December 15, 2025 • 47 mins
Time flies when you're reading, watching, playing, and listening to good media! The Distracted Librarians are back with their favorites 2025 releases - from books to video games and everything in between. But wait - there's more! In addition to favorites from Nicole, Drew, and Killian, this episode features more of the Library staff's Best of 2025 picks.
Want to join the conversation? Email us at distracted@btpl.org
Many thanks to BCTV for their support in recording, editing, and releasing this podcast; and to the Friends of the Library for sponsoring closed captioning on every episode.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
- [Nicole] Hey, there.
Welcome to "The DistractedLibrarians" podcast.
We are your friendlyneighborhood bookworms
with a penchant forall things pop culture.
- [Drew] Picture thisas our digital campfire
where we dive into our latest obsessions,
analyze our favorite distractions,
and rediscover the joy of reading.
- [Killian] Whether you're amedia enthusiast, a book lover,
(00:21):
or just need a break from the daily grind,
you've come to the right spot.
- [Amanda] So, kick back, relax,
and get delightfully distracted with us.
- [Nicole] Hey, everybody, on this episode
of "Distracted Librarians,"
we're gonna talk about thebest books and music of 2025.
Did you guys have likea great year of books?
(00:41):
What did-
- [Drew] Sort of.- [Nicole] Sort of, okay?
- [Drew] So, like this'll come up
in the "Looking Forward" Episode 2,
but my main like readinggoal for this year
was to read more of my like print books,
traditionally published books.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew} And I had middling
(01:02):
results on that one.
- [Nicole] Really?- [Drew] Yes.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] I read aboutthe same number of books
that I did last year, but itwas a like 70% to 30% spread
of where the 30 is the trad pub.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] And that was not the goal.
- [Nicole] Okay, okay.
So, how many books did you read this year?
(01:22):
- [Drew] I'm at 107.
- Okay.- I think-
- [Nicole] That's pretty good.
Killian, how was your year?
- [Killian] I am still onthis like multi-year journey
of getting back toreading the way I used to.
I used to be a like overa 100 books a year person,
and then the last few years
(01:44):
and a couple years before that too
have been just the ability tofocus and sit down and read
or just have time to read
has been much less of a thing in my life.
So, we're working our way back up.
I set a goal of reading35 books this year.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] And I did pass
that already, so-- [Drew and Nicole] Yay.
(02:05):
- [Killian] And I didn'tup my goal on Goodreads,
which I am have a tendency to do.
We're I'll be like, oh, I met it,
I can make it higher and get that,
I'm like, no, I canjust be further past it
and that's okay.- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Drew] I will only amend my goal
if it's still within like August.
- [Nicole] Right, I mean,there's no sense doing it
in December, right?- [Drew] Yeah.
If it happens in thefirst like two thirds,
(02:28):
maybe three quartersof the year, then it's,
oh, okay, I didn't setan appropriate goal.
- [Nicole] Sure.- [Drew] If it's beyond that,
like within the last threeor four months of the year,
then it's cool, I've hit the goal.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had a pretty good year of books.
I had a not so awesome yearin terms of media and stuff
(02:51):
which we're gonna talkabout a little bit, I think.
And you know, specificallytalking about stuff
that came out in 2025, right?
So, that is very limiting
'cause sometimes, like for example,
I watched "The Lighthouse" the other day,
which is a really awesome movie
with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.
(03:12):
Is it Pattinson?
- [Drew] "The Twilight Kid?"- [Nicole] Yeah, "The Twilight Kid."
And I was like, oh, my gosh,I'm gonna put that on my list
of what I'm gonna, you know, talk about.
And then I looked at, I'mlike, this came out in 2019,
what on Earth and how did that like,
like it wasn't even on myradar that it was a thing,
it just seems like it just came out.
So, anyway, it makesthings difficult sometimes,
(03:34):
like putting the actual year on it.
- [Killian] Well, I knowI don't watch things
as they come out a lot of the time too,
so it'll be years beforeI get into something
that everyone else has beenwatching for something like,
everyone's talking about"Stranger Things" right now.
I have not watched any of it.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] I might'vewatched part of Season 1,
I don't remember.- [Nicole] Okay.
(03:56):
- [Killian] So, I tend to watchthings really late anyway,
and I just don't watcha lot of normal media.
We've talked about that on here before.
I am a Dropout and YouTube kind of girl.
And it doesn't, it's just not the same.
Like, you don't talkabout it the same way,
but books and video gamesare kind of where I'm at.
(04:16):
- [Nicole] Okay.
But that's good.- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] That works too, totally.
All right, well we are gonnatalk about some of the books
that we really enjoyedthat came out in 2025.
Drew, did you wanna start?
- [Drew] Sure.
So, one of my books is called"The Fall" by Tal Bauer.
