October 1, 2024 • 39 mins
Welcome to this week's episode of Shepack Unleashed! Join hosts Tania, Nichole, Ashley, and Jenny as they dive into the captivating world of book clubs. This episode, titled "Between the Pages: Unveiling the Magic of Book Clubs," explores the diverse types of book clubs and the unique experiences they offer.
From structured, themed neighborhood book clubs to spicy, smut-filled gatherings, our hosts share their personal book club journeys. Discover how book clubs can range from discussing ethical dilemmas and fantasy worlds to indulging in steamy romance and erotica. Each host brings a different perspective on what makes a book club meaningful, whether it's community, social interaction, or escaping into a fantastical realm.
Learn about the various formats and structures of book clubs, including online options, monthly meetings, and themed parties. The hosts also discuss their favorite recent reads and the joys of sharing books with like-minded friends. Whether you're a fan of fantasy, romance, or intense erotica, this episode has something for every book lover.
Don't miss the lively discussions, personal anecdotes, and insightful recommendations as our hosts navigate the world of book clubs. Tune in to find out why book clubs are more than just a place to discuss books—they're a space to connect, escape, and thrive.
Thank you for being part of our pack. Stay wild and fierce!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello, and welcome to SHIPAC Unleashed. I'm one of your hosts, Tanya.
I'm Nicole. Welcome to your weekly dose of candid discussion and the pursuit
of finding your tribe in this journey of motherhood, womanhood, and sisterhood.
I'm Ashley. Join us as we leave no stone unturned. In each episode,
we have heart-to-heart conversations that aim to challenge and empower one another.
I'm Jenny. No more waiting. SHIPAC Unleashed begins now.
(00:29):
On this week's episode, Between the Pages, Unveiling the Magic of Book Clubs.
I'm very excited for this. Yay! Yay!
As a former reading teacher. Yeah, I'm so sad I forgot my book club, my book talk merch.
I have mine. No, my favorite one is I have a cereal tea company from ACOTAR.
(00:50):
I need you guys to tell my husband because I have nada.
Well, your husband listens. He's number one fan. So as you're listening to this,
you need to buy your. Now that he's bragged about being our number one fan. That's true.
For the listeners, you guys are wearing shirts.
I have a Harry Potter t-shirt because that's all I have. Okay. I have a Baskiath.
Fourth wing. Fourth wing. You looked at me. That's what I watched. Because.
(01:15):
I read most of that book. Did you finish that one? I could not finish it though.
But I got like seven. This is blasphemy. This is kind of blasphemy. me.
He says the one who couldn't finish like books that I like.
Hey, hey, hey, we're not gonna yuck each other's yum. It was 900 pages of forking. And I had no idea.
Moving on, we're gonna chat about book clubs.
(01:36):
This is about book clubs. We have our own book club together.
Very disparate in the best way. Yeah.
So I think one thing that we could definitely jump off with is talking about
the different types of book clubs that exist, or at least that we have personal
experience with, because let's be honest, I'm sure there's a million different
variations of book clubs in the world.
But we, between the four of us, have experience with four different book clubs.
(02:00):
So we can jump off there. Maybe, Jenny, you've been in the longest running one. So how about you start?
I have a couple. So yeah, I was a middle school teacher. So my first book club
ever was actually with other teachers at the school where I taught,
which was 10 years ago now.
And then our last neighborhood was part of that book club, which was a monthly meeting.
My current neighborhood, yes, it's been long running and I came into it later
(02:22):
which I'm really enjoying and happy to share more about.
That and then also really enjoy an online book club where they send me a box
every month and I get to open it and there's normally like a little prize and
a book to read and then there's all sorts of online materials that's the Jen
Hatmaker book club. Like a paper book?
Yes you can do the audible or the paper book but it's similar I think Oprah
(02:45):
does something similar or is there like online forums Facebook groups for it?
Yeah that was my big question like how do you get community with like an online
book club? What does that look like? It's amazing, actually.
So it's like a Facebook group for chatting. And then there's a web portal where they have content.
They pre-populate questions, kind of discussion guides.
They always curate a Spotify playlist with the author of the book that month.
(03:10):
And they do a live Q&A with the author they put on Zoom, which I got to join once. Wow.
Yeah, it's really well done. So if you're looking for a book club and you don't
have one in your neighborhood, it's a great one to check out.
We can share a link for that one for sure.
It just makes me think that we are in book clubs for very different reasons.
Yeah. Wait, so what about your neighborhood one? Tell us, like,
(03:30):
how does that one work? Like, how is it structured?
So the neighborhood one, we meet every month on the third Thursday of the month.
The books are picked the December of the year before.
So the holiday party is always a big reveal. And my neighbors...
Like, for the whole year ahead of time?
For the whole year. What if, like, a new good book comes out?
You read it and like it's the whole year, but it's really fun because there's
(03:52):
normally like a rap or a show or some like gig, like entertaining thing to show what the books are.
That's a lot of effort. It is. I love it. And I don't do it.
Right. So somebody else is doing the mental work, which I appreciate.
I also really appreciate that they've made kind of the expectation that you
don't recommend a book if you haven't read it, which is really up to like the
(04:12):
quality of what we're reading.
Who gets to recommend books? So neighbors all recommend books,
and then the committee decides.
The committee? I mean, it's not very formal. There's like a handful of women who take this on.
I'm sure if I wanted to opt in, I could, but I like that they do them until work. That's fair.
And there's some structure to it. Like, there's normally beachy reads in the summer.
(04:33):
October is always a mystery. February is always smut. And I like that predictability.
And then December, we don't have a book, right, because we do the party. So it's been really fun.
It's very structured. It's very structured. You know, if I'm going to take the
time to read a book or listen to a book, I want to talk about it.
And yeah, so I appreciate the folks that do all the thinking and the organizing.
(04:57):
And some of the women that have older kids, like the snacks are on theme.
The decorations are on theme. Not always.
Wow. But sometimes they get real. Like we did lessons in chemistry and the woman
who hosted is a scientist. So a different person hosts every time, right?
Okay. We all wore lab coats and she had like a drink with like science experiment on how to make it.
And you can make it different colors. It was so fun. That is fun.
(05:20):
You did a Barbie themed something, didn't you? We did. We read.
Oh, no, not Barbie. That was Britney. We read Britney. So we all dressed in
different Britney's. That was fun.
Yeah. For the smut book. I mean, I should take a picture of some of these snacks
that the folks have made. Were there penis pictures? Yes.
Excellent. So, yeah, I think it's really fun. And, you know,
I think when my kids are in college and if I'm still there and this is still
(05:44):
going, like, then I'll be one of them, right, who has the time to be super creative and give back.
Well, let's say you are hosting later this year.
For the first time, yeah. And you're hosting. What book are you hosting?
Fourth Wing. Oh. Yeah. And we are all invited. So we're going to crash the book club.
And I made sure that we were allowed. This is the first time the book club has
ever done fantasy, too. Really?
So we're going to bring our A game. it feels like also though I will say that
(06:06):
the fact that you have to plan it so far in advance like fourth wing is like
so far out it's old news now there's some people that have already read it and
there's some people that are reading it for the first time and it's okay yeah.
It's been a year since that came out?
Iron Flame fourth wing is like years before not that,
(06:30):
far fourth wing is a couple years old now isn't it curious yeah no because they
feel like google it just blew up yes but it was published before like a little
bit before that okay until tiktok book talk yeah a little bit iron flame came out halloween 2023 23,
fourth wing came out may 23 yeah it was really close together oh they rushed
(06:55):
iron they they Well, I mean, clear they rushed out in flames.
That's literal. And then Onyx Storm, which is the third to the day.
It's coming out January. Early January 2025.
Interesting. Onyx Storm? Yeah. I'm so excited. Same.
So I will say it's been a long time. I was an avid reader when I was younger
and through college probably.
(07:18):
And then real world hit and I just kind of fell out of it for,
you know, multitude of reasons. And I've just recently like come back into reading
in the last two years, maybe three years at most.
And I am so enjoying it and really, really love it. I just got my very first
Kindle ever for Christmas this past year.
And it's really fun. And I will say fantasy is definitely where my heart lies,
(07:41):
but I like reading all different kinds. And so the book club that I'm in is
affiliated or it came from the gym that Jenny and I go to specifically.
And ladies just got together organically and said, hey, let's start a book club.
And so we started doing it, and we've surpassed our year mark now.
We're into our second year, a few months in.
(08:02):
And it's interesting because it's probably a group of anywhere between like
10 and 15 women-ish that come regularly, right?
And then there are a couple people that will sort of moonlight,
and they'll come in, and they'll go out, which is totally cool.
I kind of like that it's that flexible.
Do people come and go depending on if they liked the book? We've noticed that recently.
So one thing that we actually just talked about this past week at our book club
(08:26):
is this idea we were trying to plan ahead for, you know, the second year of this.
And Jenny brought up this idea that it's a requirement in her other book club
where the person who recommends it has to have read it to like vet it, right?
And like stand behind the book, that it is a quality read, that it's going to be a fun discussion.
