirs are the best
(03:47):
to listen to. Especially when they read it. She didn't
read that one. Michelle Williams read it but still I thought, yeah,
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I kept thinking it was her because Michelle Williams is
so good with the, yeah, she was the, but, um,
Britney reads the forward but I don't,
in memoirs, in, in those autobiographies. I don't know what
we call them. They are celebrity memoirs. They can be
hit or miss.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah. Usually it, it feels to me like if they
have something to say, if they have something important to
express about their life, like Britney did and went through something,
it tends to be,
you know, better. Other times I think sometimes they're just,
they're on a popular kick and a publisher thinks, well,
I could sell this
Speaker 1 (04:34):
money. You can't knock that hustle. But there are some
that have come out. Um, it used to be my
guilty pleasure in college when I was a voracious reader
for college and elsewhere.
And I'd be like, I need to read this, um
autobiography of Vanessa Redgrave or something. But, but that one,
it was very good. But, but, but, but the Britney
Spears one just, I couldn't, I binged it, which is,
(04:57):
I don't know if you can do that on an
audio book. And the Slenderman thing was,
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think I know that. So that was a true
crime book from
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Wisconsin and the, the woman, um, at a, the writer
spent seven years, um, the public records laws were crazy and,
and a 12 year old girl who stopped her friend,
but she has, they realized she had such mental illness
and two girls, the friend and, um I think it's
Kathleen Hale that wrote it. Um
(05:29):
She had some problematic things about goodreads. Remember the writer
that went after her goodreads.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Critic Goodreads is problematic.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I wanted to ask because Rotten Tomatoes, I look, I've
been taught to look, I can't afford to be disappointed
by my entertainment at my age. Like I just can't.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
What if I worked for a movie theater? I may
have feelings about rotten tomatoes, but I don't, I work
for a bookstore so I have feelings about goodreads. I mean,
I'm probably everything is problematic if you look into it enough. Right.
But
Speaker 1 (06:00):
what Goodreads? It's so popular but it seems like easy
to manipulate. If you want to go after a writer,
you don't like
um they got the fellowship or just people that are,
you know, psychotic and sit around all day trolling.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, I think that that is what it is. Um
I mean, it's owned by Amazon. They own goodreads. So,
um there is an algorithmic uh method to what you're
seeing and what you're able to see. Um So they
can squash things pretty easily, should they not, you know,
should they not agree? They, the big they
(06:36):
um not agree. But yeah, it can be. It's just i,
in some ways it's, it's a nice, it's nice to
have a platform where people can share their thoughts on books,
however you can share your opinion about the author without
having read the book. And now so much power has
been given to the starred reviews that, um, it doesn't
(07:01):
matter if it's a good book or not,
it doesn't matter if they even read the book, they're
just able to put some pretty hateful. It's, it's a
social media site essentially
Speaker 1 (07:13):
essentially does Judy Blume have high ratings there or you
have
Speaker 2 (07:16):
no idea
Speaker 1 (07:17):
that you have no sense of weird curiosity. Stalker is
good for you. If I worked with, you work with Judy,
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I do work with her and, uh, honestly, her books
sell very well without need, at least for, uh, you know,
I'm sure she's doing well elsewhere, but certainly at our bookstore,
she's fine. So I've never bulletproof. There is a site
called Bookmarks that's run by Lit Hub, which is, um,
a literary journalism site and
(07:48):
they have what they do is they take reviews from every,
every place, something is reviewed by, you know, a, a
paper or a, a reputable site and they summarize it
so you can go on and you can look and
it'll say, ok, this new, um, the New Salman Rushdie has,
it's got six raves, two mixed and one pan,
(08:12):
you know, so you can kind of see how it is.
And then from there you can click and see a
little excerpt from each review and then you can go
on to read the New York Times review or the.
So I, uh, on a professional level, I tend to
use that more as a way to gauge how something
might be doing than goodreads because it's also goodreads to
(08:32):
me feels very regional. So, you know, it's smaller. Um,
I think it may be very important and I should
be careful how I'm saying this. Maybe for the self
published authors or the ones that are having to promote themselves,
perhaps that's something that they really need and, and value.
(08:54):
But for me trying to decide what's out there, it
could be all of their friends and family doing the
Speaker 1 (08:59):
reviews. So it could be because I'm just looking up,
what was the one you said? That was a little marks? Bookmarks? Ok.
That's interesting because, um,
yeah, I was just curious because, I mean, you work
in a bookstore, you have access, I'm sure you get
all kinds of pitches. Like, please put up this book
in here. And, um,
I guess, uh, will, will you suffer through a book
(09:21):
to see if it gets better? Will you stop midway?
Will I, I read the Goldfinch a fantastic book halfway
through it. Yeah, it's a book stop. It's a, it's,
I love Donna Tart. It's wonderful. And at halfway through,
I'm like, I've had enough of the Goldfinch and I'm,
I'm gonna put it aside.
(09:42):
I, I don't even something that fabulous. After six, I
think it's 900 pages. But have you ever, I mean, I,
I will return to it. Maybe even something wonderful. I
was wondering when you're reading. Do you kind of just go,
I'm gonna finish this because they, sometimes they get different.
What
Speaker 2 (10:02):
do you think? It depends. I'm, I used to be
totally a, I'm going to finish it. I have to
finish it.
Um, I really wanted my numbers to look good for myself. Like,
at the end of the year I've read this many
books and so I, I can't get that number if
I don't and, and I don't know, maybe it's the job,
but over the last, maybe six or seven years I've
(10:25):
just been like, I don't, I don't have time for this.
So if it's
not good in my opinion and I rarely, I try
not to talk about books as it's not good or
this is a bad book because it's just not my
cup of tea almost always. This is not for me.
I can tell this is not for me and I
don't like it. Um, but I can see, especially now
(10:45):
working in the store. I, I work with a lot
of people who have different opinions about books than I
do and they look for things differently and that we
meet so many people. I'm like, somebody's going to like
this but it's not me.
If I really don't like it, I will stop. Um,
sometimes there's one or two lines where I'm like, ok,
I'm out, you know, like this just didn't do it
(11:06):
for me. Sometimes I really like it. But what you're
describing with the Goldfinch. I really like it. I'm just
done reading it. I just for whatever
Speaker 1 (11:16):
reason. And everyone's like, but it's so great and I'm like, I,
I have things to do. I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate.
I have a lot of things to do. But I
grew up reading if it weren't for public libraries in
the classroom, teachers who had those little libraries. That's where
I was introduced to Judy Bloom. The Are you there?
Got it to me, Margaret. But the other books that,
(11:37):
that she wrote were there. And, you know, I grew
up in a small town. We had the troll book order.
Oh my God. We would wait for weeks to get
our little books and books opened the whole world and,
and where my,
it was just a,
Speaker 2 (11:50):
it was, I wonder if it's, um, you know, I
was a pretty big reader when I was a kid
too and then I dropped off in my teens and
early twenties and it's almost like, you know, you're a kid,
you're limited in how you can
learn and travel. I mean, you're stuck there. You're in Indiana.
You can't travel
Speaker 1 (12:09):
in Indiana and
Speaker 2 (12:11):
now you can. So it, I think there's nothing wrong
with it having served a purpose for a certain part
of your life and then taking a break. That's fine.
I've gone through a weird thing this year this
year. So starting in January, I could not finish a
book until probably two weeks ago I started maybe 40
books and some of them I would get 70% into
(12:35):
and then just stop reading them. I was like, I
don't know what is happening. Finally, I got one that
I just wanted to know what happened and was into
enough that I kept going. But
yeah, I
Speaker 1 (12:46):
tore through, loved got so much out of was Colson
Whitehead's Underground Railroad and, and that's been a while and
he's got great books. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice
in a row. Nickel Boys, I did read Nickel Boys
is about Florida the,
Speaker 2 (13:02):
the Dozer School. And there's another book, um, by Tannery
of Dew, who's been here for the literary seminar called
The Reformatory, which has been high on my list for
a while where she, she tackles the same.
Um, and I think she actually probably started it because
she did so much research before he wrote the Nickel Boys. But, um,
about the Dozer School, but she takes a sort of
(13:24):
a ghostly, there's spirits. It's, uh, what's the word? I'm
looking at a horror. It's a horror. Uh, take on
it
Speaker 1 (13:31):
is a story. So she takes a supernatural, supernatural novel, obviously.
But I mean, based on, oh my gosh, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna read that. It's supposed
Speaker 2 (13:42):
to be amazing. We have a couple of booksellers,
um, shout out to Laurie at the bookstore because she
sells the hell out of that book and it's, and
I also have this thing where I'm like, well, it's
doing well on its own. It doesn't need me. So
maybe I can put it at the bottom of the list. But,
which is so stupid because, like, I, but why am
I depriving myself from a good book just because somebody
else has already read it in the store. So,
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I, I hear that. Well, there's, um, a podcast
I checked into that was called, like, basically it was
about the, the worst books that were very popular. It
was a lot of VC Andrews. We read that. We
read that growing up. But, but listening to people talk
about Flowers in the, uh there was like a three
hour podcast that I listen to
Speaker 2 (14:23):
the rough book.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That's, that we all learned about horrible illegal things in,
in the whole family. And
Speaker 2 (14:32):
did you read the next ones? Was
Speaker 1 (14:33):
that Audrina?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Oh, no. Uh Sweet Audrina. IVC Andrews. I think that
that's a different Sequels to Flowers. Oh,
Speaker 1 (14:42):
yeah, there's like three or four. I think I learned
all I want to know about brother and sister. I
won't even say the word. I'm not saying that word.
I get crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
They become adults. I'll say that.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Uh the,
I bet they're still as popular as they were. We
were little kids going, have you read this book? And
it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2 (15:03):
let's do that. We've had it in the store because
it's banned. Um, And so we, we often, if
Speaker 1 (15:10):
there were one, I am for freedom of everything, there
were one book that I'd like to ban, it would
be flowers in the attic.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah. Every now and then one comes across the banned
book list where I'm like, well, I mean, everything's on
that list now. I mean, it's in,
I always sort of, uh, man, I'm gonna get in
so much trouble but every time I see, go ask
Alice on the list, I'm like, well, ok, maybe.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Did you? I listen to a big podcast. I listen
to the podcast on the go ask Alice, did it
turn out that was made up or? I believe
Speaker 2 (15:40):
it is now the young
Speaker 1 (15:42):
girl the runway and she does drugs.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah, it's supposed to, it's bi anonymous and it's supposed
to be her diary that they found afterwards. Found
Speaker 1 (15:53):
literature, like found footage
Speaker 2 (15:55):
and I read it in school in like seventh or
eighth grade, which then I reread it as an adult.