It is a self-published thing.
(04:37):
He is one of my like peak authors.
And a couple of years agohe put on his Facebook group
that he was going to needto step away from writing
and step away from likeinteracting with readers,
anything like that forundisclosed life reasons.
(04:57):
- [Nicole] Oh, geez.
- [Drew] Totally cool-- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Of course, people deserve
their own lives.- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah.
- [Drew] The man crops backup in, I wanna say June.
No, it was just in September.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] With, hey, thanksfor holding down the fort
while I was gone.
Here's an 800-page book-- [Nicole] Whoa.
(05:19):
- [Drew] That I've beenworking on in secret.
- [Nicole] Wait, so howlong was he in under hiatus?
- [Drew] A year and a half,two years, somewhere in there.
- [Nicole] Wow, that's crazy.- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] And then just popped back up
like, hey, here's this thing,I'm releasing it in six days.
- [Nicole] Oh, my goodness.
Wow.
- [Drew] Set the like world
(05:41):
of self-published romances a tizzy.
It was very, it was so good.
It is a hockey player.
He starts off super, super depressed.
He doesn't have a support system,
and then he goes into amatch and gets a concussion
and wakes up a year later.
(06:03):
And he has, you know,been living his life,
but has no memory of it.
- [Nicole] Oh, weird.- [Drew] But when he does wake up,
he is in a different cityplaying for a different team
with someone in his bed who loves him
and a good support system among the team.
And he's like, okay, cool,
(06:24):
I have no idea how I didthis over the last year.
- [Nicole] Well, I wish Icould go to sleep and wake up
and everything was absolutely smashing.
I mean, my life is pretty good.
But I just gotta say like ahockey star in a new place
with somebody that loves you, et cetera,
like that sounds pretty golden.
- [=Drew] Yeah.- [Nicole] Great job, unconscious you.
- [Drew] So, he's like in his head,
(06:46):
he wakes up at like 3:00AM on whatever day it is
and starts like puttingall the pieces together
and he's like, okay, well Ican't tell anyone anything
about the fact that I'vejust realized where I am.
because I can't give any of this up.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Drew] I need to experience this.
And so it's him likeputting the pieces together.
(07:08):
There's a big like weirdlypseudo metaphysical twist.
It doesn't end up actually being,
but-- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] That I can'treally talk more past.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Drew] Because experiencing that
for the first time waslike one of the first times
in the last few years thatI was like, oh, my God.
- [Nicole] Yeah, okay.- [Drew] Changed my life.
(07:30):
- [Nicole] So, an 800 page romance novel-
- [Drew] Yeah.- [Nicole] About hockey?
- [Drew] Uh-huh.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Could have been 900.
(Nicole and Killian laughing)
Could have also been 500, but-
- [Nicole] Yeah, okay, okay.
- [Drew] I wouldn'thave been mad at either.
I might have been a little mad at 900.
- [Nicole] Maybe, okay.
All right, cool, what wasthe name of that one again?
- [Drew] It was called "The Fall."
- [Nicole] "The Fall," okay?
(07:52):
Wow, I mean, you disappearand then come back with that.
Pretty great.- [Drew] So good.
- [Nicole] Awesome.
All right, Killian, what's yours?
- [Killian] So, this was one of my things
I'm looking forward to in2025 at the start of the year.
And I am happy to come backand be able to talk about it
as one of the best because it means
it lived up to all that hype.- [Nicole] Yes.
(08:13):
- [Killian] Especially because it is one
that had been delayed a few times.
And so I was just very muchlike, give me the book.
And that's "A Witch's Guideto Magical Innkeeping,"
which is by Sangu Mandanna
who also wrote "Very SecretSociety of Irregular Witches"
which I loved.
So, I was a little like,
okay, we've got anothersame kind of vibes,
(08:35):
I'm very hyped about this,what if it's not good?
Or what if it's not as good?
And then I didn't have to worry about it
because it was better.
(all laughing)
And that's saying something,I loved "Very Secret Society."
So, for me to come back and then say,
yeah, and I liked this one more, huge.
It is about Sera Swan whois like super powerful witch
(08:57):
and then brings her,
I think it's her greataunt back from the dead
and loses most of her power.
- [Nicole] Oh, no.
- [Killian] And getsexiled from her guild.
So, it kind of like messes upher whole trajectory in life.
So, she becomes this very, like we,
you see a lot of grumpy sunshine romances?
(09:19):
This is kind of likegrumpy and also grumpy,
just different grumpy.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] And it's very cute
and very fun, but there's also, it's cozy,
but there are some stakesto the things going on.
And there is this wonderfulassortment of side characters
who are all weird andzany in their own ways.
(09:42):
And I just loved it all somuch, I just kept reading it.