And because we've had at least two books where the person who selected it very
(08:47):
blatantly said, like, I'm so sorry.
Like, I had no idea it was going to go that way or I just thought it was going
to be better or different things.
So, and we've read the whole gamut, right? There's been fiction,
there's psychological thrillers, there's been a really heavy one that was all
about this war, like a trauma journalist,
basically, who went and interviewed people who had survived atrocities in war recently.
(09:12):
And like, I think five people showed up for that book club because it was so
heavy that most people opted out or started it and just couldn't finish.
And so I think this club is very new, right?
And so we're still finding our footing. We're still deciding how we like for
it to go, what's helpful versus what's nice to just kind of let it be loose and let it be fun.
(09:35):
So we're still ironing it out. I will say I'm.
Little jealous of Nicole's book club that she will share about because
mine is very themed
and structured yeah the one from gym is kind
of like new and figuring it out along the way kind of and but it is fun for
the community I will say like it has enhanced my experience in the gym of getting
(09:58):
to see those ladies like when I go to work out it's fun to like have those extra
touch points with people that just make you feel closer and enhance that community
a lot so I like that aspect of it.
Yeah. My book club is a neighborhood book club also. And it just started actually this year too.
So it's a relatively new book club. And there are two book clubs in our neighborhood.
There's like the traditional book club, which I feel like is more like what
(10:20):
you're talking about with the gym book club, where they like pick a book,
they sit around and they discuss it.
And there's like, they read the like, people have questions to ask and there's questions.
Yeah. Yeah, like there's... I'm coming from the perspective of like, I'm not in a book club.
So what are these discussions? Think about like the end when you watch,
(10:42):
read your kids' books, and at the end they have like the questions of like,
what, did you understand the comprehension? What was the meaning?
What was the symbolism of the red scarf? You know, like... So like, correction.
I think that it might be false to make it sound like these are comprehension
questions like you would get in an English class.
I think that's how it feels for me. That is not how a good book club is run.
(11:03):
They might be discussion questions or opinion.
Or how did this scenario make you feel? What might you have done in this scenario
if you were posed with the same questions? Or if it was a movie,
who would you cast as the characters?
Oh, we haven't had that question yet. It doesn't have to be like,
what is the meaning of this that the author intended?
Yeah, because that sounds very English class to me. It's not.
(11:24):
That's my experience at any book club I've been to besides this new one.
Besides the new one. So far in my one, we've had very formal questions.
Literary questions. There's not a right or a wrong answer. There's not a right
or a wrong. It's just what you prefer. It's not a quiz. I will say that.
Didn't you say that? Oh, no, it was somebody else. And another gal,
we were talking at book club on Monday.
(11:46):
And she's like, oh, yeah, in this other book club she was a part of,
there was a person who hosted and literally quizzed the people who showed up
to discuss the book. And I was like, oh, no.
I will say I would say our book club in December plays games,
but it's not about one book, and it's just all in good fun.
And it's like they read quotes from all of the 11 books during the year,
(12:07):
and you're on a team, and you have to, like, name the book.
I like that. It sounds so stressful. It stresses me out that absolutely not.
No, it's fun. When I read things, like, I remember, but I don't remember like that.
Quotes speak to my heart, so I do like that one. I read it, I ingest it,
and I'm like, out, snake out.
(12:28):
You also read like a hundred plus books a year. But I bet you if we were playing
a game and we talked about a character named Lorkhan who said,
who did this to you, you would know.
Yes, yes I would. You would know and you would be excited that you recognized
the record. And so Lorkhan did.
Yeah. I don't know that yet. I mean, there are some books that have a longevity of my memory.
(12:49):
Yeah, yeah. But there are others I just enjoy in the moment,
and I am not there to, like, priest.
Yeah, priesthood. Yeah, I agree. We need to talk about your book club.
We need to get it out there.
Yeah, your neighborhood book club. So our neighborhood book club,
shout out to the Briar Chapel Spicy Book Club. Okay, this is a book club only for spicy books.
And we alternate between contemporary romance spicy and fantasy spicy.
(13:13):
Romanticy. Romanticy. Every other month. Every other month. and it is purely like.
About the smut. That is only February in my neighborhood.
That is all year long here. Take a beat.
You can edit around that. Sorry. I'm going to just put it there.
(13:34):
I'm going to like add it to my TikTok where I say something about smut and she just goes.
Now I'm going to blush. So let's go get that too. And back to book club.
So spicy for us is only February.
Yeah. Spice is all year long. You can enjoy your flavor of spice.
So you have smut and then you have the romantic-y, fantasy-based.
(13:57):
Yeah. And we pick it based off the level of smut involved in that fantasy.
And you only pick one month in advance, right? Yeah. That's stressful. I like to plan my year.
Oh, no. So when we're at book club, people recommend books at the end.
Do you have any rules like having read it like the other ones? No. Who picks?
I'm sure some There's some outgoing loud voices. Everybody like shouts out and
(14:18):
then we put them up on the screen and then there's like a vote. You vote for them.
I will say there was one advantage that we kind of discussed in our book club
of having the list picked out at least a couple months in advance for folks
who liked to loan the books through the public library.
And you need a month or two month or three month lead time to get on the list for that book.
(14:40):
And so that was one thing that just hadn't occurred to me because I do have
Kindle Unlimited, right? Right. Like I pay for that service.
And so it was it was a good reminder that having the access to the free books
was nice to have more advanced notice.
A lot of the books we pick are on the public library. No, that is a fair statement.
You know what? I don't even know.
I think we should. Do libraries have? And just smut? They do.
(15:02):
I mean, they have like 50 Shades of Grey. They have Verity, I'm sure, you know, but like.
I mean, I would say that not the five pepper spices or four pepper spices.
Yeah, in general, there's not a lot at the public library.
They're like checking out for this. I'm going to test this. I'm going to find
out. What about going to like an adult store? Do they sell that kind of stuff? Oh, not books.
(15:23):
They might. Yeah, I wonder. I'm not sure that the sales for these types of books are often in print.
I feel like a lot of women prefer to read them on Kindle or Audible. That's so interesting.
You know, a picture of a blonde Fabio on the cover, like writing.
But the covers aren't like that anymore, too.
Like I saw a picture in some book-related group that I'm in on Facebook,
(15:44):
and it was a picture of a woman sitting on a cruise ship, and this other person
like zoomed in on this other person's book, and it was the cover of Credence.
But that's not like at all subjective.
It's like a picture of like forest, like pine tree. Yeah, it's like you wouldn't know.
And like Anna Huang, she's really popular right now. She took off during COVID
and all of her covers are very subdued. There's a second version that's very
(16:05):
subdued. And then there's tons that are like cartoony.
So in my mind, like it would be in print, but hidden in plain sight.
Yeah, I will say we do decide, we do check to see if it's on Kindle Unlimited.
And that like is a preference as we're picking through so that it's not a thing.
But people who buy it, We just trade it around in the neighborhood.
Oh, that's nice. Like people will trade it around the neighborhood because it's in our neighborhood.
(16:26):
I do like not having to purchase. Trading smut. Can you imagine if dudes trade
like jenny back in the day? Or did they? There's germs involved.
What are you doing with your books? Are you like smutting on your books? I don't read smut.
That's the first Jennifer. You do read smut, Jennifer. Do not lie.
I mean, I read Fourth Wing. That's not even spicy.
(16:47):
I didn't find that spicy at all. But no, I haven't yet. Oh, that's true.
It's on my list. Steamy. No, I haven't. It's steamy, not spicy.
How do you define steamy, spicy, smut? It's about the percentage of smut in
a book. And what defines smut?
Like when it goes to like fade to black. The level of description.
Like when it's like fade to black. Yeah, that to me is like. That's like steam.
(17:08):
Okay. Versus. Okay, so I've read more than that. Okay. Yeah.
Like fourth wing. Yeah, that's spice. Fourth wing, I'd say, not fourth wing,
but I'd say ACOTAR has spice.
I loved ACOTAR. Yeah. What kind of descriptions were in ACOTAR for Spice?
You gotta get to like book five, though. Absolutely not.
You gotta get to like book five to get into Spice. Can't do it.
It would mean a lot to me. I know, but when...
(17:32):
When I got halfway through the graphic audio, I thought I was done the first
one and realized I was halfway done.
And I was just like, I couldn't do it. I still remember you texted me.
You're like, so I finished ACOTAR.
And like, I don't totally get like what you girls are so hyped about.
It's like, what happened when you stopped listening? And she said,
and I was like, that is how.
I was like, you haven't reached the trials yet. Like so much happens.
(17:56):
No. But like, it does get better.
But there was one line that like icked me in that book the curve of his ear.
That's an ick for you it is a big ick so no fair okay i also like yeah that's
also having a hard time seeing that that is your ick after reading fucking around
i have now finished all the books that are out hold on time out lady so far
(18:20):
man we should not be yucking each other i'm no no i'm not I'm not yucking,
but I had a really hard time with the fantasy aspect of it to begin with.
The fantasy part of fourth one was really hard for me.
Okay. And the plot itself, I found very predictable. Like, obviously,
there's all this tension. There's so many tropes. Yeah.