I'm like, how, why it's such a scare tech. She
goes to a party and she's growing up in the
sixties and seventies, you know, late sixties, she goes to
a party and somebody puts LSD in her coke,
Speaker 1 (16:13):
which happens all the time
Speaker 2 (16:15):
constantly. Well, let me tell you as a kid after
reading that book, I was like, they're just, everyone's trying
to give you drugs
Speaker 1 (16:22):
to not drink other people's drinks or a
Speaker 2 (16:24):
drink that somebody gives
Speaker 1 (16:26):
you or leave your drink. But doesn't it turn her
into
Speaker 2 (16:33):
or something? Well, she goes off the rails and she
gets addicted to drugs and then does do some sex
work just to get drugs. Um,
and so, I don't know. But it, it, it,
Speaker 1 (16:42):
it was kind of hard to believe fact, but it
was presented as fact.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
It was presented at least in the nineties when it
was given to me, it was presented as fact and
it was, it was given in a way that was
supposed to, it felt very much of the dare vibe
where it was like just if you look at drugs,
you will become addicted, everyone will be on that. You
will be on the
Speaker 1 (17:05):
streets. And it actually introduced a lot of kids to,
I didn't know what it was, but I can't remember.
I think in go ask Alice, she goes from LSD
to like heroin immediately,
Speaker 2 (17:16):
probably pretty quickly. I don't know. I get there's a
thing with all with banned books in general.
It never makes sense to ban them because it's just
going to make people want to read them more and
every book, no matter how problematic and terrible it is
gone with the Wind has its place. If it is
paired with other education and other conversations, it is a
(17:40):
door opener to talk about other things. So if that
book is now being taught in schools, as look, this
is what was believed back then and we
now know this. Not all to be true that this
is not the journey of most people who get addicted
to drugs, but people do get addicted to drugs. And
this could be this. You know, there's some truth to
(18:03):
this then. I'm totally fine with it. But to just
hand it to a 13 year old and be like, ok,
careful out there. It's wild there kid.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Well, I guess I just, I don't know what it is. I, the,
when I, I didn't know till I recently heard this
podcast that it was, go ask, Alice was pretty much
a
hoax and that for some reason bothers me. I don't
know why it has nothing to do with me, but
my rent stays the same.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
But that just, you know what the Blair Witch project
came out when I was 13 and I think it
was real. It was, we saw it in the theaters
the first weekend it came out my best friend Lindsay
and I, her dad took us, dropped us off at
the theater. We went in traumatized, came out completely traumatized.
Remember we went to a party that night like a,
(18:47):
you know, middle school party
and we were just sitting on a couch staring straight
ahead like you guys, I still
Speaker 1 (18:53):
remember watching it. A matinee and I, I went home,
I went home. Well, I was, I was a lot
older than you. I was in college. But it was
a matinee and I went home, it was broad
Speaker 2 (19:03):
daylight. So, as an adult, did you think it was real?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Not real? No, no, no, I just thought it was
absolutely terrifying. I went home and I, I was looking
around my, my, my shoulder during the day, I was terrified.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So scared. But
Speaker 1 (19:18):
you actually because the whole campaign was,
Speaker 2 (19:20):
was, yes. And I believed it to be real. And
I was, you know, very young too. My mom tried
to convince me that it was not real and I
was like, you didn't see it. I was there, I
watched it, I saw the finger, you know, like I,
I saw, she couldn't convince me the only thing that
and I lived in terror for years and then they had,
(19:43):
or probably not years, probably only a few months
they had, they had the, the people from the movie
were on the MTV movie awards and introduced a movie.
So they were like, came out and they were fine.
And that was, I was like, I think I felt hurt,
I felt hurt that I had been
Speaker 1 (20:01):
tricked. You were another hoax. But everyone can be forgiven
for thinking because it was promoted. They didn't put their
names out, they did and they were, they withheld all that.
But something that woman that was in
the, the film, uh I don't know her name. That
movie kind of ruined her life for a while because
she couldn't go anywhere without people and they,
Speaker 2 (20:22):
they were actors. They couldn't get jobs,
Speaker 1 (20:24):
get other jobs. And I think she changed her name.
I don't know. I, uh,
Speaker 2 (20:28):
they just did it even in hindsight, looking back they
just released them and
to the woods and they filmed it themselves and they
gave them a little bit of guidance. I mean, how
scary is that? The whole
Speaker 1 (20:37):
thing was just, oh, so it was real
Speaker 2 (20:39):
terror. It was real terror. I mean, they didn't know
what was
Speaker 1 (20:42):
going on. I identified because I'm the one that would
lose the map
and I'm that friend in your circle that would go
what map and what cigarette lighter. I don't know what
you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I'm the friend that first of all would not have
gone on the trip and second of all would have
been out so fast, like in every movie where they're like, oh, no.
So, you know, Gwen's still in the building. We got, no,
I'm sorry, save yourself. I'm not
Speaker 1 (21:13):
going, I mean, save yourself if I, I, that doesn't,
that doesn't bother me at all to understand. And I'm,
I don't know, I think I might go in because
I felt like a
not codependency, but I might be curious
as to how bad it is or I'm just too
lazy to leave. I don't know,
Speaker 2 (21:32):
to leave, but you're going back in, you're going,
Speaker 1 (21:36):
there might be a couch or sandwich there. I don't
Speaker 2 (21:38):
know. That's how they get you.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
But I watched a lot of, I love horror movies
and slasher films. And actually I grew up, Stephen King
changed my life. I wanted to be a writer though.
He is one of the best writers. Storytellers. Do you?
I don't know if you, I was a kid,
I was a kid reading Irwin Shaw, rich man, poor man.
And um the dead zone. Like I didn't know what
(22:03):
half word, some, I, I looked up the word condom
because of the dead zone. So that was helpful. I was,
that was helpful. And, uh, but, but, um, those were
terrifying as well. Do you like, um,
uh, WW, what are your favorite, um, not genres, types
of books? I'm, I'm, I'm a big nonfiction person. I
did look this up because I wanted to give a
(22:24):
shout out to Kathleen Hale and it's Slenderman online obsession,
mental illness and the violent crime of two midwestern girls.
But it's more about the system that put her in
an adult
prison and mental health. It's ter, it's the most depressing
book out now. I'm not sure about the one or
(22:45):
one did. The stabbing one was the friend, but it
goes into so much detail that was never released because
in Wisconsin it's like five bucks a page for public records.
So the trial transcript, I don't know.
But, but, but seven years of work and, uh, those, I,
I don't know, books you know, people because they, well,
no one reads anymore but everyone, books are incredibly, still popular.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I mean, I hope so.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
All right. It came out wrong. But I
Speaker 2 (23:14):
like newspapers. You know, we're all going.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
No, we're all gone. We're all gone. But we're doing
our best. But I love that. You, you give me permission,
that audio books count because I did get some, some fiction, uh,
downloaded and, uh, I wanna go back to banned books
because when is banned Books Day
Speaker 2 (23:30):
and it's usually the LA it's a week and it's, uh,
the last week in October, it used to be the
last week in September. But I think this, this year,
this last year it was in October
Speaker 1 (23:41):
and I love that books and books along with a
lot of bookstores will actually make a display. We
Speaker 2 (23:45):
have a permanent display at this point. Yeah, pretty much.
I mean, it's been up for years.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
What, what, what are some of the, let me guess?
Catcher in the Rye.
Catcher
Speaker 2 (23:54):
in the Rye. We, we have decided just to focus
our efforts in band in Florida. So our display is
specific to band in Florida. Um, beloved is definitely on
their
Speaker 1 (24:07):
beloved is one of the best shocking displays of talent
on the Morrison everybody.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
And, uh, oh man, now I'm blanking out. But, um,
there's so many, pretty much everything. Can we do refer
to a list just to make sure that we're being accurate.
But a lot of the times you can kind of
just go through and be like, well, this is probably
you look at the list and it's on there. Um
Gender Queer by Maya Kobe is the new one that's
(24:35):
being banned. It's not that new. It's a couple, a
few years old at this point, but it's a graphic novel, um,
that has been banned pretty much everywhere in the country.
And I believe is the only book that the Mano
County library system has had a, um, what's the word
that they use for it? A
somebody's made a complaint, a flag, a flag or complaint complaint. They,
(24:59):
they've filed the paperwork. It's not, it's not gone. Is
there a
Speaker 1 (25:02):
policy that you can go to a library and say,
I wonder you
Speaker 2 (25:07):
can go to? Well, we should have a librarian on
for this.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
But no, I've never heard of that. I know people
have protested like I've just never heard of a,
I have, there's
Speaker 2 (25:18):
paperwork you go in, you say I don't like this
and then, ok, it's, you fill this out and blah, blah,
blah and then have, have
Speaker 1 (25:25):
you, I don't know much about this graphic, but if
it's a graphic novel, then it's probably um a lot of,
you know, illustrations plus the story.
So that could be a double complaint.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's what it is. The illustrations are. It's about a
young uh in the beginning woman who is kind of
going through a journey of that, I believe, to be honest,
it's been a while since I've read it. I should
look at in graphic novels you read so fast sometimes I, um,
goes through a journey of, of finding themselves to be
(25:59):
non binary and experimenting sexually with different genders and different, uh,
people of sexual origin. And there is a, you know,
but they're teenagers. So, like the sex is not hot.
It's super awkward. It's super weird. It's real, it's reality.
It's not,
it's not meant to be sexy in any way, shape
(26:21):
or form. And so it's,
Speaker 1 (26:23):
and again, it's a, it's a story but based on
the one coming, it's an origin, they call it. It's a,
it's an experience.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
The one image that I guess often gets they cite is,
it's not even a true sexual. It's a, you know,
a sex toy is in it.
And so it's like, but the way you just pick
it up at your local because you should, everybody should
look at it. I was young. Drawings are not graphic,
Speaker 1 (26:54):
graphic novel. They need to rebrand because it already sounds
graphic
Speaker 2 (26:59):
and some, well, some of them are very graphic, you
Speaker 1 (27:02):
know. Well, Mouse, can that be a disturbing, I mean,
Speaker 2 (27:06):
the content is disturbing but it's also animals.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
And then
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Mouse's band
Speaker 1 (27:13):
is a band and then, and then like my friend,
our friend Teresa Kiki, the drawn to Key West is
about Mallory Square and it's called a graphic novel. But
I mean, it's interviews with performers. It's
Speaker 2 (27:23):
rated or graphic memoir too is
Speaker 1 (27:25):
another, I think graphic needs to be taken out.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
What's another pictorial
Speaker 1 (27:29):
novel? Um, drawings and stuff, drawings
Speaker 2 (27:32):
and stuff. I don't know where every time I change
the platter section, right.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Every time I see. Uh like, oh, it's a graphic novel.