As soon as I got around topicking it up, I was just like,
okay, and we're readingand I'm doing nothing else
until I finished this book.
- [Nicole] Mm-hmm.
- [Killian] And, yeah.
- [Nicole] Do you thinkit's set up for a sequel?
- [Killian] I don't think so.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] A lot ofpeople were looking at this
to be something of a sequelto "Very Secret Society."
(10:03):
And I don't think eitherof them is intended to be,
they're supposed to be more-
- [Nicole] Standalone-- [Kikllian] A moment in time,
type of things.- [Nicole] Cool.
- [Killian] But I wouldn't say no.
(all laughing)- [Nicole] Yeah, right.
Okay, well, the bookthat I enjoyed this year
was "The Black Slide" by J.W. Ocker.
This is a middle grade kids book.
(10:24):
Well, it might be a littlebit upper middle grade,
I would say.
And the reason for that isgoing to become very clear.
So, it is a horror book,
and I mean, it is a horror book.
Like this is like not even playing around.
And I kind of love that
because I think kids need horror too.
Anyway, getting into how this story goes,
(10:48):
there is a slide thatshows up on the playground
at this boy's school.
His name is Griffin.
And he's always in this classroom that he,
what does he call it?
Ah, I can't remember.
Anyway, he's always in this classroom
that always looks out onto the playground
(11:09):
and he thinks of it as liketorture because he is like,
oh, I just wanna be outside so bad,
why am I stuck in this classroom?
Well, he notices this slide appears
and it's an ominous looking slide.
It's not a normal looking slide,
like one that you might want to go down.
It has like blackleather-ish sort of outsides.
(11:30):
They look like bat wingsand it looks spooky.
And then he sees somebody,
no, he's actually thefirst person to go down it.
Okay, he gets asked to godown the slide by a bully.
The bully is like, I will leave you alone,
I'll not beat you up anymoreif you go down the slide.
So, Griffin's like, okay,I'm gonna go down the slide.
(11:51):
He goes down the slide andendures this horrific torture
to which it seems almost never ending,
like months have gone by.
- [Drew] Oh, my God.
- [Nicole] And then he is ejected out
the bottom of thisslide with a broken arm.
Okay, fast forward into thefuture, he goes back to school
(12:11):
and he's got his eye on theslide because he's like,
there's something wrong with this slide-
- [Drew] You think?
- [Nicole] Yeah, I do-- [Killian] That's probably fine.
- [Nicole] He startsnoticing like other children
from school muttering tothemselves and going up the slide.
Only they go down the slideand never come back again.
(12:32):
So, he decides he's gonna go after,
'cause like his best friendis going down the slide
and he gets draggeddown the slide with her
and he ends up in thishellscape, literal hellscape.
It is like the "Hellraiser" movies.
It is insane.
There are these people that live there
(12:52):
with like weird bald heads
and they've got very strange features
and everything is about pain and torture.
Like, they can't even leave a room.
Like, I'm gonna open thedoor and go through the door.
Nope, it's not like that.
They have to stand in atorture ray for however long
and then they have to passthat to get into the next room.
(13:15):
And that's just like a startof what this place is like.
It's insane.
- [Drew] Incredible.
- [Nicole] It's insane.- [Drew] This is middle grade?
- [Nicole] This is,
well, so one of my coworkersread the book and was like,
yeah, this isn't gonna befor like the fourth grader.
- [Drew] Nope.
(all laughing)
- [Nicole] So, we put it under Y Fiction
instead of J Fiction, which just means
(13:36):
that it's for like theupper end of middle grade.
Anyway, I highly recommendthis book even for grownups.
Like I know severaladults that have read it
and they're like, wow, this is amazing.
So, good job on "The Black Slide."
- [Drew] J.W. Ocker also wrotea couple of nonfiction books
that we've purchased for the library.
- [Nicole] Oh, okay.
- [Drew] "Cursed Objects" and"United States of Cryptids."
(13:58):
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Where it's a litany
of exactly that cursed objectsor US cryptids going on tours
around the country and talking
about (crosstalk) those things
or, you know, the urban legendsaround some of the world's
most famous cursed objects.
- [Nicole] Sure.- [Drew] Really interesting.
- [Nicole] That sounds really cool.
(14:18):
Anyway, he's sort of likeClive Barker in a way.
If you guys have read Clive Barker,
and Clive Barker doeshave kids' books also,
which is interesting.
But yeah, like if you'rereally into horror,
this is probably a good one.
- [Drew] Nice.- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] Speaking of descents into hell.
(all laughing)
- [Nicole] Tell me more.
(14:40):
- [Drew] The next one Igrabbed was "Katabasis."
"Katabasis."- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] However youpronounce it by R.F. Kuang.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Love her.
She wrote "Babel," "Yellowface,"
a lot of really, really good books.