The tropeness I didn't quite love so much.
(18:42):
I know. I'm sorry. It's crushing Jetty's heart. I'm sorry.
It was hard for me. It was hard. You know, I wonder if like,
so in the similar vein, like Crescent City was set in a more more modern world,
like there were still fantasy elements and there were fantasy characters, right? Or, you know.
She will hate Crescent City. Most people hate Crescent City.
No, no, no. My question was like Crescent City, but most people that we know,
(19:07):
that we affiliate with loved Agatar and she didn't, right?
So let's not generalize to say most people hate it. The hardcore Sarah J.
Moss people, Crescent City really threw them for a loop because it was this
modern city and people People had guns, but they also used swords.
And like, they had cell phones. But were there non-human?
Yes. I think that's the part I don't like. Okay. I also think.
(19:28):
There are cute little otters that deliver your mail.
What? But what's spicy about that? It's gotten there yet. Oh.
So we need to. We'll stop talking about that.
So that confuses me then too. Like there's like, there's spicy things.
Disney movies or like anything with fantasy or animated or like character. Nah.
See, I find that I can enjoy books better. the less realistic they are.
(19:52):
And I think I'm the opposite. I'm figuring out. I want it realistic,
relatable, where I can actually picture myself as the character.
Oh, see, I can picture myself running horseback through a field with a sword
on my back. Like I can picture myself. That's amazing.
All of the things. That's so cool. I would be so happy. They have the archery
(20:13):
on horseback riding lessons.
That's awesome. That I've wanted to do for years. Okay, Ashley, you'll do that with us?
Nicole will take pictures. I've been there once for you guys. I'll do it again.
I mean, I have to do it at least one more time. Yes, you do.
When we go to the Ren Faire, we can practice a little archery.
I've never done that. I would love to. Oh, we're going to. I would love to try
that. Okay, so back to book clubs. Sorry. Sorry.
(20:34):
Totally off to the fantasy books. We like fantasy books. Our one person here
does not like fantasy books.
She's our outlier here. I'm the realistic fiction one. But I am curious of the
book clubs you've heard described.
An online one, a spicy one, kind of like a monthly structure.
More structured, very themed one. Which would you hypothetically join if forced?
Definitely the smut one. Oh, my book club for sure. Obviously my book club for sure. Yeah.
(20:59):
Wait, so she would only attend every other month though? Because then the fantasy
would be... Well, but it depends. Like what... Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Is it the creatures with their like creature parts doing things?
Are you thinking like Ice Planet Barbarians kind of thing?
No, I'm thinking of like Bad Dragon Dildos comes to life. Ice Planet.
Okay. like think of it like when you're talking about i don't
(21:21):
want i don't want to know we don't need to pause okay when you're
talking about like fantasy when you're talking about fantasy
it is like fairies but they're humans they just have pointy
ears they're like picture them as humans with pointy ears if i
can not picture the pointy just ignore the pointy ear part but okay interesting
but essentially like i picture them as humans i don't even picture them as like
(21:42):
my brain and maybe that's where i got stuck with like agitars because there
was this like tension in with the wolf guy and like the animalness I didn't
get. Oh yeah, but he's a person. He like shapeshifts.
Okay, when I picture the shapeshifting, I picture like Wolverine. Yeah.
That's animal person. But then he becomes like a person. He becomes a wolf in
(22:03):
his... It's like Twilight.
In his animal form, he's truly like a four-legged wolf running around. No.
Oh, we're going to do a movie night. Okay, the books are so much better,
but Lord knows you won't read them. So yeah, we'll have to do a movie.
No, we're going to Wilmington. We're watching Twilight. Okay.
And Bridgerton. Fifty Shades of Grey and Bridgerton. And we're also doing a
podcast episode on the go. Oh, boy. Excellent.
Did you buy more stuff? I plead the fifth. I'm just saying we're doing a podcast
(22:28):
episode on the go. I'm here for it.
So what do you want to get out of your book club then
i mean my book club okay the purpose the purpose is
a social community right like so it's
not that like we go to book club and that's it right we have a book club facebook
messenger chat where we chat all the time about books as you're reading it or
(22:48):
do you save the discussion for like when you actually get together i mean we
chat as we're reading it in terms of as people are reading it throughout the
month and like With like a no spoilers rule or something?
How can you spoil it? They do it, they do it, they do it at the end.
There's no plot twist. They might break up. There are definitely plot twists in Smut for sure.
(23:09):
Missionary from behind. That's the plot twist. This is not the podcast I thought
we were going to have on Book Club. The holes fill the plot.
The plot fills the holes. Oh dear. All the holes.
But like it is for community, right? Right. So like it's not even just that
like that we're going like we're going to somebody's house and we're hanging
(23:30):
out as like most of us are moms or single women or not single.
Like it's a it's a variety. Right. There's single women.
There's women with no kids. There's women with kids. And we're all just like
coming together, hanging out, having wine.
And it's like 30 or 40 of you. Yeah, it's a large group.
So yours is a very big group. What about your guys' book cubs? How big? It's 10 to 15.
(23:51):
Okay. We get a range from that, both extremes.
I think our first, our first or early ones were maybe like 15 people-ish.
I mean, you can still have like a conversation with only a little bit of sidebar
at that size. But like a big size, how do you convert? There's a key. We have a key.
Like a talking stick? Yeah, a talking stick. Like a talking key.
You need a bookmark. We'll go around. You need like an oversized bookmark or something.
(24:15):
It is shocking. It's not a dildo. But it is. Maybe I'll bring it. Say it.
Laugh. but it's and we have like i mean
i would say we have probably like 20 ish okay
minutes of discussion and it's mostly like did
you like this trope or not like basically in the smut one yeah and i would say
we talk probably an hour like oh my god of social time and there's like an hour
(24:38):
of book talk but like also my book club is usually on a friday night because
when we've done it on On a weeknight,
everybody's really in pain the next day.
No, we get many a Marco from you at like 1 or 2 a.m. when you're coming home from book club.
So book club lands the acid. Nothing else keeps you up that late.
Not us, not your husband.
Well, I'm sure her husband does after book club.
(25:00):
Yeah, I can't. But spicy book club. Keep talking while I look.
No, what I love though is like even just within our very small sample,
obviously, very, very different experiences. Very different like.
Things that you want to get out of it. I will say, I do kind of love the idea
of one that hones in a little bit more on my own personal interests,
(25:20):
because like Jenny, you mentioned this earlier, I do tend to read to escape.
Like I have all the respect for historical, you know, biographical,
all the different genres.
And I've certainly read my fair share. But at this point in my life,
life when I have the time to read, I want it to be something fantastical and
(25:43):
something that like is just an escape and fun and a journey to go on.
Like that's what I want to get out of it. And so I find myself,
I have to like fit in the book club books around what else I'm reading that I'm choosing to read.
And so that's like my only hesitation, I guess, or maybe I just need to join
another one, but I don't know if I have time for two.
(26:05):
Well, it's tough when you have like a different, when you have a different person
picking every month, it could be like widely different, especially if they haven't read before.
Like I get your point. I think for me, I have a couple guidelines.
Like I don't want to read anything with like graphic violence.
I don't want to read anything where a child, I don't want to read anything where a child dies.
(26:30):
I don't want anything to put like more disturbing thoughts in my already anxious
brain. And so. Do your book clubs do trigger warnings on the books?
Yeah. Okay. Well, and so the one with the nonfiction, with the war journalist
I opted out of, there was another...
Memoir I opted out of so I understand that
right there's like a line but I don't always want
(26:52):
like a Frodo experience fantasy like I
am good with like some of these like ethical dilemmas
or yeah you know discussing fiction that's entertaining like I want it to be
entertaining and say of the exact opposite like I don't want to think anymore
like I have think enough all day long I want to like escape yeah and not even
(27:14):
necessarily like fantasy because I feel like Like in fantasy,
it's very like Taylor Swift encoded.
Yeah, but I like that part like gets me excited. No, I love Taylor Swift encoded.
Like, okay, all of the Sarah J Maas books are Taylor Swift encoded. Like they all connect.
There's all secret meanings. Everything is kind of like interconnected.
It's a whole world that you don't even know or hint until your core book's in.
(27:35):
It's very Taylor Swift coded.
And then there's songs that, in my opinion, on the new Taylor Swift album that
are very Sarah J Maas encoded. Oh, I completely agree.
And I literally love them. but my whole entire point
is like i don't want to like have to figure out the puzzle like
i want to just like i will say you don't have
to figure those out in order to read
the book and to know because by the end she'll explain all
(27:57):
the things no she does not for anyone who has not read them and is interested
in reading them you don't have to figure it all out on your own lies there are
people like you who you want to be the first you want to figure it out but then
you're not You're saying that you don't want to put the brainpower into figuring it out as you go.
I wouldn't remember it to be able to figure it out.
(28:18):
No spoilers, but I do not think that she laid out the connections from Crescent
City. And Crescent City is supposed to be over, right?
Is it completed? Not necessarily.
There are some people, Ashley, who literally take this anthology of books, right? Right.