I'm just like,
I don't know, it sounds, hey, I'm of an age
where the parental warning stickers went out on rap and, and,
and heavy metal albums and we were like, those are
the ones we want. So it's always a bad Kim.
It's a, it's a good, um,
it's a good marketing tool. It
Speaker 2 (27:57):
is and it, it's what it really shows is that
you just don't want to talk to your kid about it.
I guess
Speaker 1 (28:04):
it's just, I don't forbid that. God forbid, you know,
we don't have 10 copies of flowers in the attic
in every everybody's family library. How did these things get?
I mean, I can't
not bad that hustle VC Andrews. But what the hell.
So II, I will, I will vote for banning flowers
(28:26):
in the attic and go ask Alice just because I
don't think they're very well done. It's not the content,
it's the execution.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I mean, I would vote for not forcing kids in
school to read, go ask Alice unless there is a
very large campaign around talking about the way drugs actually,
especially since it's so different now. I mean, the main way. Well,
again I'm talking without any, but I would think you're
more likely you're more likely to hurt your back and
(28:56):
get a prescription to get, and get hooked on drugs
and go to a party when you're 13 and have
somebody put LSD in your, I mean, I, I really
believed as a kid that people were constantly
trying to sneak me drugs. It saved your life, didn't it? Well,
I realize no, nobody was trying to give me drugs.
They're for them. They don't want to share with me.
That was Chris
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Rock said no one's ever had to sell drugs or
convince drugs. And as someone who is sober recovery one
day at a time think you somebody's God think no,
I mean, we're all, we're all safer as someone who
knows a lot about firsthand addiction. It's not,
no one had to market them. Uh It's how your
(29:35):
body reacts. You could be different. But Alice is, isn't
it weird that the hoax part of it just is
what makes me,
that, that, that go ask Alice can't knock the hustle.
I think it's sold like a trillion copies since the seventies.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
We do still sell it. I'm not again, I'm not. Yeah,
people
Speaker 1 (29:53):
should be. I'm OK like I have to spell this out.
But uh freedom to read. Freedom of the publish. I'm,
I'm all about that.
Yeah, we,
Speaker 2 (30:03):
we sell a lot of stuff that I would say
I don't necessarily agree with the content, but I'm, it's,
it's your right to buy it. And if you're willing
to buy it, I'm willing to sell it. I
Speaker 1 (30:14):
will admit before I got so spiritual, I worked at
a bookstore in college. It was my first job out
of college, like no money. And
I was such a snob about the John Grisham stuff and, and,
and now I realize I was a good writer but
I've learned to realize that certain things just aren't my
cup of tea instead of, uh, but people would come
(30:36):
in and be like, have you read all this? Um,
I don't web, I don't know who these people, these
really popular.
And I'd go, no, I haven't read that and they go, oh,
you know, and I was like, I was like, no,
I'm busy reading but I was just such a jerk.
Gen X, some Gen X. We are kind of judgy
about music, I
Speaker 2 (30:54):
think. Oh, yes. But I think everybody is pretty judgy.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I used to pretend I loved Rem,
I like Rem.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
They're not that great. Ok. Well,
Speaker 1 (31:03):
I love Bon Jovi and I would not be real.
I
Speaker 2 (31:07):
don't know. I'm not my worst fear when I'm starting
to get to know someone is them to say. What
kind of music do you like? I'm like, oh, no,
don't do this to me.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I don't understand why we have to like this
the same things
Speaker 2 (31:21):
we don't and I'm supposed to summarize it all.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
It's just like, and I'm, I'm, like, unapologetically love Wilco.
I'm traveling to see them. I occasionally put on DMX
but I just don't, I like
Speaker 2 (31:34):
DMX when I was in high school. I loved Rem
when I was in high school. I, I, now I
just kind of like
hit play and it's
Speaker 1 (31:42):
all play. But, but the whole thing of like, well,
what do you like, like, that defines us? Because any
given day I could have a song, I had total
eclipse of the heart stuck in my head on Eclipse Day.
It's a wonderful song by the way. And it's powerful
but, like,
Speaker 2 (31:57):
good for her for getting her nickel. I know we
were 17 years or whatever it is. We,
Speaker 1 (32:03):
we would, we would, uh, be on the school bus.
I was probably 12 and we'd be singing, you know,
like every now and then I fall apart and, and,
but it's one thing to be 12 and 13 singing. Um,
I'm worried that the best of all the years have
gone by.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I Love Jagged Little Pill and a G and that
came out when I was like nine or 10 and
I would sing it like
I had been wronged by a man. I knew heartbreak
and I, you
Speaker 1 (32:30):
know, I think it set us up to, uh, but
you ought to know is like a great song. I
don't know if I want to hear it all the time.
But um she was great. She was great. She's a
little bit, she is great. But that, but that is
an angry song and then it came out, it might
be one of those guys on full house Joey,
Speaker 2 (32:50):
the
Speaker 1 (32:50):
comedian and it's kind of
ok, sure. I don't think it, but
Speaker 2 (32:55):
hey, you know, any, anybody I look back on some
of the people who have, I've shed tears over it
and I'm like,
Speaker 1 (33:01):
oh, the emotional turmoil is all. Um because now it
took me till, you know, my, my, my age now
that you just, people don't owe you anything. You can
be married 10 years and they're like, I'm out. What
are you, what are you gonna say? And all those
songs like
it's not healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (33:18):
she captured it but she's also, I think when she
did that album, she must have been like 19 or
20 a kid
Speaker 1 (33:24):
like a kid. And, and yeah, it's kinda like listen to,
I love Olivia Rodrigo and I'm like, girl, you better,
you better hang on
because of driver's license and, and, and, and Vampire
Speaker 2 (33:37):
which are kind of similar. Are they not very
Speaker 1 (33:39):
similar songs? But I mean, I love her. She gets it.
She taps into this but I'm like, you are a child.
You have so much more emotional uh to live through,
through relationships and,
Speaker 2 (33:53):
and it's gonna be there for you
Speaker 1 (33:55):
for sure. Emily Berg from books and books. I love
talking to you. Give me a couple of, give the listeners, um,
a few new books that you recommend or are doing
well or what, what?
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Sure. The, a book I'm reading right now, which I
love and if you like True crime and you like creepy. Um,
it's not true crime. It is fiction. It's called The
Wolf At The Table by Adam Rapp. I'm about halfway
through it. So, you don't know. Maybe I will abandon it.
I don't think so though because I'm pretty into it.
Um, and it's, it's fiction novel, um, started in the
(34:27):
19 fifties of this, following this family but they kind
of are
somehow Forrest Gump their way through. They keep meeting all
of these real life serial killers. And it is very, oh,
I
Speaker 1 (34:39):
like the concept.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
So it's, and it's well written and it's, it's
Speaker 1 (34:44):
who do they meet? Like,
Speaker 2 (34:47):
they haven't met Damer yet. Did we meet, um, uh,
Richard's beck who killed the eight nurses. Yeah. And, um, they,
one of them just met, I don't really even want
to give it away because the reveal was so good.
Um, gacy. So it sort of takes place in the
Chicago land area. So, any of those serial
Speaker 1 (35:09):
killers, that area of the Midwest, um, a lot going on,
Speaker 2 (35:12):
there's a lot going on, you know,
Speaker 1 (35:14):
you know, they don't get a ton that's not volume,
but when they get one
Speaker 2 (35:17):
in the seventies. I think there's a lot going on everywhere.
I'm
Speaker 1 (35:20):
so grateful we have DNA and cameras everywhere. Now, when
I walk the dog, I just wave at houses still
Speaker 2 (35:26):
murdering people.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I know. But why would anyone steal anything with cameras
everywhere
or hurt? You shouldn't hurt anybody. But it was a
time the seventies were just, there was no way for
police to. Really?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, I was just watching a video this morning about, um,
the Bender murders, which is in Kansas in the 18
seventies and, and they murdered all these people, this family
and then just were kind of like, ok, we're gonna
leave
and they left and nobody, nobody knows where they went
because there was no pictures of them, there was no
(36:03):
way to find where they think. Maybe they got on
a train to Iowa. But how do you, because there
was a family of four with German accents. So they
were like, yeah, I think that was it. But there's no,
you know, they're gone, there's nothing they can do
Speaker 1 (36:16):
that's, and who knows what's been going on this whole,
this whole, uh, before the, the cameras before the,
yeah, before the, but I just, it's terrifying to listen
to the, I don't know why I listen to all these,
they're soothing. I fall asleep too criminal. And I don't
know why. I mean, I was a crime reporter for
a long time but I was in New Orleans where
the crime was,
(36:37):
it, it, it was, you know,
it was, it wasn't serial killers that got drama and,
and people that were sala, it wasn't salacious, it was
brutal um systemic,
Speaker 2 (36:51):
you know, and I am conflicted about the kind of
stuff that I watched because of that. I'm like, is this,
Speaker 1 (36:56):
is this, am I being exploited? But there's something
real about the, it's the crime solving that really? I
want to hear about like, how did you find, how
did you put this together
Speaker 2 (37:07):
if you, I may have mentioned this before at some
point in our talkings. But, um, if you liked Mind Hunter,
the book that Mind Hunter is based on is great
because it gets a little bit more insight. I just
Speaker 1 (37:19):
got that book, Mind Hunter. I saw the series but
Mind Hunter,
it was in the little free library by my house
which has a light, you open it and it lights
up at night. That's a fancy one. And they had
Mind Hunter and they had really, really good things. Uh,
a friend of mine, Kevin, I wa I was like,
why don't we go around and we'll do like we
review your little free library and then we realized it's
(37:42):
such a small town that it's just
Speaker 2 (37:44):
a,
there's only like two or three aren't there? Well,
Speaker 1 (37:47):
there, there are, they are cropping up but it's such
a small town. People are gonna know who work. It
would be a joke. It would be like, like, like
you have five copies of, you know, um,
Speaker 2 (37:57):
and they're doing good work.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
So it's great. But I saw mine Hunter and I
actually yelped. Joy. Me and the dog, I was like,
we have mine Hunter. He only ate two pages. Sergio.
Like we rate your little free library. I don't know. Like,
I just thought there's
Speaker 2 (38:12):
something there. It's kind of
Speaker 1 (38:13):
like you ever go to. We used, I used to
buy all my books of Goodwill or, and, and you
could find these great novels for a dollar, but sometimes
it's like how many I can't even think of the authors.
You know what I'm talking about? Ok, Mary Higgins Clark.
They had like 50 of the same copy. So it
would be sort of like that. But no, the little
free libraries there are several cropping up in. Um,
(38:34):
and they're getting really high end. So Mind Hunter is
one that you would recommend Mind
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Hunter. Yes, for sure. And then, um, Wolf at the
table is the one that I'm reading right now. Um,
we do a staff pick of the month every month.