But this book is two graduate students
in a magical university
(15:00):
whose grad professor has just passed away
through a failed magic experiment.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] And the two of them team up
to open a portal tohell to go and find him
to get letters of recommendation
for their next path in life.
- [Nicole] Oh, my gosh, really?- [Drew] Yes.
(15:22):
- [Nicole] Wow.
- [Drew] Because without thesign off of their thesis,
they can't continue on
in their-- [Nicole] Oh my goodness.
- [Drew] Their lives and you know,
what they wanted their lives to be.
- [Nicole] Wow.
- [Drew] And it's, you know, straight up,
Emily would've loved it.
- [Nicole] I can imagine, yeah.
- [Drew] Because it is, youknow, the circles of hell,
(15:42):
you go through each one in stages.
- [Nicole] So, very Dante's "Inferno."- [Drew] Exactly.
- [Nicole] Okay, cool.
- [Drew] And they are, youknow, research students.
So, they went down withtheir detailed notes
on all of the various depictions of hell
and are trying to navigate themselves
based on what theprevious people have said.
(16:04):
- [Nicole] Wow.- [Drew] Really fascinating.
- [Nicole] Oh, that sounds so good.- [Drew] So, intricately researched.
- [Nicole] Yeah, that sounds great.- [Drew] A lot of fun.
- [Nicole] Very cool.
- [Killian] I don't haveanything horrifying on my list.
- [Nicole] That's okay,
because I'm gonna add some more horror.
(all laughing)
- [Killian] This has been my cozy era,
and I'm okay with that, so-
- [Nicole] We are okaywith it too, Killian.
(16:26):
(all laughing)
- [Killian] Sometimes thingsjust need to be soft fun.
(all laughing)
So, the next book isactually a three-book series
that I read in a rather quick succession
that was only broken out bythe fact that the third one
hadn't come out yet.
And that is the "Adenashire"series by J. Penner.
(16:48):
It starts with "A Fellowshipof Bakers & Magic,"
which is very "Dungeons & Dragons" meets
"The Great British Bake Off."
And it's very cool.
It's very just fantasycreatures and baking.
And there's a littlebit of stuff going on,
(17:08):
and you meet all of thesecharacters in the first book,
and then the next booksin the series focus
on a different character from that group.
And they're, you know, romance and their,
life in their, interests.
And so you get to learn moreabout these side characters.
And that's, so what I get into,I love a good side character
(17:29):
that we then get to learn more about
and see them as a main character,
and still see the maincharacters that we've loved
as side characters doing other things.
So, the first three booksof it, like I said, are out.
The one that just came out
is "A Fellowship of Games & Fables."
And that is a very likewinter holiday esque one,
(17:49):
so it's very good for this time of year.
But there's two othersthat have been written
that just haven't beentraditionally published yet.
And I am going to needmatching copies of these
for the ones that I have.
So, I do need to, I need that release date
because I can't find it anywhere.
- [Nicole] Oh, my gosh.- [Killian] But I'm very excited
to keep reading within that world.
(18:11):
- [Nicole] Cool, that sounds great.
I got an advanced readercopy of Joe Hill's new book.
- [Drew] Oh, wow.
- [Nicole] And then I wasn'tallowed to talk to anybody
about it, which is like a whole thing.
But anyway, so it did come out this year,
it is called "King Sorrow."
Joe Hill is a mastermind and I love him.
(18:33):
We've talked extensively aboutJoe Hill on this podcast.
- [Drew] He's come up from time to time.
- [Nicole] Yeah, from time to time.
This book was really interesting.
It is a chonky book.
And I think that there was a point
when I was reading likethe ebook version of it
where I was like, oh, this is wrapping up,
(18:53):
and then it did, I mean, no,not even close to wrapping up.
Like it was like, oh, wait,now there's 35 more things
that you have to like, you know, consider.
Anyway, so this is about acharacter named Arthur Oaks,
and he is a student atRackham College in Maine.
Of course, Maine.
- [Drew] As always.- [Nicole] You know?
(19:14):
So, he is madly in lovewith this woman named Gwen
and is shattered when a local drug dealer
and her partner corner him
in one of the worst crimes that he can,
oh, corner him into one of theworst crimes he can imagine.
So, let me just get,do a little backstory.
(19:36):
His mother is in prisonbecause she's an activist.
And when she was planninga peaceful protest,
someone got killed andshe was blamed for it,
so she's in prison.
Now, this drug dealer knowsthat his mother's in prison
(19:57):
and her mother is also in the same prison.
So, she has like this kind of like this,
well, there's influence there, right?
So, she's basically like,you're gonna steal this book
from the rare bookcollection at your college,
or I'm gonna have yourmom killed in prison.
(20:19):
And he's like, whoa.