It's seven, nine books for Throne of Glass, three, five books for ACOTAR,
(28:42):
three books for Crescent City.
They're all connected. And they have connections through all that people will
annotate, they'll highlight, they underline, they tab, they make wall charts.
Right. Like I'm not that level. Sure. But if they want to write a dissertation
for fun, like that's cool. They write dissertations on it. And that's awesome.
And it's fun to like listen and learn. Yeah.
But I agree. Like I don't do the legwork. I don't need the brain work I just
(29:06):
let you tell me what it's supposed to be I can't not do the brain work it's
not an escape for me I can't not that's not me,
my brain automatically is making that connection oh that thing does that have
to do with that thing I gotta go back and look at that thing to see if it connected
to that thing I am there all the way what is the favorite book that you've read
(29:28):
recently if you had to recommend one or two what would your favorites be.
Oh, God. Like, I don't. I'm going to go outside the fantasy genre.
And I read The One. And now I'm blanking on the author's name.
But it was a kind of like social dilemma, moral sort of look at the world based
(29:52):
around this idea that within your DNA,
the scientist discovered this one gene that shows you your one true match in the entire world.
Right? right? You were telling me about this. And it follows the story of like
six different people and like whether they choose to get the testing or they
don't choose to get the testing and how it impacts their relationships and with
their interactions with the world around them. And like it gets wild.
(30:17):
Like it's super fun. Like this is not a big, well, maybe I won't say it.
I won't say it for anyone interested, but like you get all people from all walks
of life in this, right? Right.
And I recommended it to our book club because I was like, the conversations
we could have from this one would be so fun because like, I don't know what
I would do in a bunch of the different situations that they posed in that book.
(30:38):
And those are the kind of ones that I really do enjoy.
So like, I'm ready to read that one again because I'm like, oh,
so much happened. And yes, it was fun.
Okay. So I won't give you like my favorite because like, like I said,
I read it, digest it, like out it goes.
But I'll give you the last two things I've read. So my book club My sub-book
was The Perfect Fit by Sadie Kincaid, which was... See?
(31:01):
I don't know if that's the right trope.
Male, male something? I don't know what you're talking about.
It sounds like... It sounds like a male main character. Oh, yeah. By MMS. MMS? MMS.
MF? Just speaking words. So three dudes and one female.
Who was like the linchpin in that though? One of the guys? No,
it was the female. So MF, MF. It's just porn.
(31:22):
MMF, I think. So it's literally whoever's in the middle is in the middle.
If the first two are the two main and then whatever comes after that is like the additional.
I'd say the female was the main and the guys are just the like extra bonus reverse
harem style yeah reverse harem style and then I just read the Empire series by K.A.
Tucker which I really enjoyed I really like her wolf series also the wolf hotel
(31:47):
series so like I read this new series and I read it because it was like free on audible,
and I could listen to it and listening is reading for all of you out here I
agree for sure there are people who don't agree,
right the listening is reading but listening is reading and so
those are the last two that I have read okay and
now i'm like wait and now because i
(32:08):
finished that one the newest king of king
of sloth came out from anna hung her
newest book came out just like on the 30th so i just got access to king of wrath
oh so good it's the newest one of the king of wrath series just came out and
that's on my like tbr for next good is it spicy and romantic or like ethical
(32:29):
dilemma plot i don't too ethical to love the plot.
Yeah, I mean, there's a plot. It's there.
It's not the main focus of the book. What's your favorite book you've read recently, Jenny?
I mean, it's hard, right? When I was younger, I loved Harry Potter and really
liked you know, that was the first series where I experienced waiting for the
(32:51):
next one to come out and kind of grew up with the series.
Do I think it's the best book ever? No, but I remember kind of loving it then. And that,
I feel like for me, Akatar, A Court of Thorns and Roses, a series like hit that
spot where it was like, oh, I really like want to keep reading.
I want to see what happens.
I really enjoy Fourth Wing, probably even more than Akatar. Oh, yeah?
(33:12):
It's interesting. I mean, it's like Harry Potter with dragons.
And instead of high school, it's college. And then a little bit of spice and I'm sold.
But like better than Akatar?
I'll say I like Throne of Glass better than Akatar. I see. And Throne of Glass,
like I enjoy, but I don't love it the way that I loved Akatar and Fourth Wing. ACOTAR was my gateway.
But I don't think I'm like only fantasy person.
(33:33):
I just like, I really appreciate the books where like you look forward to going back and reading them.
Like you can't put them down. Like, oops, it's 2 a.m. and I'm still reading.
That's really magical for me. And I'm very grateful to find that again.
And there are other fiction books where I found that as well.
See, us people with addictive personalities don't have that problem because
we really can't put the book down, no matter what book it is.
(33:56):
No, I have a really hard time sometimes with the book club books so that I do
it on Audible first to like get into it.
And then maybe if I'm into it enough, I can read the book book,
but I have a really hard time. I've only ever DNF'd one book.
Yeah, I know. Just one in my whole entire life. That's pretty good though. Sorry.
Is your favorite my DNF? So I don't read nearly as much as you guys do.
(34:20):
So I don't have as much to like pull from, but like in
the last year or two probably actually
yeah i think so i just you
gotta name the book pucking around i actually just finished the
whole series like the most recent book in the series realize it was even a series
yeah because there's a prequel there's a couple like happily ever after novellas
that come after them too and the one i just finished is the second book that's
(34:44):
about one of the like it's a spin-off basically for the other characters and
then like the main characters I really liked the note prequel.
The prequel? Yeah. Yes. And I think I liked halfway through Pucking Around.
Uh-huh. But it was 900 pages. I had no idea because I read it on Kindle.
So I was just like devouring the whole thing because it was,
(35:05):
well, she was devouring a lot too. Well, yeah. I just, there was a lot of devouring happening.
I feel like we need to put a disclaimer at the top of this episode also that we didn't discuss.
There's going to be adult content in this one, so we'll add them.
I mean, adult content in all of our conversations. Yeah, they're always marked
not for kids. Yeah, I always mark everything not for children.
18 and up yeah yeah i love it i mean
(35:25):
bridgerton also is really good like the
books yeah just a romance and no
i don't want just a romance there's a smidge of
spice light spice i'm really looking
forward to this at this season of bridgerton i have all the
books signed by the author well i don't really want to read the book because
i want to like i really wants the spice yeah yeah i'm
(35:46):
really looking forward to the way they have like something about
the way shonda rhymes like yeah up like transforms
the upcoming characters from like from like ploppy
to like glow ups yeah and like Nicola Nicola
Nicola's glow up is like so amazing
she's always been I know but they did a good job of like kind of downplaying
(36:08):
her until it was her season and also the guy like he looked like a Muppet and
then they've like really glowed him up well they've grown up a little bit too
I mean the sideburns like But yeah, thank God.
I love it. So I also, this is my official vote that sometime in the near future
(36:30):
that we need a She Reads book club. Sure.
We're going to have a hard time picking some books. I know it.
There's 12 months a year. There's four of us. So we each get three months.
And we alternate the end.
I like it. I like how she's like, the end. Someday we're going to have it.
I'm gonna be like i'm gonna make you read the dirtiest filthiest
(36:50):
book i can find okay i would do that because you dnf'd the filthiest book you've
ever read but like i don't think i dnf'd it because it was filthy i dnf'd it
because the plot like and the filth together was like i thought it was the fluids
for you guys that you didn't like what i said the fluid for sure problematic.
(37:10):
Meanwhile, it's not book club. It
is true. No, it is. It's part of the discussion we have at my book club.
Jenny's very uncomfortable. This is like detail that was in it.
Lewis is okay for you at one time. I...
That's true because you haven't read this particular book. And I'm intrigued
because when you guys talk about spice and smut, like, for me,
my baseline is there, right?
(37:32):
The hard thing is... That was the first, like, smutty book I ever really read.
I don't find spice, but I want there to be a plot that could withstand without the spice.
Let's agree the fact first, just from the baseline, that there's no,
like, agreed upon scale of what constitutes spicy versus smut versus,
like, the five-star pepper, right?
It is such a spectrum, and I think we just need to give each other grace and
(37:54):
ourselves grace that what your version of spice is versus what your version
and your version and my version are going to be slightly different.
Well, and it's the same with food.
I can handle a curry from the Indian restaurant. I think when I'm saying spice,
I'm using that in place of how graphic, how explicit.
I would say the majority of people would call pucking around erotica.
(38:15):
Okay, that's all I want to read. smut if i don't have a lot of time so that's
all i want to erotica steam spice smut erotica okay so apparently i like erotica
then so steam interesting spice smut and erotica very interesting,
and we are all the spectrum i love it oh ladies well i think that wraps up this
(38:38):
week's episode of she back unleashed with a wild discussion i love it okay if
you enjoyed today's episode go Go ahead and tag us on your book clubs.
We want to hear about all the book clubs you're in and also all the books that
you recommend for us to read.
And your favorite thing about how you do book club.
Yeah, that too. But also like why you go to book club, right?
Is it for the actual discussion or is it for community?
(39:00):
Like what is the reason you do a book club? Escaping your house.
Yeah, escaping your house and your children. Who knows, right?