So it is April and our staff pick of the
month is a creative way by Rick Rubin, recommended by
our assistant
Speaker 1 (38:55):
manager, Rick Rubin, the producer
Speaker 2 (38:57):
and, um, Beastie Boys.
And, uh, yeah, uh, Sarah, our assistant manager recommended that
one last year, last year, last month it was under
the hen flu, which is a book about raising chickens,
nonfiction book recommended by our bookseller Camila. So,
yeah, I, I like to make sure that everybody knows
(39:20):
what other people are reading at the store because my
taste is specific. Everybody's taste tends to be really, it's
Speaker 1 (39:26):
so subjective in it. That's what I love literature, the
same way. Music and journalism, how we can all get
that connection. We all want a richer life and art
gives us that and, and liter. I don't know. I
always thought I would write literature. It's really hard, you know,
it's kind of like when you read Vonnegut or uh
what was I thinking about the other day? And you
(39:46):
go Raymond Carver and you're like, I could do this. No, no,
I can't.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
When I read the really good ones, I'm like, oh,
I could never. And then sometimes you read a bad
one and you're like, oh, maybe I could. Well, it's
like
Speaker 1 (39:55):
watching a terrible film and you have Notes. Roadhouse 2024.
You're
Speaker 2 (40:00):
the third person that's mentioned Roadhouse in the last 24 hours.
Was it on or something? Is it an
Speaker 1 (40:07):
started streaming the news
remake with Jake Gyllenhaal?
Speaker 2 (40:11):
So that makes sense. I got a text from everybody
across the country thinking of you because I'm watching Roadhouse.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Oh my God. It takes place in the glass. I
put something on Facebook as a joke and it blew
up in this huge post and people were, it was
actually kind of, I was like, wow, I just had
high hopes for it. It's my own issue. Um, not
enough fighting too much.
It's a ridiculous film. But do
Speaker 2 (40:37):
you watch, do you watch a lot of film? Like,
did you watch all of the Oscar nominations and stuff?
Speaker 1 (40:42):
No, I don't know any of those movies. I thought
poor things was.
Oh, stupid. Did you like it?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
It was one of the few that I was like, oh,
I wish I had seen that though.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
I mean, it's watchable. Uh, I saw Love Lies Bleeding.
I love that film. Um, I don't think I even
saw Oppenheimer. I'm just really, I'm only pick, it's too long.
I know that was my thought. Not interesting. But I get,
but Roadhouse was disappointing for me because I just, I
had high expectations.
I love fighting movies. Um, it shot, well, Fred The
(41:11):
Tree is in it. It's beautiful. But I guess
Speaker 2 (41:13):
it's like one of the things
Speaker 1 (41:15):
he is a star that it's worth it. It's on Amazon.
So it, it, but people get so mad and touchy
now you can, and a woman presenting her view of a,
of a film, in any opinion, you can get in
a lot of trouble so on. But II, I don't
even know why I brought that up. But I, um,
we're talking about bad films but I watched it going,
(41:37):
it was helpful because I'm like, oh, this is how
not to make them, there's value in everything. But, uh,
I just know but there's only so much time, only,
so much time, but literature is,
um, uh, I'm so happy. We have a couple of
bookstores in town but books and books right there at
the studios. Um, you all do great work and I
(41:59):
got a gift certificate from someone and I will be
using that to buy. Um, I'm the one that goes
to the bookstore and goes, I'm gonna buy this stuffed animal.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
We have art supplies.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I'm gonna b I worked at a chain in after
college and it was a lot of really cool. Remember
Stella Luna that bat you could buy. We've
Speaker 2 (42:24):
got, there's a yes, you can, we have, we have
had the bat. We tend to get that stuff around
the holidays. So, but maybe we could, we could always
order a bat just for you.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
You are Emily Berg, a bookstore manager at books and
books at the studios of Q. And again with the
event for independent
Speaker 2 (42:42):
bookstore day is Saturday, April 27th all day at the bookstore.
So when we're open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and
then at 630 we will have our incredible event with
Lydia Millet with her new book.
I loved it all and it'll be in the pear
uh courthouse. So right next door, the old carriage tradehouse
Speaker 1 (43:04):
again, everyone that's pe A R not that when you
first said it, it was like Peer House. No, pe
a thank you. That's
Speaker 2 (43:10):
a good, yes, Peyton Evans Residency. That's where it comes from.
Um Artist residency. I mean, I know
Speaker 1 (43:17):
that and I still,
we forget their house
Speaker 2 (43:20):
y'all. It's a beautiful space. So I hope you're coming
for the event, but if nothing else come out to check,
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I've been there. It is a beautiful courtyard. Um and
it's uh the residencies are there and so independent bookstore day, everybody.
Um, and, you know, thank you for all you do.
I know. I know it's work but you, um, you
all have a great, great store there and it's very
welcoming
Speaker 2 (43:43):
and, well, we can only, it sounds cheesy but we
really can only do it as long as the community
wants us here. It's very,
Speaker 1 (43:50):
it's, and it's such a
Key West location as are all places that sell books
and in, in literature and music. But, but books and books. Um,
obviously Judy Bloom is a, uh, but, um, you know,
she works there, she just shelves, she stocks books, right.
She runs the cash register and, and her house was, but,
but it's, it's, I always think, oh, Judy Bloom runs
(44:11):
our bookstore. I mean, it's kind of, that's the most
key west
it
Speaker 2 (44:16):
is and it's a big literary town. You know, we've
got all sorts of, um, it's a
rich literary history as they always say. So, it's a,
it was a, it's a little crazy that we only
have two bookstores. Um, and that for a while, only
had the one. So I think we're, we're really happy
(44:36):
to be a part of it now and
Speaker 1 (44:39):
I, uh, the locals that we, we know you people
know you and Laurie, I mean, we know it's fun
to go in and just know these, your, you know, if,
even if they're just acquaintance,
it's like, oh, my gosh, that's a bookstore lady.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
We know we've added some new employees. Uh you know,
you mentioned Theresa's book and um her uh I don't
know what labels they use. So I'll just say close
friend Joe works at the bookstore. Phillips is one of
our booksellers and every time somebody buys because we sell
Teresa's book, I say this guy is in that book.
(45:16):
Do you want him to show you the picture? Because
she drew him.
Joey
Speaker 1 (45:20):
is um a street performer, long time street performer, Mallor
Squares and Cooper is a dog and I'm friends with Cooper.
You're friends with Cooper. Like I've watched dog sat him
during my dog sitting days, but we're actually friends that
came to one of my comedy shows on my birthday
and uh but Joey and Cooper are
Speaker 2 (45:40):
very well. I don't know Cooper as well as I
know Joey because have you met Cooper? I don't, I
feel like I've met Cooper maybe before Joey started working
at the bookstore, but he doesn't come to the bookstore now.
Bobby who is. Laurie's dog does stop by the bookstore
once in a while. So,
Speaker 1 (45:55):
is probably smaller.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
No. Bubby. Well, I don't know how big Cooper is,
but Bubby's a big boy.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
The name. Bubby sounds like a £12 dog.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
No, I mean, real size dog. I would guess him
and now I'll have to tell her and she'll, we'll
have to send an amendment if I'm wrong, I would
guess him to be about £60.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Not a dog that's,
uh, goes in a
Speaker 2 (46:16):
purse. Well, it depends on the purse
Speaker 1 (46:21):
in has been to books and books because I used
to run into him a lot. I love that. Joey works.
So he's a great, he's a great fellow.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
We also, we're going to talk about dogs. We have
Leslie Concepcion is one of our booksellers. She's been on
the island forever and she has a dog named Cheddars
who also comes in once in a while. Cheddars could
fit in a purse. He's, um, a little white dog
with gigantic ears. And, um,
I'm trying to think going through, oh, and then Camilla has, um,
(46:49):
two dogs who are so embarrassing. I've completely forgotten them.
Stella and Maui. Stella and Maui is the litter mate
of Laurie's dog and Maui is about £15
of bubbies of bubbies. So, same litter. Isn't that crazy?
They look exactly the same, but it looks like somebody
(47:11):
dehydrated Maui.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Like, like, like Shunk made Jerky, made a living healthy
jerky dog proportional
Speaker 2 (47:19):
proportionally smaller than Bubbie. And I think that's all the
bookstore dogs. I don't think you're a cat person. And
I've got a cat named Leo who has never come
to the bookstore. Um,
we did have, I did have a dog named Minerva
who did come to the bookstore a couple times. So
dogs are welcome. You can bring Sergio. I,
Speaker 1 (47:39):
he's, he's pretty good on the leash. He's pretty good. Um,
pretty good boy. Ok. Yeah. Bring him by the star,
Emily Burke. Thanks for taking all this time and coming
on the podcast and so much for having me see
you around town.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yes, for sure. Thank you. And
Speaker 1 (47:52):
thank you for listening to Key West Sidetracks. I'm Gwen
Felos
and check us out online. Keys, weekly.com for the top news,
sports and entertainment stories, uh across the floor. Keys. No paywalls,
no forced email. Sign ins, read us all for free
and I'll be back next week. Take care.
Welcome to Key West Sidetracks. I'm Gwen Filosa. I'm digital
editor at the Keys weekly newspapers down here in beautiful
Key West Florida. And my guest today is Emily Berg.
She's bookstore manager at books and books, which is located
at the studios of Key West at 533 Eaton Street.
(00:20):
And here's the interview. I hope you enjoy it. Emily Berg,
thanks for coming on the
Speaker 2 (00:24):
podcast. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now, you're the bookstore manager at books and books. Uh
It's at the studios of QS downtown on Eaton Street.
Uh What's going on? You have so many events. Uh
you bring in writers, you have all kinds of uh
authors and signing. So what, what's, what's coming up? Big day?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, normally this time of year we'd be winding down.
We wouldn't be doing so much in the summer. Give
all of us a little break and uh and give
the audience a little break too, but we do actually
have a pretty big event. The end of April. Saturday,
April 27th is independent Bookstore Day, which is a um
(01:05):
I wanted to say national holidays, national holiday, but of,
of independent bookstores. Uh it's a day where um there's
exclusive products and all sorts of fun stuff. We're going
to have a golden ticket prize. So we're going to
hide a golden ticket somewhere in the bookstore. And if
you find it, you get 12 free audio books through
(01:27):
Libro FM.