Like, oh, my God, thisis like the worst thing
that could possibly happen, right?
Anyway, so he ends up getting this book,
not realizing that this bookis like made from human skin,
et cetera, et cetera.
It ends up being a whole thing.
He invites his friendsto kind of help him get
(20:41):
through this situationwith this drug dealer.
And they're all a very interestinggroup of people as well,
highly intelligent, some havea lot of wealth and power,
and so there's a lot ofcomeuppance and that kind of thing.
All right, let's get to "King Sorrow."
All right, so there's ametaphysical aspect to the story,
of course, because it's not Joe Hill,
(21:03):
unless there's ghosts andgoblins and whatever else.
They have like this ritual wherethey bring a dragon to life
whose name is King Sorrow.
And the whole thing about the dragon
is that they have to offer asacrifice to him every year.
(21:26):
And the group of people is like,
well, we'll just offer likethe worst people in humanity,
like this horrible personthat killed a bunch of kids
at a local elementary school.
- [Drew] Sure.- [Nicole] We'll just put him up.
And so King Sorrow divesin, takes care of business
and usually walks away with other people
kind of in tow in the situation.
(21:48):
So, there's this kind ofinteresting back thing
where like he's dealing withtrying to keep his mother safe,
but now he's unleashedthis horrible dragon demon
onto the world and theyhave to keep feeding him
like a person.
And sometimes the peoplethat they feed him,
they don't realize it, butthey might have been innocent.
(22:08):
And there's a lot ofmorality issue in play
kind of happening in the story.
Anyway, super good.
It was very well done.
You get to know each one of the characters
really, really well, andthey all have very severe,
like, serious issues.
Every single one of themhas a serious issue.
So, anyway, I highlyrecommend "King Sorrow."
(22:28):
- [Drew] I do wish you could all have seen
the frown on Killian's facewhen the human skin came up.
- [Nicole] Oh, human skin.
(all laughing)
You're not into human skin, are you?
- [Drew] Under veryspecific circumstances,
sure, human skin is fine.
(all laughing)
- [Nicole] All right.- [Drew] Okay.
My third that I brought iscalled "Winging It with You"
(22:50):
by Chip Pons.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] It is a contemporary romance
where a guy who has been withhis partner for three years,
they decide to sign upfor a fictional version
of "The Amazing Race" together.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] And then in the airport,
on the way to the starting gate,
(23:13):
the partner quits andsays he can't do this
and means both the competitionand the relationship.
Just dumps him in the airport
on the way.- [Nicole] Oh, boy, okay.
- [Drew] So, he is drowning his sorrows
with margaritas and mozzarellasticks in the Chili's
in the airport as one does,
and meets a pilot who wasjust grounded by his airline
(23:38):
for I think three weeks
because he'd beenoverworking himself and not,
you know, following thework-life balance guidelines
that you need to, you know, be a pilot
and control an entire plane.
- [Nicole] Right.- [Drew] So, he signs on
to be the partner andthey're gonna, the fake date,
and convince America thatthey are madly in love.
(24:02):
- [Nicole] Oh, my goodness.- [Drew] While just getting
to know each other
in this really stressfulcompetition circumstance.
- [Nicole] Sure, sure.
Well, that sounds fun.- [Drew] Super cute, super fun.
- [Nicole] Yeah, thatsounds really fun, cool.
- [Drew] Throw a little bit of levity in
other than Killian's.
(Killian laughing)
- [Killian] I'm gonna, it'sme going, I have so many,
(24:24):
and what do I wanna talk about?
I'm gonna talk about "The River Has Roots"
because I-- [Nicole] Oh, I love that book.
- [Killian] Really loved this one.
And it's so short,
and it's so good and it'sso lyrical in the writing.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] But it'salso one of those things
that had a really bizarreconnection for me.
(24:45):
It is based on the balladof "The Twa Sisters,"
which has been retold in severaldifferent ways over time.
But my first ever exposure toit was in Patricia C. Wrede's
the "Book of Enchantment."
She has this short story version and it's,
you know, this pair of sisters,
(25:06):
one is jealous of theother, so she kills her
and then her bones getused to make a harp.
And the person who makesthis harp ends up going
and performing at the homeof these sisters' family.
And the harp then sings whathappened to this daughter.
- [Nicole] It's pretty great.
It's wild.
(25:26):
- [Killian] It might've mildlyscarred middle school me.
I have a really weirdrelationship with this story
because the time I that I just went,
this is horrific and Ihate it, and oh, my gosh.
So, if I had known that thiswas a retelling of that,
would I have read it?
I don't know.
(25:46):
But I did read it becausewithout having that connotation,
it just sounded interesting.
It's very based in fairylore and things like that.