I think we need to retitle this. Like it's from steam to erotica is really what
we talked about. Not so much between the pages.
It's between all the pages. You do you, boo. Yeah. Thank you for being a part of our pack.
This is Ashley, Jenny, Nicole, and Tanya signing off. Stay wild and fierce.
(39:25):
I gave them away. Go back and stay the two tight. So, they're...
Fucking droopy-ass microphone. We need a more smutty microphone.
Get it up. It needs microphone Viagra. It does need microphone Viagra.
Can you hold it together?
Squeeze tighter. No more, ladies. It needs a tighter cock ring.
Hello, and welcome to SHIPAC Unleashed. I'm one of your hosts, Tanya.
I'm Nicole. Welcome to your weekly dose of candid discussion and the pursuit
of finding your tribe in this journey of motherhood, womanhood, and sisterhood.
I'm Ashley. Join us as we leave no stone unturned. In each episode,
we have heart-to-heart conversations that aim to challenge and empower one another.
I'm Jenny. No more waiting. SHIPAC Unleashed begins now.
(00:29):
On this week's episode, Between the Pages, Unveiling the Magic of Book Clubs.
I'm very excited for this. Yay! Yay!
As a former reading teacher. Yeah, I'm so sad I forgot my book club, my book talk merch.
I have mine. No, my favorite one is I have a cereal tea company from ACOTAR.
(00:50):
I need you guys to tell my husband because I have nada.
Well, your husband listens. He's number one fan. So as you're listening to this,
you need to buy your. Now that he's bragged about being our number one fan. That's true.
For the listeners, you guys are wearing shirts.
I have a Harry Potter t-shirt because that's all I have. Okay. I have a Baskiath.
Fourth wing. Fourth wing. You looked at me. That's what I watched. Because.
(01:15):
I read most of that book. Did you finish that one? I could not finish it though.
But I got like seven. This is blasphemy. This is kind of blasphemy. me.
He says the one who couldn't finish like books that I like.
Hey, hey, hey, we're not gonna yuck each other's yum. It was 900 pages of forking. And I had no idea.
Moving on, we're gonna chat about book clubs.
(01:36):
This is about book clubs. We have our own book club together.
Very disparate in the best way. Yeah.
So I think one thing that we could definitely jump off with is talking about
the different types of book clubs that exist, or at least that we have personal
experience with, because let's be honest, I'm sure there's a million different
variations of book clubs in the world.
But we, between the four of us, have experience with four different book clubs.
(02:00):
So we can jump off there. Maybe, Jenny, you've been in the longest running one. So how about you start?
I have a couple. So yeah, I was a middle school teacher. So my first book club
ever was actually with other teachers at the school where I taught,
which was 10 years ago now.
And then our last neighborhood was part of that book club, which was a monthly meeting.
My current neighborhood, yes, it's been long running and I came into it later
(02:22):
which I'm really enjoying and happy to share more about.
That and then also really enjoy an online book club where they send me a box
every month and I get to open it and there's normally like a little prize and
a book to read and then there's all sorts of online materials that's the Jen
Hatmaker book club. Like a paper book?
Yes you can do the audible or the paper book but it's similar I think Oprah
(02:45):
does something similar or is there like online forums Facebook groups for it?
Yeah that was my big question like how do you get community with like an online
book club? What does that look like? It's amazing, actually.
So it's like a Facebook group for chatting. And then there's a web portal where they have content.
They pre-populate questions, kind of discussion guides.
They always curate a Spotify playlist with the author of the book that month.
(03:10):
And they do a live Q&A with the author they put on Zoom, which I got to join once. Wow.
Yeah, it's really well done. So if you're looking for a book club and you don't
have one in your neighborhood, it's a great one to check out.
We can share a link for that one for sure.
It just makes me think that we are in book clubs for very different reasons.
Yeah. Wait, so what about your neighborhood one? Tell us, like,
(03:30):
how does that one work? Like, how is it structured?
So the neighborhood one, we meet every month on the third Thursday of the month.
The books are picked the December of the year before.
So the holiday party is always a big reveal. And my neighbors...
Like, for the whole year ahead of time?
For the whole year. What if, like, a new good book comes out?
You read it and like it's the whole year, but it's really fun because there's
(03:52):
normally like a rap or a show or some like gig, like entertaining thing to show what the books are.
That's a lot of effort. It is. I love it. And I don't do it.
Right. So somebody else is doing the mental work, which I appreciate.
I also really appreciate that they've made kind of the expectation that you
don't recommend a book if you haven't read it, which is really up to like the
(04:12):
quality of what we're reading.
Who gets to recommend books? So neighbors all recommend books,
and then the committee decides.
The committee? I mean, it's not very formal. There's like a handful of women who take this on.
I'm sure if I wanted to opt in, I could, but I like that they do them until work. That's fair.
And there's some structure to it. Like, there's normally beachy reads in the summer.
(04:33):
October is always a mystery. February is always smut. And I like that predictability.
And then December, we don't have a book, right, because we do the party. So it's been really fun.
It's very structured. It's very structured. You know, if I'm going to take the
time to read a book or listen to a book, I want to talk about it.
And yeah, so I appreciate the folks that do all the thinking and the organizing.
(04:57):
And some of the women that have older kids, like the snacks are on theme.
The decorations are on theme. Not always.
Wow. But sometimes they get real. Like we did lessons in chemistry and the woman
who hosted is a scientist. So a different person hosts every time, right?
Okay. We all wore lab coats and she had like a drink with like science experiment on how to make it.
And you can make it different colors. It was so fun. That is fun.
(05:20):
You did a Barbie themed something, didn't you? We did. We read.
Oh, no, not Barbie. That was Britney. We read Britney. So we all dressed in
different Britney's. That was fun.
Yeah. For the smut book. I mean, I should take a picture of some of these snacks
that the folks have made. Were there penis pictures? Yes.
Excellent. So, yeah, I think it's really fun. And, you know,
I think when my kids are in college and if I'm still there and this is still
(05:44):
going, like, then I'll be one of them, right, who has the time to be super creative and give back.
Well, let's say you are hosting later this year.
For the first time, yeah. And you're hosting. What book are you hosting?
Fourth Wing. Oh. Yeah. And we are all invited. So we're going to crash the book club.
And I made sure that we were allowed. This is the first time the book club has
ever done fantasy, too. Really?
So we're going to bring our A game. it feels like also though I will say that
(06:06):
the fact that you have to plan it so far in advance like fourth wing is like
so far out it's old news now there's some people that have already read it and
there's some people that are reading it for the first time and it's okay yeah.
It's been a year since that came out?
Iron Flame fourth wing is like years before not that,
(06:30):
far fourth wing is a couple years old now isn't it curious yeah no because they
feel like google it just blew up yes but it was published before like a little
bit before that okay until tiktok book talk yeah a little bit iron flame came out halloween 2023 23,
fourth wing came out may 23 yeah it was really close together oh they rushed
(06:55):
iron they they Well, I mean, clear they rushed out in flames.
That's literal. And then Onyx Storm, which is the third to the day.
It's coming out January. Early January 2025.
Interesting. Onyx Storm? Yeah. I'm so excited. Same.
So I will say it's been a long time. I was an avid reader when I was younger
and through college probably.
(07:18):
And then real world hit and I just kind of fell out of it for,
you know, multitude of reasons. And I've just recently like come back into reading
in the last two years, maybe three years at most.
And I am so enjoying it and really, really love it. I just got my very first
Kindle ever for Christmas this past year.
And it's really fun. And I will say fantasy is definitely where my heart lies,
(07:41):
but I like reading all different kinds. And so the book club that I'm in is
affiliated or it came from the gym that Jenny and I go to specifically.
And ladies just got together organically and said, hey, let's start a book club.
And so we started doing it, and we've surpassed our year mark now.
We're into our second year, a few months in.
(08:02):
And it's interesting because it's probably a group of anywhere between like
10 and 15 women-ish that come regularly, right?
And then there are a couple people that will sort of moonlight,
and they'll come in, and they'll go out, which is totally cool.
I kind of like that it's that flexible.
Do people come and go depending on if they liked the book? We've noticed that recently.
So one thing that we actually just talked about this past week at our book club
(08:26):
is this idea we were trying to plan ahead for, you know, the second year of this.
And Jenny brought up this idea that it's a requirement in her other book club
where the person who recommends it has to have read it to like vet it, right?
And like stand behind the book, that it is a quality read, that it's going to be a fun discussion.
And because we've had at least two books where the person who selected it very
(08:47):
blatantly said, like, I'm so sorry.
Like, I had no idea it was going to go that way or I just thought it was going
to be better or different things.
So, and we've read the whole gamut, right? There's been fiction,
there's psychological thrillers, there's been a really heavy one that was all
about this war, like a trauma journalist,
basically, who went and interviewed people who had survived atrocities in war recently.
(09:12):
And like, I think five people showed up for that book club because it was so
heavy that most people opted out or started it and just couldn't finish.
And so I think this club is very new, right?
And so we're still finding our footing. We're still deciding how we like for
it to go, what's helpful versus what's nice to just kind of let it be loose and let it be fun.