And, and then that evening, we have Lydia Millet who's
a national book Award finalist who will be in the
Pear House Courtyard. So if you haven't been to the
New Pear House, which is where the artist and residents
live at the studios of Key West um in that
beautiful courtyard, we're having this amazing author talking about her
(01:48):
new book, which is called We Loved It All. And
it's essays about her life and she's a novelist, but
she tends to have an environmental twist. So this is
an essay, the series of essays that she's written about,
you know, the conflicting feelings of having Children in our
changing uh planet on our changing planet. And uh yeah,
(02:11):
it's a great book and I'm really hoping we get
good people out for it even though it's the end
of April. And I know everyone's kind of tired.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
It's, it's, it's cut us, we're all tired all the time.
It's so much fun things to do. But then you
have your two jobs. It's a lot. But we, but we,
but it's, it's worth it for right now. So. Independent
bookstore Day. That's great. That's great. Now, um what
we, we know each other a little bit. You know,
I don't read,
(02:40):
I know how to read. I read, I read on
my phone. I used to be such a reader but
I've gotten into audio books and I've got to say
it's changed. I li one was a, a very traumatizing
murder book about the Slenderman murders. Do you remember? Actually
she didn't die? But it's about Children anyway. And mental illness. And,
(03:02):
but the Britney Spears
Speaker 2 (03:03):
autobiography, I listen to that one too. I loved
Speaker 1 (03:06):
it. I think every woman should, should or everybody. I
didn't know any of that because I don't really follow,
you know, in the nineties, I was, I was in
college and working three jobs, had a girlfriend. I, I
didn't know but
just her upbringing and her experience is kind of terrifying.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, it was. I like to, I, well, first of
all audio books are reading so don't feel bad about
it counts. Yeah, I think it counts. I think it counts. Um,
people always come in. They're like, oh, I don't read
but I listen. Well, it's, you're getting the knowledge and, um,
so, but I like, uh, listening when it's like a
celebrity biography, celebrity memoir or comedian memoirs are the best
(03:47):
to listen to. Especially when they read it. She didn't
read that one. Michelle Williams read it but still I thought, yeah,
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I kept thinking it was her because Michelle Williams is
so good with the, yeah, she was the, but, um,
Britney reads the forward but I don't,
in memoirs, in, in those autobiographies. I don't know what
we call them. They are celebrity memoirs. They can be
hit or miss.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah. Usually it, it feels to me like if they
have something to say, if they have something important to
express about their life, like Britney did and went through something,
it tends to be,
you know, better. Other times I think sometimes they're just,
they're on a popular kick and a publisher thinks, well,
I could sell this
Speaker 1 (04:34):
money. You can't knock that hustle. But there are some
that have come out. Um, it used to be my
guilty pleasure in college when I was a voracious reader
for college and elsewhere.
And I'd be like, I need to read this, um
autobiography of Vanessa Redgrave or something. But, but that one,
it was very good. But, but, but, but the Britney
Spears one just, I couldn't, I binged it, which is,
(04:57):
I don't know if you can do that on an
audio book. And the Slenderman thing was,
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think I know that. So that was a true
crime book from
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Wisconsin and the, the woman, um, at a, the writer
spent seven years, um, the public records laws were crazy and,
and a 12 year old girl who stopped her friend,
but she has, they realized she had such mental illness
and two girls, the friend and, um I think it's
Kathleen Hale that wrote it. Um
(05:29):
She had some problematic things about goodreads. Remember the writer
that went after her goodreads.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Critic Goodreads is problematic.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I wanted to ask because Rotten Tomatoes, I look, I've
been taught to look, I can't afford to be disappointed
by my entertainment at my age. Like I just can't.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
What if I worked for a movie theater? I may
have feelings about rotten tomatoes, but I don't, I work
for a bookstore so I have feelings about goodreads. I mean,
I'm probably everything is problematic if you look into it enough. Right.
But
Speaker 1 (06:00):
what Goodreads? It's so popular but it seems like easy
to manipulate. If you want to go after a writer,
you don't like
um they got the fellowship or just people that are,
you know, psychotic and sit around all day trolling.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, I think that that is what it is. Um
I mean, it's owned by Amazon. They own goodreads. So,
um there is an algorithmic uh method to what you're
seeing and what you're able to see. Um So they
can squash things pretty easily, should they not, you know,
should they not agree? They, the big they
(06:36):
um not agree. But yeah, it can be. It's just i,
in some ways it's, it's a nice, it's nice to
have a platform where people can share their thoughts on books,
however you can share your opinion about the author without
having read the book. And now so much power has
been given to the starred reviews that, um, it doesn't
(07:01):
matter if it's a good book or not,
it doesn't matter if they even read the book, they're
just able to put some pretty hateful. It's, it's a
social media site essentially
Speaker 1 (07:13):
essentially does Judy Blume have high ratings there or you
have
Speaker 2 (07:16):
no idea
Speaker 1 (07:17):
that you have no sense of weird curiosity. Stalker is
good for you. If I worked with, you work with Judy,
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I do work with her and, uh, honestly, her books
sell very well without need, at least for, uh, you know,
I'm sure she's doing well elsewhere, but certainly at our bookstore,
she's fine. So I've never bulletproof. There is a site
called Bookmarks that's run by Lit Hub, which is, um,
a literary journalism site and
(07:48):
they have what they do is they take reviews from every,
every place, something is reviewed by, you know, a, a
paper or a, a reputable site and they summarize it
so you can go on and you can look and
it'll say, ok, this new, um, the New Salman Rushdie has,
it's got six raves, two mixed and one pan,
(08:12):
you know, so you can kind of see how it is.
And then from there you can click and see a
little excerpt from each review and then you can go
on to read the New York Times review or the.
So I, uh, on a professional level, I tend to
use that more as a way to gauge how something
might be doing than goodreads because it's also goodreads to
(08:32):
me feels very regional. So, you know, it's smaller. Um,
I think it may be very important and I should
be careful how I'm saying this. Maybe for the self
published authors or the ones that are having to promote themselves,
perhaps that's something that they really need and, and value.
(08:54):
But for me trying to decide what's out there, it
could be all of their friends and family doing the
Speaker 1 (08:59):
reviews. So it could be because I'm just looking up,
what was the one you said? That was a little marks? Bookmarks? Ok.
That's interesting because, um,
yeah, I was just curious because, I mean, you work
in a bookstore, you have access, I'm sure you get
all kinds of pitches. Like, please put up this book
in here. And, um,
I guess, uh, will, will you suffer through a book
(09:21):
to see if it gets better? Will you stop midway?
Will I, I read the Goldfinch a fantastic book halfway
through it. Yeah, it's a book stop. It's a, it's,
I love Donna Tart. It's wonderful. And at halfway through,
I'm like, I've had enough of the Goldfinch and I'm,
I'm gonna put it aside.
(09:42):
I, I don't even something that fabulous. After six, I
think it's 900 pages. But have you ever, I mean, I,
I will return to it. Maybe even something wonderful. I
was wondering when you're reading. Do you kind of just go,
I'm gonna finish this because they, sometimes they get different.
What
Speaker 2 (10:02):
do you think? It depends. I'm, I used to be
totally a, I'm going to finish it. I have to
finish it.
Um, I really wanted my numbers to look good for myself. Like,
at the end of the year I've read this many
books and so I, I can't get that number if
I don't and, and I don't know, maybe it's the job,
but over the last, maybe six or seven years I've
(10:25):
just been like, I don't, I don't have time for this.
So if it's
not good in my opinion and I rarely, I try
not to talk about books as it's not good or
this is a bad book because it's just not my
cup of tea almost always. This is not for me.
I can tell this is not for me and I
don't like it. Um, but I can see, especially now
(10:45):
working in the store. I, I work with a lot
of people who have different opinions about books than I
do and they look for things differently and that we
meet so many people. I'm like, somebody's going to like
this but it's not me.
If I really don't like it, I will stop. Um,
sometimes there's one or two lines where I'm like, ok,
I'm out, you know, like this just didn't do it
(11:06):
for me. Sometimes I really like it. But what you're
describing with the Goldfinch. I really like it. I'm just
done reading it. I just for whatever
Speaker 1 (11:16):
reason. And everyone's like, but it's so great and I'm like, I,
I have things to do. I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate.
I have a lot of things to do. But I
grew up reading if it weren't for public libraries in
the classroom, teachers who had those little libraries. That's where
I was introduced to Judy Bloom. The Are you there?
Got it to me, Margaret. But the other books that,
(11:37):
that she wrote were there. And, you know, I grew
up in a small town. We had the troll book order.
Oh my God. We would wait for weeks to get
our little books and books opened the whole world and,
and where my,
it was just a,
Speaker 2 (11:50):
it was, I wonder if it's, um, you know, I
was a pretty big reader when I was a kid
too and then I dropped off in my teens and
early twenties and it's almost like, you know, you're a kid,
you're limited in how you can
learn and travel. I mean, you're stuck there. You're in Indiana.
You can't travel
Speaker 1 (12:09):
in Indiana and
Speaker 2 (12:11):
now you can. So it, I think there's nothing wrong
with it having served a purpose for a certain part
of your life and then taking a break. That's fine.
I've gone through a weird thing this year this
year. So starting in January, I could not finish a
book until probably two weeks ago I started maybe 40
books and some of them I would get 70% into
(12:35):
and then just stop reading them. I was like, I
don't know what is happening. Finally, I got one that
I just wanted to know what happened and was into
enough that I kept going. But
yeah, I
Speaker 1 (12:46):
tore through, loved got so much out of was Colson
Whitehead's Underground Railroad and, and that's been a while and
he's got great books. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice
in a row. Nickel Boys, I did read Nickel Boys
is about Florida the,
Speaker 2 (13:02):
the Dozer School. And there's another book, um, by Tannery
of Dew, who's been here for the literary seminar called
The Reformatory, which has been high on my list for
a while where she, she tackles the same.
Um, and I think she actually probably started it because
she did so much research before he wrote the Nickel Boys. But, um,
about the Dozer School, but she takes a sort of
(13:24):
a ghostly, there's spirits. It's, uh, what's the word? I'm
looking at a horror. It's a horror. Uh, take on
it
Speaker 1 (13:31):
is a story. So she takes a supernatural, supernatural novel, obviously.
But I mean, based on, oh my gosh, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna read that. It's supposed
Speaker 2 (13:42):
to be amazing. We have a couple of booksellers,
um, shout out to Laurie at the bookstore because she
sells the hell out of that book and it's, and
I also have this thing where I'm like, well, it's
doing well on its own. It doesn't need me. So
maybe I can put it at the bottom of the list. But,
which is so stupid because, like, I, but why am
I depriving myself from a good book just because somebody
else has already read it in the store. So,
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I, I hear that. Well, there's, um, a podcast
I checked into that was called, like, basically it was
about the, the worst books that were very popular. It
was a lot of VC Andrews. We read that. We
read that growing up. But, but listening to people talk
about Flowers in the, uh there was like a three
hour podcast that I listen to
Speaker 2 (14:23):
the rough book.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That's, that we all learned about horrible illegal things in,
in the whole family. And
Speaker 2 (14:32):
did you read the next ones? Was
Speaker 1 (14:33):
that Audrina?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Oh, no. Uh Sweet Audrina. IVC Andrews. I think that
that's a different Sequels to Flowers. Oh,
Speaker 1 (14:42):
yeah, there's like three or four. I think I learned
all I want to know about brother and sister. I
won't even say the word. I'm not saying that word.