And I don't wanna say too much,
'cause again, it's only 105 pages,
but it is about a pair of sisters
who rather than likebeing hateful and jealous
towards one another arehave a very strong bond.
(26:09):
And it's about how thatbond ties 'em together,
even through death and things going on
and the things that happen throughout life
that can pull people apart.
So, like I said, I have ahard time talking about it
without giving away toomuch, but just go read it,
it's 105 pages.
- [Nicole] And it's reallybeautifully put together too-
(26:30):
- [Killian] And these illustrations.- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] And it's lovely, nice.
- [Nicole] I'm gonnapop ahead to some media.
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] So, have you guysseen the movie "Sinners?"
- [Drew] Yes.- [Killian] No.
- [Nicole] You did watch it?
- [Drew] Mm-hmm.- [Nicole] Oh, my gosh-
- [Drew] So good.- [Nicole] It was like crazy.
I had, well, I saw the Trailerfor "Sinners" and I was like,
(26:50):
oh, my gosh, this looks really good.
This looks like my right up my alley.
- [Drew] Yeah.- [Nicole] And then of course
it was an evening whenmy husband was away,
so I put on my horrific movies
(all laughing)
and it was like perfect.
And I really, really loved it.
When I realized that thetwo brothers that were there
were like, they're twins obviously,
(27:12):
but it's just Mr. Jordan.
(all laughing)
So, "Sinners" is set in 1932in the Mississippi Delta
with Michael B. Jordanas these twin brothers.
And they are criminals.
They're kind of involved in bootlegging
and like some other things.
Apparently they had a stint inChicago where they were with,
(27:35):
they worked with Al Caponeor something like that,
I believe is what was said.
But anyway, they come hometo the Mississippi Delta
and they're really interested
in having this juke joint put together.
So, they find a place for it,
and they have to deal with rampant racism
because it's just the time.
But these are powerfulmen and are not interested
(27:57):
in what the KKK has to say to them.
It's pretty abundantly clear.
So, they get the boozeand they get the music,
and then they invite everybody,
and they have this crazy party.
But then the vampires showup, and things get wild.
I mean, wild from therebecause one person goes outside
(28:21):
and the next thing you know,
they're a vampire andthey're asking to be let in.
Like, it's crazy.
Yeah, It was enjoyable.
I loved it.- [Drew] That was a great time.
- [Nicole] The music was amazing.
The characters are just wonderful.
And I mean, who doesn'tlike a vampire flick?
So, yeah.
(28:43):
- [Drew] Cool, I'm gonna quickly talk
about two pieces of media.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Because they'reboth relatively short.
Surprise, one is another Hockey romance.
- [Nicole] Oh. my gosh.
(Drew laughing)
- [Drew] The TV show "Heated Rivalry."
As of recording, onlytwo episodes are out,
as of episode release, onlyfour episodes will be out.
It is so good.- [Nicole] Is it?
- [Drew] It is so faithful to the books.
(29:06):
The actors are fantasticboth in the roles,
but also in the press tour of it.
It had this whole likegrassroots movement behind it
because it's a Canadian production.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] So, for the longest time,
all of their advertisingwas, you know, only on Crave
and we'll figure out internationalrelease at some point.
(29:29):
Who knows?
Everyone was scramblingon how to watch it,
and then about 10 days beforeit released they announced,
oh, it's actually justgoing to be streaming
on HBO Max as well.
- [Nicole] Oh.
- [Drew] So, everyone ranto get their HBO accounts.
Black Friday was veryfavorable to us in that sense.
(29:50):
The hype around the show is very deserved.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] It is so much fun.
And then the other one that I really loved
was the season of "Celebrity Traitors UK"
that just happened.
- [Nicole] "Celebrity Traitors?"
- [Drew] Yes.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] So, "The Traitors" game format
is very similar to Mafia or Werewolf,
(30:12):
where you have people in,
you have a group of people,
but secretly two or three of them
are the evil people of the group.
So, every day the groupvotes for who they think
might be a traitor ora werewolf or whoever.
And then at night the remainingtraitors banish someone
(30:32):
from the castle.
Obviously one of thefaithful in that sense
because the traitorswouldn't banish themselves.
- [Nicole] Right.- [Drew] So, you slowly whittle
the group down of thislike social suspicion game.
And when the US does celebrity versions,
all of the people who arein it are like gamers.
They're people from"Survivor" and "Big Brother"
(30:53):
and "Challenge."- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] And I love that world too.
It's, you know,
one of my main worlds.- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Drew] But "The CelebrityTraitors UK" brought in
like comedians and talk show hosts.
- [Nicole] Okay, so anybody we know?
- [Drew] Celia Imrie did it.
- [Nicole] I'm not familiar, are you?
- [Killian] Mm-mm.- [Nicole] No?
(31:14):
- [Drew] Tom Daley was in it.- [Nicole] Oh, okay.