(09:35):
So we're still ironing it out. I will say I'm.
Little jealous of Nicole's book club that she will share about because
mine is very themed
and structured yeah the one from gym is kind
of like new and figuring it out along the way kind of and but it is fun for
the community I will say like it has enhanced my experience in the gym of getting
(09:58):
to see those ladies like when I go to work out it's fun to like have those extra
touch points with people that just make you feel closer and enhance that community
a lot so I like that aspect of it.
Yeah. My book club is a neighborhood book club also. And it just started actually this year too.
So it's a relatively new book club. And there are two book clubs in our neighborhood.
There's like the traditional book club, which I feel like is more like what
(10:20):
you're talking about with the gym book club, where they like pick a book,
they sit around and they discuss it.
And there's like, they read the like, people have questions to ask and there's questions.
Yeah. Yeah, like there's... I'm coming from the perspective of like, I'm not in a book club.
So what are these discussions? Think about like the end when you watch,
(10:42):
read your kids' books, and at the end they have like the questions of like,
what, did you understand the comprehension? What was the meaning?
What was the symbolism of the red scarf? You know, like... So like, correction.
I think that it might be false to make it sound like these are comprehension
questions like you would get in an English class.
I think that's how it feels for me. That is not how a good book club is run.
(11:03):
They might be discussion questions or opinion.
Or how did this scenario make you feel? What might you have done in this scenario
if you were posed with the same questions? Or if it was a movie,
who would you cast as the characters?
Oh, we haven't had that question yet. It doesn't have to be like,
what is the meaning of this that the author intended?
Yeah, because that sounds very English class to me. It's not.
(11:24):
That's my experience at any book club I've been to besides this new one.
Besides the new one. So far in my one, we've had very formal questions.
Literary questions. There's not a right or a wrong answer. There's not a right
or a wrong. It's just what you prefer. It's not a quiz. I will say that.
Didn't you say that? Oh, no, it was somebody else. And another gal,
we were talking at book club on Monday.
(11:46):
And she's like, oh, yeah, in this other book club she was a part of,
there was a person who hosted and literally quizzed the people who showed up
to discuss the book. And I was like, oh, no.
I will say I would say our book club in December plays games,
but it's not about one book, and it's just all in good fun.
And it's like they read quotes from all of the 11 books during the year,
(12:07):
and you're on a team, and you have to, like, name the book.
I like that. It sounds so stressful. It stresses me out that absolutely not.
No, it's fun. When I read things, like, I remember, but I don't remember like that.
Quotes speak to my heart, so I do like that one. I read it, I ingest it,
and I'm like, out, snake out.
(12:28):
You also read like a hundred plus books a year. But I bet you if we were playing
a game and we talked about a character named Lorkhan who said,
who did this to you, you would know.
Yes, yes I would. You would know and you would be excited that you recognized
the record. And so Lorkhan did.
Yeah. I don't know that yet. I mean, there are some books that have a longevity of my memory.
(12:49):
Yeah, yeah. But there are others I just enjoy in the moment,
and I am not there to, like, priest.
Yeah, priesthood. Yeah, I agree. We need to talk about your book club.
We need to get it out there.
Yeah, your neighborhood book club. So our neighborhood book club,
shout out to the Briar Chapel Spicy Book Club. Okay, this is a book club only for spicy books.
And we alternate between contemporary romance spicy and fantasy spicy.
(13:13):
Romanticy. Romanticy. Every other month. Every other month. and it is purely like.
About the smut. That is only February in my neighborhood.
That is all year long here. Take a beat.
You can edit around that. Sorry. I'm going to just put it there.
(13:34):
I'm going to like add it to my TikTok where I say something about smut and she just goes.
Now I'm going to blush. So let's go get that too. And back to book club.
So spicy for us is only February.
Yeah. Spice is all year long. You can enjoy your flavor of spice.
So you have smut and then you have the romantic-y, fantasy-based.
(13:57):
Yeah. And we pick it based off the level of smut involved in that fantasy.
And you only pick one month in advance, right? Yeah. That's stressful. I like to plan my year.
Oh, no. So when we're at book club, people recommend books at the end.
Do you have any rules like having read it like the other ones? No. Who picks?
I'm sure some There's some outgoing loud voices. Everybody like shouts out and
(14:18):
then we put them up on the screen and then there's like a vote. You vote for them.
I will say there was one advantage that we kind of discussed in our book club
of having the list picked out at least a couple months in advance for folks
who liked to loan the books through the public library.
And you need a month or two month or three month lead time to get on the list for that book.
(14:40):
And so that was one thing that just hadn't occurred to me because I do have
Kindle Unlimited, right? Right. Like I pay for that service.
And so it was it was a good reminder that having the access to the free books
was nice to have more advanced notice.
A lot of the books we pick are on the public library. No, that is a fair statement.
You know what? I don't even know.
I think we should. Do libraries have? And just smut? They do.
(15:02):
I mean, they have like 50 Shades of Grey. They have Verity, I'm sure, you know, but like.
I mean, I would say that not the five pepper spices or four pepper spices.
Yeah, in general, there's not a lot at the public library.
They're like checking out for this. I'm going to test this. I'm going to find
out. What about going to like an adult store? Do they sell that kind of stuff? Oh, not books.
(15:23):
They might. Yeah, I wonder. I'm not sure that the sales for these types of books are often in print.
I feel like a lot of women prefer to read them on Kindle or Audible. That's so interesting.
You know, a picture of a blonde Fabio on the cover, like writing.
But the covers aren't like that anymore, too.
Like I saw a picture in some book-related group that I'm in on Facebook,
(15:44):
and it was a picture of a woman sitting on a cruise ship, and this other person
like zoomed in on this other person's book, and it was the cover of Credence.
But that's not like at all subjective.
It's like a picture of like forest, like pine tree. Yeah, it's like you wouldn't know.
And like Anna Huang, she's really popular right now. She took off during COVID
and all of her covers are very subdued. There's a second version that's very
(16:05):
subdued. And then there's tons that are like cartoony.
So in my mind, like it would be in print, but hidden in plain sight.
Yeah, I will say we do decide, we do check to see if it's on Kindle Unlimited.
And that like is a preference as we're picking through so that it's not a thing.
But people who buy it, We just trade it around in the neighborhood.
Oh, that's nice. Like people will trade it around the neighborhood because it's in our neighborhood.
(16:26):
I do like not having to purchase. Trading smut. Can you imagine if dudes trade
like jenny back in the day? Or did they? There's germs involved.
What are you doing with your books? Are you like smutting on your books? I don't read smut.
That's the first Jennifer. You do read smut, Jennifer. Do not lie.
I mean, I read Fourth Wing. That's not even spicy.
(16:47):
I didn't find that spicy at all. But no, I haven't yet. Oh, that's true.
It's on my list. Steamy. No, I haven't. It's steamy, not spicy.
How do you define steamy, spicy, smut? It's about the percentage of smut in
a book. And what defines smut?
Like when it goes to like fade to black. The level of description.
Like when it's like fade to black. Yeah, that to me is like. That's like steam.
(17:08):
Okay. Versus. Okay, so I've read more than that. Okay. Yeah.
Like fourth wing. Yeah, that's spice. Fourth wing, I'd say, not fourth wing,
but I'd say ACOTAR has spice.
I loved ACOTAR. Yeah. What kind of descriptions were in ACOTAR for Spice?
You gotta get to like book five, though. Absolutely not.
You gotta get to like book five to get into Spice. Can't do it.
It would mean a lot to me. I know, but when...
(17:32):
When I got halfway through the graphic audio, I thought I was done the first
one and realized I was halfway done.
And I was just like, I couldn't do it. I still remember you texted me.
You're like, so I finished ACOTAR.
And like, I don't totally get like what you girls are so hyped about.
It's like, what happened when you stopped listening? And she said,
and I was like, that is how.
I was like, you haven't reached the trials yet. Like so much happens.
(17:56):
No. But like, it does get better.
But there was one line that like icked me in that book the curve of his ear.
That's an ick for you it is a big ick so no fair okay i also like yeah that's
also having a hard time seeing that that is your ick after reading fucking around
i have now finished all the books that are out hold on time out lady so far
(18:20):
man we should not be yucking each other i'm no no i'm not I'm not yucking,
but I had a really hard time with the fantasy aspect of it to begin with.
The fantasy part of fourth one was really hard for me.
Okay. And the plot itself, I found very predictable. Like, obviously,
there's all this tension. There's so many tropes. Yeah.
The tropeness I didn't quite love so much.
(18:42):
I know. I'm sorry. It's crushing Jetty's heart. I'm sorry.
It was hard for me. It was hard. You know, I wonder if like,
so in the similar vein, like Crescent City was set in a more more modern world,
like there were still fantasy elements and there were fantasy characters, right? Or, you know.
She will hate Crescent City. Most people hate Crescent City.
No, no, no. My question was like Crescent City, but most people that we know,
(19:07):
that we affiliate with loved Agatar and she didn't, right?
So let's not generalize to say most people hate it. The hardcore Sarah J.