I get crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
They become adults. I'll say that.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Uh the,
I bet they're still as popular as they were. We
were little kids going, have you read this book? And
it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2 (15:03):
let's do that. We've had it in the store because
it's banned. Um, And so we, we often, if
Speaker 1 (15:10):
there were one, I am for freedom of everything, there
were one book that I'd like to ban, it would
be flowers in the attic.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah. Every now and then one comes across the banned
book list where I'm like, well, I mean, everything's on
that list now. I mean, it's in,
I always sort of, uh, man, I'm gonna get in
so much trouble but every time I see, go ask
Alice on the list, I'm like, well, ok, maybe.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Did you? I listen to a big podcast. I listen
to the podcast on the go ask Alice, did it
turn out that was made up or? I believe
Speaker 2 (15:40):
it is now the young
Speaker 1 (15:42):
girl the runway and she does drugs.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah, it's supposed to, it's bi anonymous and it's supposed
to be her diary that they found afterwards. Found
Speaker 1 (15:53):
literature, like found footage
Speaker 2 (15:55):
and I read it in school in like seventh or
eighth grade, which then I reread it as an adult.
I'm like, how, why it's such a scare tech. She
goes to a party and she's growing up in the
sixties and seventies, you know, late sixties, she goes to
a party and somebody puts LSD in her coke,
Speaker 1 (16:13):
which happens all the time
Speaker 2 (16:15):
constantly. Well, let me tell you as a kid after
reading that book, I was like, they're just, everyone's trying
to give you drugs
Speaker 1 (16:22):
to not drink other people's drinks or a
Speaker 2 (16:24):
drink that somebody gives
Speaker 1 (16:26):
you or leave your drink. But doesn't it turn her
into
Speaker 2 (16:33):
or something? Well, she goes off the rails and she
gets addicted to drugs and then does do some sex
work just to get drugs. Um,
and so, I don't know. But it, it, it,
Speaker 1 (16:42):
it was kind of hard to believe fact, but it
was presented as fact.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
It was presented at least in the nineties when it
was given to me, it was presented as fact and
it was, it was given in a way that was
supposed to, it felt very much of the dare vibe
where it was like just if you look at drugs,
you will become addicted, everyone will be on that. You
will be on the
Speaker 1 (17:05):
streets. And it actually introduced a lot of kids to,
I didn't know what it was, but I can't remember.
I think in go ask Alice, she goes from LSD
to like heroin immediately,
Speaker 2 (17:16):
probably pretty quickly. I don't know. I get there's a
thing with all with banned books in general.
It never makes sense to ban them because it's just
going to make people want to read them more and
every book, no matter how problematic and terrible it is
gone with the Wind has its place. If it is
paired with other education and other conversations, it is a
(17:40):
door opener to talk about other things. So if that
book is now being taught in schools, as look, this
is what was believed back then and we
now know this. Not all to be true that this
is not the journey of most people who get addicted
to drugs, but people do get addicted to drugs. And
this could be this. You know, there's some truth to
(18:03):
this then. I'm totally fine with it. But to just
hand it to a 13 year old and be like, ok,
careful out there. It's wild there kid.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Well, I guess I just, I don't know what it is. I, the,
when I, I didn't know till I recently heard this
podcast that it was, go ask, Alice was pretty much
a
hoax and that for some reason bothers me. I don't
know why it has nothing to do with me, but
my rent stays the same.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
But that just, you know what the Blair Witch project
came out when I was 13 and I think it
was real. It was, we saw it in the theaters
the first weekend it came out my best friend Lindsay
and I, her dad took us, dropped us off at
the theater. We went in traumatized, came out completely traumatized.
Remember we went to a party that night like a,
(18:47):
you know, middle school party
and we were just sitting on a couch staring straight
ahead like you guys, I still
Speaker 1 (18:53):
remember watching it. A matinee and I, I went home,
I went home. Well, I was, I was a lot
older than you. I was in college. But it was
a matinee and I went home, it was broad
Speaker 2 (19:03):
daylight. So, as an adult, did you think it was real?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Not real? No, no, no, I just thought it was
absolutely terrifying. I went home and I, I was looking
around my, my, my shoulder during the day, I was terrified.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So scared. But
Speaker 1 (19:18):
you actually because the whole campaign was,
Speaker 2 (19:20):
was, yes. And I believed it to be real. And
I was, you know, very young too. My mom tried
to convince me that it was not real and I
was like, you didn't see it. I was there, I
watched it, I saw the finger, you know, like I,
I saw, she couldn't convince me the only thing that
and I lived in terror for years and then they had,
(19:43):
or probably not years, probably only a few months
they had, they had the, the people from the movie
were on the MTV movie awards and introduced a movie.
So they were like, came out and they were fine.
And that was, I was like, I think I felt hurt,
I felt hurt that I had been
Speaker 1 (20:01):
tricked. You were another hoax. But everyone can be forgiven
for thinking because it was promoted. They didn't put their
names out, they did and they were, they withheld all that.
But something that woman that was in
the, the film, uh I don't know her name. That
movie kind of ruined her life for a while because
she couldn't go anywhere without people and they,
Speaker 2 (20:22):
they were actors. They couldn't get jobs,
Speaker 1 (20:24):
get other jobs. And I think she changed her name.
I don't know. I, uh,
Speaker 2 (20:28):
they just did it even in hindsight, looking back they
just released them and
to the woods and they filmed it themselves and they
gave them a little bit of guidance. I mean, how
scary is that? The whole
Speaker 1 (20:37):
thing was just, oh, so it was real
Speaker 2 (20:39):
terror. It was real terror. I mean, they didn't know
what was
Speaker 1 (20:42):
going on. I identified because I'm the one that would
lose the map
and I'm that friend in your circle that would go
what map and what cigarette lighter. I don't know what
you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I'm the friend that first of all would not have
gone on the trip and second of all would have
been out so fast, like in every movie where they're like, oh, no.
So, you know, Gwen's still in the building. We got, no,
I'm sorry, save yourself. I'm not
Speaker 1 (21:13):
going, I mean, save yourself if I, I, that doesn't,
that doesn't bother me at all to understand. And I'm,
I don't know, I think I might go in because
I felt like a
not codependency, but I might be curious
as to how bad it is or I'm just too
lazy to leave. I don't know,
Speaker 2 (21:32):
to leave, but you're going back in, you're going,
Speaker 1 (21:36):
there might be a couch or sandwich there. I don't
Speaker 2 (21:38):
know. That's how they get you.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
But I watched a lot of, I love horror movies
and slasher films. And actually I grew up, Stephen King
changed my life. I wanted to be a writer though.
He is one of the best writers. Storytellers. Do you?
I don't know if you, I was a kid,
I was a kid reading Irwin Shaw, rich man, poor man.
And um the dead zone. Like I didn't know what
(22:03):
half word, some, I, I looked up the word condom
because of the dead zone. So that was helpful. I was,
that was helpful. And, uh, but, but, um, those were
terrifying as well. Do you like, um,
uh, WW, what are your favorite, um, not genres, types
of books? I'm, I'm, I'm a big nonfiction person. I
did look this up because I wanted to give a
(22:24):
shout out to Kathleen Hale and it's Slenderman online obsession,
mental illness and the violent crime of two midwestern girls.
But it's more about the system that put her in
an adult
prison and mental health. It's ter, it's the most depressing
book out now. I'm not sure about the one or
(22:45):
one did. The stabbing one was the friend, but it
goes into so much detail that was never released because
in Wisconsin it's like five bucks a page for public records.
So the trial transcript, I don't know.
But, but, but seven years of work and, uh, those, I,
I don't know, books you know, people because they, well,
no one reads anymore but everyone, books are incredibly, still popular.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I mean, I hope so.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
All right. It came out wrong. But I
Speaker 2 (23:14):
like newspapers. You know, we're all going.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
No, we're all gone. We're all gone. But we're doing
our best. But I love that. You, you give me permission,
that audio books count because I did get some, some fiction, uh,
downloaded and, uh, I wanna go back to banned books
because when is banned Books Day
Speaker 2 (23:30):
and it's usually the LA it's a week and it's, uh,
the last week in October, it used to be the
last week in September. But I think this, this year,
this last year it was in October
Speaker 1 (23:41):
and I love that books and books along with a
lot of bookstores will actually make a display. We
Speaker 2 (23:45):
have a permanent display at this point. Yeah, pretty much.
I mean, it's been up for years.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
What, what, what are some of the, let me guess?
Catcher in the Rye.
Catcher
Speaker 2 (23:54):
in the Rye. We, we have decided just to focus
our efforts in band in Florida. So our display is
specific to band in Florida. Um, beloved is definitely on
their
Speaker 1 (24:07):
beloved is one of the best shocking displays of talent
on the Morrison everybody.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
And, uh, oh man, now I'm blanking out. But, um,
there's so many, pretty much everything. Can we do refer
to a list just to make sure that we're being accurate.
But a lot of the times you can kind of
just go through and be like, well, this is probably
you look at the list and it's on there. Um
Gender Queer by Maya Kobe is the new one that's
(24:35):
being banned. It's not that new. It's a couple, a
few years old at this point, but it's a graphic novel, um,
that has been banned pretty much everywhere in the country.
And I believe is the only book that the Mano
County library system has had a, um, what's the word
that they use for it? A
somebody's made a complaint, a flag, a flag or complaint complaint. They,
(24:59):
they've filed the paperwork. It's not, it's not gone. Is
there a
Speaker 1 (25:02):
policy that you can go to a library and say,
I wonder you
Speaker 2 (25:07):
can go to? Well, we should have a librarian on
for this.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
But no, I've never heard of that. I know people
have protested like I've just never heard of a,
I have, there's
Speaker 2 (25:18):
paperwork you go in, you say I don't like this
and then, ok, it's, you fill this out and blah, blah,
blah and then have, have
Speaker 1 (25:25):
you, I don't know much about this graphic, but if
it's a graphic novel, then it's probably um a lot of,
you know, illustrations plus the story.
So that could be a double complaint.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's what it is. The illustrations are. It's about a
young uh in the beginning woman who is kind of
going through a journey of that, I believe, to be honest,
it's been a while since I've read it. I should
look at in graphic novels you read so fast sometimes I, um,
goes through a journey of, of finding themselves to be
(25:59):
non binary and experimenting sexually with different genders and different, uh,
people of sexual origin. And there is a, you know,
but they're teenagers. So, like the sex is not hot.