- [[Drew] Alan Ross-- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Was in it.
It's a lot of fun, likequintessentially British people,
but because they didn't bringin like these heavy gamers
who were there for the win-
- [Nicole] Right.- [Drew] And brought in
these like lighterpersonalities, so much fun.
(31:34):
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Drew] Such a fun game.
- [Nicole] Oh, cool, very nice.- [Drew] Yeah.
Can't recommend enough,ended up on Peacock.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] For streaming.
- [Nicole] Great.- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] All right, Killian,
I know you wanna talkabout this, let's do it.
- [Killian] So, I brought a video game,
the game "Tiny Bookshop"came out this year.
And this is a game that Ihad been looking forward to.
I added it to my Steam wishlistthe second I heard about it.
(31:57):
Because the entire premiseof this game is that you are,
you have left, you know, some,
I don't even rememberwhat it is you've left,
but you've decided you'regoing to go, you know,
leave everything behind andopen this tiny mobile bookstore
in a small seaside town.
So, as you play, you startwith very little to work with.
(32:19):
You can only go to one location.
You have very little rangein terms of shelving.
You get your books throughlike sales in the newspaper,
it's all secondhand book sales.
So, you're buying booksfrom the newspaper,
from the flea marketto resell in your shop.
And you're just, each day you decide
(32:41):
what genres you're gonna putout and the customers come
and they look and they'llbuy things and they'll leave.
And sometimes they'llask for a recommendation,
which, you know, that isone of my favorite things
about my job.
And so I'm okay withit being in this game.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah, yeah.- [Killian] It doesn't feel too much
like I'm taking work home.
But the really cool thing is,
when you pick the books to stock,
(33:02):
you are picking which genres you put in.
And they're big broad genre categories.
You'll have fantasy, you'llhave kids, you have crime,
drama, classics, fact and travel,
but you have sub genres within that
that you can't select exactly.
So, within travel,
you also have a lot oflike hobby or cookbooks.
Within fantasy, you alsohave science fiction,
(33:25):
you have some kids books that are,
you can find them in the fantasy genre,
but also in the kidsgenre, things like that.
Drama is plays and,
but also, you know, YA romances
and adult romances and things like that.
So, when you go into your story
and you start making your recommendation,
you kind of go through the books
(33:46):
and it'll give you the titlein a little description.
And you didn't know whatyou were stocking before,
so you couldn't stockspecific, specific genres,
you could only stalk the broad categories.
But the characters will come in
and they'll ask you something.
And some of these asksare really contradictory.
They're hard to like figure out,
and sometimes you don'thave the right book.
But you make a recommendation if you can,
or you tell 'em that you can't.
(34:07):
And it's just you build,
you start getting different locations
and you start meeting thepeople who live in this town.
And you get like theselittle individual stories
from all these charactersand it's very cool.
It uses real books.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] So, there aresome books that were created
just for this game,
(34:27):
but there's also a lot ofreal life books that you know,
"A Wrinkle In Time" is in there.
There's, I know there'sa few "Manga" in there,
including "Sailor Moon" is in there.
I'm off the top of my head what is there.
There's really recent thingslike Ali Hazelwood romances,
just a bunch of things.
So, that is really cool.
(34:49):
You can kind of get recommendations
for yourself as you play.
And that's the thing isthe devs for this game
set up a Discord server.
They've really built acommunity around the game
where it's people, yes,talking about the game
and like getting helpwith things that are like,
that they're strugglingwith or things like that.
But also just talking about books
(35:10):
and giving each otherbook recommendations.
And then the community started going,
oh, well, I think thisbook should be in the game,
that book should be in the game.
And they eventually opened it up,
they created a Book Councilof people to recommend books
to be added in the next update,
which that's a processthat's been ongoing.
And in the next update there will be,
I think it's like 1,000 new books going in
(35:33):
between all of the peoplewho are involved with that.
And it's across different,so they won't all go
into like every version of the game.
But it's very cool.
It's very cool to have like the community
have a say in it like that.
And yeah, once that update comes out,
keep an eye on the credits for that.
(all laughing)
(35:54):
- [Nicole] Well, as usual,
if any of you audiencemembers have anything
that you really loved in 2025,
feel free to email us and let us know.
We would love to hear what you loved.
And that wraps up ourlist of the best books
and media of 2025.
Stick around to hear some suggestions
from our fellow staff members at BTPL.
(36:17):
Also check out our postsabout "Distracted Librarians"
on our website at btpl.org
and get more suggestions from staff.
And we'll see you next time.
- [Amanda] Hi, this is Amanda
from the Adult and TeenServices Department.
I have two books to recommendfor my best of 2025.
(36:37):
The first is "Second Life:
Having a Child in theDigital Age" by Amanda Hess.