Moss people, Crescent City really threw them for a loop because it was this
modern city and people People had guns, but they also used swords.
And like, they had cell phones. But were there non-human?
Yes. I think that's the part I don't like. Okay. I also think.
(19:28):
There are cute little otters that deliver your mail.
What? But what's spicy about that? It's gotten there yet. Oh.
So we need to. We'll stop talking about that.
So that confuses me then too. Like there's like, there's spicy things.
Disney movies or like anything with fantasy or animated or like character. Nah.
See, I find that I can enjoy books better. the less realistic they are.
(19:52):
And I think I'm the opposite. I'm figuring out. I want it realistic,
relatable, where I can actually picture myself as the character.
Oh, see, I can picture myself running horseback through a field with a sword
on my back. Like I can picture myself. That's amazing.
All of the things. That's so cool. I would be so happy. They have the archery
(20:13):
on horseback riding lessons.
That's awesome. That I've wanted to do for years. Okay, Ashley, you'll do that with us?
Nicole will take pictures. I've been there once for you guys. I'll do it again.
I mean, I have to do it at least one more time. Yes, you do.
When we go to the Ren Faire, we can practice a little archery.
I've never done that. I would love to. Oh, we're going to. I would love to try
that. Okay, so back to book clubs. Sorry. Sorry.
(20:34):
Totally off to the fantasy books. We like fantasy books. Our one person here
does not like fantasy books.
She's our outlier here. I'm the realistic fiction one. But I am curious of the
book clubs you've heard described.
An online one, a spicy one, kind of like a monthly structure.
More structured, very themed one. Which would you hypothetically join if forced?
Definitely the smut one. Oh, my book club for sure. Obviously my book club for sure. Yeah.
(20:59):
Wait, so she would only attend every other month though? Because then the fantasy
would be... Well, but it depends. Like what... Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Is it the creatures with their like creature parts doing things?
Are you thinking like Ice Planet Barbarians kind of thing?
No, I'm thinking of like Bad Dragon Dildos comes to life. Ice Planet.
Okay. like think of it like when you're talking about i don't
(21:21):
want i don't want to know we don't need to pause okay when you're
talking about like fantasy when you're talking about fantasy
it is like fairies but they're humans they just have pointy
ears they're like picture them as humans with pointy ears if i
can not picture the pointy just ignore the pointy ear part but okay interesting
but essentially like i picture them as humans i don't even picture them as like
(21:42):
my brain and maybe that's where i got stuck with like agitars because there
was this like tension in with the wolf guy and like the animalness I didn't
get. Oh yeah, but he's a person. He like shapeshifts.
Okay, when I picture the shapeshifting, I picture like Wolverine. Yeah.
That's animal person. But then he becomes like a person. He becomes a wolf in
(22:03):
his... It's like Twilight.
In his animal form, he's truly like a four-legged wolf running around. No.
Oh, we're going to do a movie night. Okay, the books are so much better,
but Lord knows you won't read them. So yeah, we'll have to do a movie.
No, we're going to Wilmington. We're watching Twilight. Okay.
And Bridgerton. Fifty Shades of Grey and Bridgerton. And we're also doing a
podcast episode on the go. Oh, boy. Excellent.
Did you buy more stuff? I plead the fifth. I'm just saying we're doing a podcast
(22:28):
episode on the go. I'm here for it.
So what do you want to get out of your book club then
i mean my book club okay the purpose the purpose is
a social community right like so it's
not that like we go to book club and that's it right we have a book club facebook
messenger chat where we chat all the time about books as you're reading it or
(22:48):
do you save the discussion for like when you actually get together i mean we
chat as we're reading it in terms of as people are reading it throughout the
month and like With like a no spoilers rule or something?
How can you spoil it? They do it, they do it, they do it at the end.
There's no plot twist. They might break up. There are definitely plot twists in Smut for sure.
(23:09):
Missionary from behind. That's the plot twist. This is not the podcast I thought
we were going to have on Book Club. The holes fill the plot.
The plot fills the holes. Oh dear. All the holes.
But like it is for community, right? Right. So like it's not even just that
like that we're going like we're going to somebody's house and we're hanging
(23:30):
out as like most of us are moms or single women or not single.
Like it's a it's a variety. Right. There's single women.
There's women with no kids. There's women with kids. And we're all just like
coming together, hanging out, having wine.
And it's like 30 or 40 of you. Yeah, it's a large group.
So yours is a very big group. What about your guys' book cubs? How big? It's 10 to 15.
(23:51):
Okay. We get a range from that, both extremes.
I think our first, our first or early ones were maybe like 15 people-ish.
I mean, you can still have like a conversation with only a little bit of sidebar
at that size. But like a big size, how do you convert? There's a key. We have a key.
Like a talking stick? Yeah, a talking stick. Like a talking key.
You need a bookmark. We'll go around. You need like an oversized bookmark or something.
(24:15):
It is shocking. It's not a dildo. But it is. Maybe I'll bring it. Say it.
Laugh. but it's and we have like i mean
i would say we have probably like 20 ish okay
minutes of discussion and it's mostly like did
you like this trope or not like basically in the smut one yeah and i would say
we talk probably an hour like oh my god of social time and there's like an hour
(24:38):
of book talk but like also my book club is usually on a friday night because
when we've done it on On a weeknight,
everybody's really in pain the next day.
No, we get many a Marco from you at like 1 or 2 a.m. when you're coming home from book club.
So book club lands the acid. Nothing else keeps you up that late.
Not us, not your husband.
Well, I'm sure her husband does after book club.
(25:00):
Yeah, I can't. But spicy book club. Keep talking while I look.
No, what I love though is like even just within our very small sample,
obviously, very, very different experiences. Very different like.
Things that you want to get out of it. I will say, I do kind of love the idea
of one that hones in a little bit more on my own personal interests,
(25:20):
because like Jenny, you mentioned this earlier, I do tend to read to escape.
Like I have all the respect for historical, you know, biographical,
all the different genres.
And I've certainly read my fair share. But at this point in my life,
life when I have the time to read, I want it to be something fantastical and
(25:43):
something that like is just an escape and fun and a journey to go on.
Like that's what I want to get out of it. And so I find myself,
I have to like fit in the book club books around what else I'm reading that I'm choosing to read.
And so that's like my only hesitation, I guess, or maybe I just need to join
another one, but I don't know if I have time for two.
(26:05):
Well, it's tough when you have like a different, when you have a different person
picking every month, it could be like widely different, especially if they haven't read before.
Like I get your point. I think for me, I have a couple guidelines.
Like I don't want to read anything with like graphic violence.
I don't want to read anything where a child, I don't want to read anything where a child dies.
(26:30):
I don't want anything to put like more disturbing thoughts in my already anxious
brain. And so. Do your book clubs do trigger warnings on the books?
Yeah. Okay. Well, and so the one with the nonfiction, with the war journalist
I opted out of, there was another...
Memoir I opted out of so I understand that
right there's like a line but I don't always want
(26:52):
like a Frodo experience fantasy like I
am good with like some of these like ethical dilemmas
or yeah you know discussing fiction that's entertaining like I want it to be
entertaining and say of the exact opposite like I don't want to think anymore
like I have think enough all day long I want to like escape yeah and not even
(27:14):
necessarily like fantasy because I feel like Like in fantasy,
it's very like Taylor Swift encoded.
Yeah, but I like that part like gets me excited. No, I love Taylor Swift encoded.
Like, okay, all of the Sarah J Maas books are Taylor Swift encoded. Like they all connect.
There's all secret meanings. Everything is kind of like interconnected.
It's a whole world that you don't even know or hint until your core book's in.
(27:35):
It's very Taylor Swift coded.
And then there's songs that, in my opinion, on the new Taylor Swift album that
are very Sarah J Maas encoded. Oh, I completely agree.
And I literally love them. but my whole entire point
is like i don't want to like have to figure out the puzzle like
i want to just like i will say you don't have
to figure those out in order to read
the book and to know because by the end she'll explain all
(27:57):
the things no she does not for anyone who has not read them and is interested
in reading them you don't have to figure it all out on your own lies there are
people like you who you want to be the first you want to figure it out but then
you're not You're saying that you don't want to put the brainpower into figuring it out as you go.
I wouldn't remember it to be able to figure it out.
(28:18):
No spoilers, but I do not think that she laid out the connections from Crescent
City. And Crescent City is supposed to be over, right?
Is it completed? Not necessarily.
There are some people, Ashley, who literally take this anthology of books, right? Right.
It's seven, nine books for Throne of Glass, three, five books for ACOTAR,
(28:42):
three books for Crescent City.
They're all connected. And they have connections through all that people will
annotate, they'll highlight, they underline, they tab, they make wall charts.
Right. Like I'm not that level. Sure. But if they want to write a dissertation
for fun, like that's cool. They write dissertations on it. And that's awesome.
And it's fun to like listen and learn. Yeah.
But I agree. Like I don't do the legwork. I don't need the brain work I just
(29:06):
let you tell me what it's supposed to be I can't not do the brain work it's
not an escape for me I can't not that's not me,
my brain automatically is making that connection oh that thing does that have
to do with that thing I gotta go back and look at that thing to see if it connected
to that thing I am there all the way what is the favorite book that you've read
(29:28):
recently if you had to recommend one or two what would your favorites be.