It's super awkward. It's super weird. It's real, it's reality.
It's not,
it's not meant to be sexy in any way, shape
(26:21):
or form. And so it's,
Speaker 1 (26:23):
and again, it's a, it's a story but based on
the one coming, it's an origin, they call it. It's a,
it's an experience.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
The one image that I guess often gets they cite is,
it's not even a true sexual. It's a, you know,
a sex toy is in it.
And so it's like, but the way you just pick
it up at your local because you should, everybody should
look at it. I was young. Drawings are not graphic,
Speaker 1 (26:54):
graphic novel. They need to rebrand because it already sounds
graphic
Speaker 2 (26:59):
and some, well, some of them are very graphic, you
Speaker 1 (27:02):
know. Well, Mouse, can that be a disturbing, I mean,
Speaker 2 (27:06):
the content is disturbing but it's also animals.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
And then
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Mouse's band
Speaker 1 (27:13):
is a band and then, and then like my friend,
our friend Teresa Kiki, the drawn to Key West is
about Mallory Square and it's called a graphic novel. But
I mean, it's interviews with performers. It's
Speaker 2 (27:23):
rated or graphic memoir too is
Speaker 1 (27:25):
another, I think graphic needs to be taken out.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
What's another pictorial
Speaker 1 (27:29):
novel? Um, drawings and stuff, drawings
Speaker 2 (27:32):
and stuff. I don't know where every time I change
the platter section, right.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Every time I see. Uh like, oh, it's a graphic novel.
I'm just like,
I don't know, it sounds, hey, I'm of an age
where the parental warning stickers went out on rap and, and,
and heavy metal albums and we were like, those are
the ones we want. So it's always a bad Kim.
It's a, it's a good, um,
it's a good marketing tool. It
Speaker 2 (27:57):
is and it, it's what it really shows is that
you just don't want to talk to your kid about it.
I guess
Speaker 1 (28:04):
it's just, I don't forbid that. God forbid, you know,
we don't have 10 copies of flowers in the attic
in every everybody's family library. How did these things get?
I mean, I can't
not bad that hustle VC Andrews. But what the hell.
So II, I will, I will vote for banning flowers
(28:26):
in the attic and go ask Alice just because I
don't think they're very well done. It's not the content,
it's the execution.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I mean, I would vote for not forcing kids in
school to read, go ask Alice unless there is a
very large campaign around talking about the way drugs actually,
especially since it's so different now. I mean, the main way. Well,
again I'm talking without any, but I would think you're
more likely you're more likely to hurt your back and
(28:56):
get a prescription to get, and get hooked on drugs
and go to a party when you're 13 and have
somebody put LSD in your, I mean, I, I really
believed as a kid that people were constantly
trying to sneak me drugs. It saved your life, didn't it? Well,
I realize no, nobody was trying to give me drugs.
They're for them. They don't want to share with me.
That was Chris
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Rock said no one's ever had to sell drugs or
convince drugs. And as someone who is sober recovery one
day at a time think you somebody's God think no,
I mean, we're all, we're all safer as someone who
knows a lot about firsthand addiction. It's not,
no one had to market them. Uh It's how your
(29:35):
body reacts. You could be different. But Alice is, isn't
it weird that the hoax part of it just is
what makes me,
that, that, that go ask Alice can't knock the hustle.
I think it's sold like a trillion copies since the seventies.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
We do still sell it. I'm not again, I'm not. Yeah,
people
Speaker 1 (29:53):
should be. I'm OK like I have to spell this out.
But uh freedom to read. Freedom of the publish. I'm,
I'm all about that.
Yeah, we,
Speaker 2 (30:03):
we sell a lot of stuff that I would say
I don't necessarily agree with the content, but I'm, it's,
it's your right to buy it. And if you're willing
to buy it, I'm willing to sell it. I
Speaker 1 (30:14):
will admit before I got so spiritual, I worked at
a bookstore in college. It was my first job out
of college, like no money. And
I was such a snob about the John Grisham stuff and, and,
and now I realize I was a good writer but
I've learned to realize that certain things just aren't my
cup of tea instead of, uh, but people would come
(30:36):
in and be like, have you read all this? Um,
I don't web, I don't know who these people, these
really popular.
And I'd go, no, I haven't read that and they go, oh,
you know, and I was like, I was like, no,
I'm busy reading but I was just such a jerk.
Gen X, some Gen X. We are kind of judgy
about music, I
Speaker 2 (30:54):
think. Oh, yes. But I think everybody is pretty judgy.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I used to pretend I loved Rem,
I like Rem.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
They're not that great. Ok. Well,
Speaker 1 (31:03):
I love Bon Jovi and I would not be real.
I
Speaker 2 (31:07):
don't know. I'm not my worst fear when I'm starting
to get to know someone is them to say. What
kind of music do you like? I'm like, oh, no,
don't do this to me.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I don't understand why we have to like this
the same things
Speaker 2 (31:21):
we don't and I'm supposed to summarize it all.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
It's just like, and I'm, I'm, like, unapologetically love Wilco.
I'm traveling to see them. I occasionally put on DMX
but I just don't, I like
Speaker 2 (31:34):
DMX when I was in high school. I loved Rem
when I was in high school. I, I, now I
just kind of like
hit play and it's
Speaker 1 (31:42):
all play. But, but the whole thing of like, well,
what do you like, like, that defines us? Because any
given day I could have a song, I had total
eclipse of the heart stuck in my head on Eclipse Day.
It's a wonderful song by the way. And it's powerful
but, like,
Speaker 2 (31:57):
good for her for getting her nickel. I know we
were 17 years or whatever it is. We,
Speaker 1 (32:03):
we would, we would, uh, be on the school bus.
I was probably 12 and we'd be singing, you know,
like every now and then I fall apart and, and,
but it's one thing to be 12 and 13 singing. Um,
I'm worried that the best of all the years have
gone by.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I Love Jagged Little Pill and a G and that
came out when I was like nine or 10 and
I would sing it like
I had been wronged by a man. I knew heartbreak
and I, you
Speaker 1 (32:30):
know, I think it set us up to, uh, but
you ought to know is like a great song. I
don't know if I want to hear it all the time.
But um she was great. She was great. She's a
little bit, she is great. But that, but that is
an angry song and then it came out, it might
be one of those guys on full house Joey,
Speaker 2 (32:50):
the
Speaker 1 (32:50):
comedian and it's kind of
ok, sure. I don't think it, but
Speaker 2 (32:55):
hey, you know, any, anybody I look back on some
of the people who have, I've shed tears over it
and I'm like,
Speaker 1 (33:01):
oh, the emotional turmoil is all. Um because now it
took me till, you know, my, my, my age now
that you just, people don't owe you anything. You can
be married 10 years and they're like, I'm out. What
are you, what are you gonna say? And all those
songs like
it's not healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (33:18):
she captured it but she's also, I think when she
did that album, she must have been like 19 or
20 a kid
Speaker 1 (33:24):
like a kid. And, and yeah, it's kinda like listen to,
I love Olivia Rodrigo and I'm like, girl, you better,
you better hang on
because of driver's license and, and, and, and Vampire
Speaker 2 (33:37):
which are kind of similar. Are they not very
Speaker 1 (33:39):
similar songs? But I mean, I love her. She gets it.
She taps into this but I'm like, you are a child.
You have so much more emotional uh to live through,
through relationships and,
Speaker 2 (33:53):
and it's gonna be there for you
Speaker 1 (33:55):
for sure. Emily Berg from books and books. I love
talking to you. Give me a couple of, give the listeners, um,
a few new books that you recommend or are doing
well or what, what?
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Sure. The, a book I'm reading right now, which I
love and if you like True crime and you like creepy. Um,
it's not true crime. It is fiction. It's called The
Wolf At The Table by Adam Rapp. I'm about halfway
through it. So, you don't know. Maybe I will abandon it.
I don't think so though because I'm pretty into it.
Um, and it's, it's fiction novel, um, started in the
(34:27):
19 fifties of this, following this family but they kind
of are
somehow Forrest Gump their way through. They keep meeting all
of these real life serial killers. And it is very, oh,
I
Speaker 1 (34:39):
like the concept.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
So it's, and it's well written and it's, it's
Speaker 1 (34:44):
who do they meet? Like,
Speaker 2 (34:47):
they haven't met Damer yet. Did we meet, um, uh,
Richard's beck who killed the eight nurses. Yeah. And, um, they,
one of them just met, I don't really even want
to give it away because the reveal was so good.
Um, gacy. So it sort of takes place in the
Chicago land area. So, any of those serial
Speaker 1 (35:09):
killers, that area of the Midwest, um, a lot going on,
Speaker 2 (35:12):
there's a lot going on, you know,
Speaker 1 (35:14):
you know, they don't get a ton that's not volume,
but when they get one
Speaker 2 (35:17):
in the seventies. I think there's a lot going on everywhere.
I'm
Speaker 1 (35:20):
so grateful we have DNA and cameras everywhere. Now, when
I walk the dog, I just wave at houses still
Speaker 2 (35:26):
murdering people.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I know. But why would anyone steal anything with cameras
everywhere
or hurt? You shouldn't hurt anybody. But it was a
time the seventies were just, there was no way for
police to. Really?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, I was just watching a video this morning about, um,
the Bender murders, which is in Kansas in the 18
seventies and, and they murdered all these people, this family
and then just were kind of like, ok, we're gonna
leave
and they left and nobody, nobody knows where they went
because there was no pictures of them, there was no
(36:03):
way to find where they think. Maybe they got on
a train to Iowa. But how do you, because there
was a family of four with German accents. So they
were like, yeah, I think that was it. But there's no,
you know, they're gone, there's nothing they can do
Speaker 1 (36:16):
that's, and who knows what's been going on this whole,
this whole, uh, before the, the cameras before the,
yeah, before the, but I just, it's terrifying to listen
to the, I don't know why I listen to all these,
they're soothing. I fall asleep too criminal. And I don't
know why. I mean, I was a crime reporter for
a long time but I was in New Orleans where
the crime was,
(36:37):
it, it, it was, you know,
it was, it wasn't serial killers that got drama and,
and people that were sala, it wasn't salacious, it was
brutal um systemic,
Speaker 2 (36:51):
you know, and I am conflicted about the kind of
stuff that I watched because of that. I'm like, is this,
Speaker 1 (36:56):
is this, am I being exploited? But there's something
real about the, it's the crime solving that really? I
want to hear about like, how did you find, how
did you put this together
Speaker 2 (37:07):
if you, I may have mentioned this before at some
point in our talkings. But, um, if you liked Mind Hunter,
the book that Mind Hunter is based on is great
because it gets a little bit more insight. I just
Speaker 1 (37:19):
got that book, Mind Hunter. I saw the series but
Mind Hunter,
it was in the little free library by my house
which has a light, you open it and it lights
up at night. That's a fancy one. And they had
Mind Hunter and they had really, really good things. Uh,
a friend of mine, Kevin, I wa I was like,
why don't we go around and we'll do like we
review your little free library and then we realized it's
(37:42):
such a small town that it's just
Speaker 2 (37:44):
a,
there's only like two or three aren't there? Well,
Speaker 1 (37:47):
there, there are, they are cropping up but it's such
a small town. People are gonna know who work. It
would be a joke. It would be like, like, like
you have five copies of, you know, um,
Speaker 2 (37:57):
and they're doing good work.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
So it's great. But I saw mine Hunter and I
actually yelped. Joy. Me and the dog, I was like,
we have mine Hunter. He only ate two pages. Sergio.