Oh, God. Like, I don't. I'm going to go outside the fantasy genre.
And I read The One. And now I'm blanking on the author's name.
But it was a kind of like social dilemma, moral sort of look at the world based
(29:52):
around this idea that within your DNA,
the scientist discovered this one gene that shows you your one true match in the entire world.
Right? right? You were telling me about this. And it follows the story of like
six different people and like whether they choose to get the testing or they
don't choose to get the testing and how it impacts their relationships and with
their interactions with the world around them. And like it gets wild.
(30:17):
Like it's super fun. Like this is not a big, well, maybe I won't say it.
I won't say it for anyone interested, but like you get all people from all walks
of life in this, right? Right.
And I recommended it to our book club because I was like, the conversations
we could have from this one would be so fun because like, I don't know what
I would do in a bunch of the different situations that they posed in that book.
(30:38):
And those are the kind of ones that I really do enjoy.
So like, I'm ready to read that one again because I'm like, oh,
so much happened. And yes, it was fun.
Okay. So I won't give you like my favorite because like, like I said,
I read it, digest it, like out it goes.
But I'll give you the last two things I've read. So my book club My sub-book
was The Perfect Fit by Sadie Kincaid, which was... See?
(31:01):
I don't know if that's the right trope.
Male, male something? I don't know what you're talking about.
It sounds like... It sounds like a male main character. Oh, yeah. By MMS. MMS? MMS.
MF? Just speaking words. So three dudes and one female.
Who was like the linchpin in that though? One of the guys? No,
it was the female. So MF, MF. It's just porn.
(31:22):
MMF, I think. So it's literally whoever's in the middle is in the middle.
If the first two are the two main and then whatever comes after that is like the additional.
I'd say the female was the main and the guys are just the like extra bonus reverse
harem style yeah reverse harem style and then I just read the Empire series by K.A.
Tucker which I really enjoyed I really like her wolf series also the wolf hotel
(31:47):
series so like I read this new series and I read it because it was like free on audible,
and I could listen to it and listening is reading for all of you out here I
agree for sure there are people who don't agree,
right the listening is reading but listening is reading and so
those are the last two that I have read okay and
now i'm like wait and now because i
(32:08):
finished that one the newest king of king
of sloth came out from anna hung her
newest book came out just like on the 30th so i just got access to king of wrath
oh so good it's the newest one of the king of wrath series just came out and
that's on my like tbr for next good is it spicy and romantic or like ethical
(32:29):
dilemma plot i don't too ethical to love the plot.
Yeah, I mean, there's a plot. It's there.
It's not the main focus of the book. What's your favorite book you've read recently, Jenny?
I mean, it's hard, right? When I was younger, I loved Harry Potter and really
liked you know, that was the first series where I experienced waiting for the
(32:51):
next one to come out and kind of grew up with the series.
Do I think it's the best book ever? No, but I remember kind of loving it then. And that,
I feel like for me, Akatar, A Court of Thorns and Roses, a series like hit that
spot where it was like, oh, I really like want to keep reading.
I want to see what happens.
I really enjoy Fourth Wing, probably even more than Akatar. Oh, yeah?
(33:12):
It's interesting. I mean, it's like Harry Potter with dragons.
And instead of high school, it's college. And then a little bit of spice and I'm sold.
But like better than Akatar?
I'll say I like Throne of Glass better than Akatar. I see. And Throne of Glass,
like I enjoy, but I don't love it the way that I loved Akatar and Fourth Wing. ACOTAR was my gateway.
But I don't think I'm like only fantasy person.
(33:33):
I just like, I really appreciate the books where like you look forward to going back and reading them.
Like you can't put them down. Like, oops, it's 2 a.m. and I'm still reading.
That's really magical for me. And I'm very grateful to find that again.
And there are other fiction books where I found that as well.
See, us people with addictive personalities don't have that problem because
we really can't put the book down, no matter what book it is.
(33:56):
No, I have a really hard time sometimes with the book club books so that I do
it on Audible first to like get into it.
And then maybe if I'm into it enough, I can read the book book,
but I have a really hard time. I've only ever DNF'd one book.
Yeah, I know. Just one in my whole entire life. That's pretty good though. Sorry.
Is your favorite my DNF? So I don't read nearly as much as you guys do.
(34:20):
So I don't have as much to like pull from, but like in
the last year or two probably actually
yeah i think so i just you
gotta name the book pucking around i actually just finished the
whole series like the most recent book in the series realize it was even a series
yeah because there's a prequel there's a couple like happily ever after novellas
that come after them too and the one i just finished is the second book that's
(34:44):
about one of the like it's a spin-off basically for the other characters and
then like the main characters I really liked the note prequel.
The prequel? Yeah. Yes. And I think I liked halfway through Pucking Around.
Uh-huh. But it was 900 pages. I had no idea because I read it on Kindle.
So I was just like devouring the whole thing because it was,
(35:05):
well, she was devouring a lot too. Well, yeah. I just, there was a lot of devouring happening.
I feel like we need to put a disclaimer at the top of this episode also that we didn't discuss.
There's going to be adult content in this one, so we'll add them.
I mean, adult content in all of our conversations. Yeah, they're always marked
not for kids. Yeah, I always mark everything not for children.
18 and up yeah yeah i love it i mean
(35:25):
bridgerton also is really good like the
books yeah just a romance and no
i don't want just a romance there's a smidge of
spice light spice i'm really looking
forward to this at this season of bridgerton i have all the
books signed by the author well i don't really want to read the book because
i want to like i really wants the spice yeah yeah i'm
(35:46):
really looking forward to the way they have like something about
the way shonda rhymes like yeah up like transforms
the upcoming characters from like from like ploppy
to like glow ups yeah and like Nicola Nicola
Nicola's glow up is like so amazing
she's always been I know but they did a good job of like kind of downplaying
(36:08):
her until it was her season and also the guy like he looked like a Muppet and
then they've like really glowed him up well they've grown up a little bit too
I mean the sideburns like But yeah, thank God.
I love it. So I also, this is my official vote that sometime in the near future
(36:30):
that we need a She Reads book club. Sure.
We're going to have a hard time picking some books. I know it.
There's 12 months a year. There's four of us. So we each get three months.
And we alternate the end.
I like it. I like how she's like, the end. Someday we're going to have it.
I'm gonna be like i'm gonna make you read the dirtiest filthiest
(36:50):
book i can find okay i would do that because you dnf'd the filthiest book you've
ever read but like i don't think i dnf'd it because it was filthy i dnf'd it
because the plot like and the filth together was like i thought it was the fluids
for you guys that you didn't like what i said the fluid for sure problematic.
(37:10):
Meanwhile, it's not book club. It
is true. No, it is. It's part of the discussion we have at my book club.
Jenny's very uncomfortable. This is like detail that was in it.
Lewis is okay for you at one time. I...
That's true because you haven't read this particular book. And I'm intrigued
because when you guys talk about spice and smut, like, for me,
my baseline is there, right?
(37:32):
The hard thing is... That was the first, like, smutty book I ever really read.
I don't find spice, but I want there to be a plot that could withstand without the spice.
Let's agree the fact first, just from the baseline, that there's no,
like, agreed upon scale of what constitutes spicy versus smut versus,
like, the five-star pepper, right?
It is such a spectrum, and I think we just need to give each other grace and
(37:54):
ourselves grace that what your version of spice is versus what your version
and your version and my version are going to be slightly different.
Well, and it's the same with food.
I can handle a curry from the Indian restaurant. I think when I'm saying spice,
I'm using that in place of how graphic, how explicit.
I would say the majority of people would call pucking around erotica.
(38:15):
Okay, that's all I want to read. smut if i don't have a lot of time so that's
all i want to erotica steam spice smut erotica okay so apparently i like erotica
then so steam interesting spice smut and erotica very interesting,
and we are all the spectrum i love it oh ladies well i think that wraps up this
(38:38):
week's episode of she back unleashed with a wild discussion i love it okay if
you enjoyed today's episode go Go ahead and tag us on your book clubs.
We want to hear about all the book clubs you're in and also all the books that
you recommend for us to read.
And your favorite thing about how you do book club.
Yeah, that too. But also like why you go to book club, right?
Is it for the actual discussion or is it for community?
(39:00):
Like what is the reason you do a book club? Escaping your house.
Yeah, escaping your house and your children. Who knows, right?
I think we need to retitle this. Like it's from steam to erotica is really what
we talked about. Not so much between the pages.
It's between all the pages. You do you, boo. Yeah. Thank you for being a part of our pack.
This is Ashley, Jenny, Nicole, and Tanya signing off. Stay wild and fierce.
(39:25):
I gave them away. Go back and stay the two tight. So, they're...
Fucking droopy-ass microphone. We need a more smutty microphone.
Get it up. It needs microphone Viagra. It does need microphone Viagra.
Can you hold it together?
Squeeze tighter. No more, ladies. It needs a tighter cock ring.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
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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