Like we rate your little free library. I don't know. Like,
I just thought there's
Speaker 2 (38:12):
something there. It's kind of
Speaker 1 (38:13):
like you ever go to. We used, I used to
buy all my books of Goodwill or, and, and you
could find these great novels for a dollar, but sometimes
it's like how many I can't even think of the authors.
You know what I'm talking about? Ok, Mary Higgins Clark.
They had like 50 of the same copy. So it
would be sort of like that. But no, the little
free libraries there are several cropping up in. Um,
(38:34):
and they're getting really high end. So Mind Hunter is
one that you would recommend Mind
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Hunter. Yes, for sure. And then, um, Wolf at the
table is the one that I'm reading right now. Um,
we do a staff pick of the month every month.
So it is April and our staff pick of the
month is a creative way by Rick Rubin, recommended by
our assistant
Speaker 1 (38:55):
manager, Rick Rubin, the producer
Speaker 2 (38:57):
and, um, Beastie Boys.
And, uh, yeah, uh, Sarah, our assistant manager recommended that
one last year, last year, last month it was under
the hen flu, which is a book about raising chickens,
nonfiction book recommended by our bookseller Camila. So,
yeah, I, I like to make sure that everybody knows
(39:20):
what other people are reading at the store because my
taste is specific. Everybody's taste tends to be really, it's
Speaker 1 (39:26):
so subjective in it. That's what I love literature, the
same way. Music and journalism, how we can all get
that connection. We all want a richer life and art
gives us that and, and liter. I don't know. I
always thought I would write literature. It's really hard, you know,
it's kind of like when you read Vonnegut or uh
what was I thinking about the other day? And you
(39:46):
go Raymond Carver and you're like, I could do this. No, no,
I can't.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
When I read the really good ones, I'm like, oh,
I could never. And then sometimes you read a bad
one and you're like, oh, maybe I could. Well, it's
like
Speaker 1 (39:55):
watching a terrible film and you have Notes. Roadhouse 2024.
You're
Speaker 2 (40:00):
the third person that's mentioned Roadhouse in the last 24 hours.
Was it on or something? Is it an
Speaker 1 (40:07):
started streaming the news
remake with Jake Gyllenhaal?
Speaker 2 (40:11):
So that makes sense. I got a text from everybody
across the country thinking of you because I'm watching Roadhouse.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Oh my God. It takes place in the glass. I
put something on Facebook as a joke and it blew
up in this huge post and people were, it was
actually kind of, I was like, wow, I just had
high hopes for it. It's my own issue. Um, not
enough fighting too much.
It's a ridiculous film. But do
Speaker 2 (40:37):
you watch, do you watch a lot of film? Like,
did you watch all of the Oscar nominations and stuff?
Speaker 1 (40:42):
No, I don't know any of those movies. I thought
poor things was.
Oh, stupid. Did you like it?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
It was one of the few that I was like, oh,
I wish I had seen that though.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
I mean, it's watchable. Uh, I saw Love Lies Bleeding.
I love that film. Um, I don't think I even
saw Oppenheimer. I'm just really, I'm only pick, it's too long.
I know that was my thought. Not interesting. But I get,
but Roadhouse was disappointing for me because I just, I
had high expectations.
I love fighting movies. Um, it shot, well, Fred The
(41:11):
Tree is in it. It's beautiful. But I guess
Speaker 2 (41:13):
it's like one of the things
Speaker 1 (41:15):
he is a star that it's worth it. It's on Amazon.
So it, it, but people get so mad and touchy
now you can, and a woman presenting her view of a,
of a film, in any opinion, you can get in
a lot of trouble so on. But II, I don't
even know why I brought that up. But I, um,
we're talking about bad films but I watched it going,
(41:37):
it was helpful because I'm like, oh, this is how
not to make them, there's value in everything. But, uh,
I just know but there's only so much time, only,
so much time, but literature is,
um, uh, I'm so happy. We have a couple of
bookstores in town but books and books right there at
the studios. Um, you all do great work and I
(41:59):
got a gift certificate from someone and I will be
using that to buy. Um, I'm the one that goes
to the bookstore and goes, I'm gonna buy this stuffed animal.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
We have art supplies.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I'm gonna b I worked at a chain in after
college and it was a lot of really cool. Remember
Stella Luna that bat you could buy. We've
Speaker 2 (42:24):
got, there's a yes, you can, we have, we have
had the bat. We tend to get that stuff around
the holidays. So, but maybe we could, we could always
order a bat just for you.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
You are Emily Berg, a bookstore manager at books and
books at the studios of Q. And again with the
event for independent
Speaker 2 (42:42):
bookstore day is Saturday, April 27th all day at the bookstore.
So when we're open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and
then at 630 we will have our incredible event with
Lydia Millet with her new book.
I loved it all and it'll be in the pear
uh courthouse. So right next door, the old carriage tradehouse
Speaker 1 (43:04):
again, everyone that's pe A R not that when you
first said it, it was like Peer House. No, pe
a thank you. That's
Speaker 2 (43:10):
a good, yes, Peyton Evans Residency. That's where it comes from.
Um Artist residency. I mean, I know
Speaker 1 (43:17):
that and I still,
we forget their house
Speaker 2 (43:20):
y'all. It's a beautiful space. So I hope you're coming
for the event, but if nothing else come out to check,
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I've been there. It is a beautiful courtyard. Um and
it's uh the residencies are there and so independent bookstore day, everybody.
Um, and, you know, thank you for all you do.
I know. I know it's work but you, um, you
all have a great, great store there and it's very
welcoming
Speaker 2 (43:43):
and, well, we can only, it sounds cheesy but we
really can only do it as long as the community
wants us here. It's very,
Speaker 1 (43:50):
it's, and it's such a
Key West location as are all places that sell books
and in, in literature and music. But, but books and books. Um,
obviously Judy Bloom is a, uh, but, um, you know,
she works there, she just shelves, she stocks books, right.
She runs the cash register and, and her house was, but,
but it's, it's, I always think, oh, Judy Bloom runs
(44:11):
our bookstore. I mean, it's kind of, that's the most
key west
it
Speaker 2 (44:16):
is and it's a big literary town. You know, we've
got all sorts of, um, it's a
rich literary history as they always say. So, it's a,
it was a, it's a little crazy that we only
have two bookstores. Um, and that for a while, only
had the one. So I think we're, we're really happy
(44:36):
to be a part of it now and
Speaker 1 (44:39):
I, uh, the locals that we, we know you people
know you and Laurie, I mean, we know it's fun
to go in and just know these, your, you know, if,
even if they're just acquaintance,
it's like, oh, my gosh, that's a bookstore lady.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
We know we've added some new employees. Uh you know,
you mentioned Theresa's book and um her uh I don't
know what labels they use. So I'll just say close
friend Joe works at the bookstore. Phillips is one of
our booksellers and every time somebody buys because we sell
Teresa's book, I say this guy is in that book.
(45:16):
Do you want him to show you the picture? Because
she drew him.
Joey
Speaker 1 (45:20):
is um a street performer, long time street performer, Mallor
Squares and Cooper is a dog and I'm friends with Cooper.
You're friends with Cooper. Like I've watched dog sat him
during my dog sitting days, but we're actually friends that
came to one of my comedy shows on my birthday
and uh but Joey and Cooper are
Speaker 2 (45:40):
very well. I don't know Cooper as well as I
know Joey because have you met Cooper? I don't, I
feel like I've met Cooper maybe before Joey started working
at the bookstore, but he doesn't come to the bookstore now.
Bobby who is. Laurie's dog does stop by the bookstore
once in a while. So,
Speaker 1 (45:55):
is probably smaller.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
No. Bubby. Well, I don't know how big Cooper is,
but Bubby's a big boy.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
The name. Bubby sounds like a £12 dog.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
No, I mean, real size dog. I would guess him
and now I'll have to tell her and she'll, we'll
have to send an amendment if I'm wrong, I would
guess him to be about £60.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Not a dog that's,
uh, goes in a
Speaker 2 (46:16):
purse. Well, it depends on the purse
Speaker 1 (46:21):
in has been to books and books because I used
to run into him a lot. I love that. Joey works.
So he's a great, he's a great fellow.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
We also, we're going to talk about dogs. We have
Leslie Concepcion is one of our booksellers. She's been on
the island forever and she has a dog named Cheddars
who also comes in once in a while. Cheddars could
fit in a purse. He's, um, a little white dog
with gigantic ears. And, um,
I'm trying to think going through, oh, and then Camilla has, um,
(46:49):
two dogs who are so embarrassing. I've completely forgotten them.
Stella and Maui. Stella and Maui is the litter mate
of Laurie's dog and Maui is about £15
of bubbies of bubbies. So, same litter. Isn't that crazy?
They look exactly the same, but it looks like somebody
(47:11):
dehydrated Maui.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Like, like, like Shunk made Jerky, made a living healthy
jerky dog proportional
Speaker 2 (47:19):
proportionally smaller than Bubbie. And I think that's all the
bookstore dogs. I don't think you're a cat person. And
I've got a cat named Leo who has never come
to the bookstore. Um,
we did have, I did have a dog named Minerva
who did come to the bookstore a couple times. So
dogs are welcome. You can bring Sergio. I,
Speaker 1 (47:39):
he's, he's pretty good on the leash. He's pretty good. Um,
pretty good boy. Ok. Yeah. Bring him by the star,
Emily Burke. Thanks for taking all this time and coming
on the podcast and so much for having me see
you around town.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yes, for sure. Thank you. And
Speaker 1 (47:52):
thank you for listening to Key West Sidetracks. I'm Gwen
Felos
and check us out online. Keys, weekly.com for the top news,
sports and entertainment stories, uh across the floor. Keys. No paywalls,
no forced email. Sign ins, read us all for free
and I'll be back next week. Take care.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.