This book is for someone who is a parent,
especially a mother and/orsomeone who is interested
in how the internet is weird.
And we all know it's so, so weird.
(37:00):
Amanda Hess managed to pullapart the dissonant nature
of becoming a motherand then being barraged
by companies marketing to you.
So, you have on the onehand this very physical,
sacred, special and very personal event
(37:23):
of being pregnant and having a child.
And on the other hand
you have maternityclose companies and apps
and companies trying tosell you all sorts of stuff
in a way that really feelslike the two things clash.
(37:43):
There's a lot of funny moments
such as when instead ofcomparing a growing fetus
to a piece of fruit,
which is very classic for a pregnant mom,
you have companies marketingobjects to you and comparing,
(38:03):
say, your growing fetus to a hip pack.
And here's a link to whereyou can buy it for 99.95.
Many moments like that,
and all the while they'recollecting your information,
including really personal medical data,
especially if you are using an app.
(38:26):
And there's a lot ofcomplicated feelings around it.
And I think Amanda Hess did a great job
of detailing those and unpacking those.
So, highly recommend thatis a 2025 publication.
My other recommendation is"Nobody Ever Told Me Anything"
by Rachael "Steak" Finley.
This is actually a 2022 memoir.
(38:48):
Rachael "Steak" Finley
is a blogger from the early aughts,
from the time of when Tumblrwas in its sort of emergence.
And she tells about herchildhood in Florida
when she was 11 years oldand her mother neglected
(39:08):
and then unfortunately abandoned her,
and she was living squatting
in a Florida vacation rental.
She had a ton ofperseverance as a young kid,
pretty much taking care of herself.
And obviously she has a lot of trauma
(39:29):
that she sort of unpacks
and talks about how she canthen go on and raise herself
in a lot of ways and become an adult.
And how she navigated adulthood
without that solid backgroundor foundation as a child.
The thing that I lovedabout this, it's not,
(39:52):
even though there's a lot of hardship,
it's not super trauma heavy.
Really where I think Rachael Finley excels
is she uses plain language.
You aren't going to thismemoir thinking like,
oh, I can tell this person has an MFA.
No, this is a really,from a blogger standpoint,
and I think it was really refreshing to me
(40:13):
after reading so many memoirsthat were heavy in metaphor
and heavy in descriptionand all these things.
I thought that thiswas really a beautiful,
succinct and plainly stated,but not simple memoir.
So, "Nobody Ever Told Me Anything."
(40:35):
I recommend them both and check 'em out.
- [Linden] Hi, I'm Lindenfrom administration
and I'm an administrative assistant.
Last year I was so excited to participate
and share my opinion of thethings I enjoyed from that year.
And then I learned thatI hadn't actually read
any books written that year,
and I made it one of myNew Year's resolutions
(40:56):
to read a couple books thathad been published that year.
So, I'm excited to sharewhat I encountered this year.
One of the books I foundalmost by happenstance
is "Bat Eater and OtherNames for Cora Zeng."
This is by Kylie Lee Baker.
And it was a perfectstorm of horror, mystery,
(41:19):
a little bit of gore.
And also it raised alot of awareness for me
of things that people ofChinese culture experience
in this country.
But it's available in large print,
it's in the traditional book form
and it's also availableon audio through Hoopla,
which is how I experienced it.
This book is creepy, it's suspenseful.
(41:41):
You learn a lot about Hungry ghosts,
which is a cultural phenomena in Asia
that's pretty fascinating andI was really surprised by it
and highly recommend checking it out.
The antithesis of thatbook, but equally good
was "Raising Hare" by Chloe Dalton,
which is a memoir of a woman in England
(42:01):
who literally raised a wild hare.
And it's a gentle book and thoughtful
with interesting observations,
not only of a wild creature,but also the changing landscape
and how that relates to the environment
and how creatures need to be protected,
and all life needs to be protected.
But it's just sothoughtful and interesting.
(42:24):
It's the kind of book youcan tuck into bed with
and share with your friends.
The book that I also encountered this year
that I have been recommending to everyone
is "The Book of Alchemy"by Suleika Jaouad.
And she also wrote a wonderful memoir,
I think it's called"Between Two Kingdoms."
(42:45):
But "The Book of Alchemy"is 100 very short essays
by people that are very well known
and people you may not have heard of.
And they're from all walks of life,
from countries all overthe world, all ages.
And each of the essaysis only a page or two,
but at the end of each essay
is a gentle prompt to promote journaling.
(43:08):
Now, you could enjoy thisas a book that you just read
as a quick thing before you settle in,
but I have been using itas a journaling prompt
and it's been a very interesting exercise.
There are times when I wannathrow the book across the room
because the prompts are rather difficult
and not what I wanna do.
And other times I havefound them literally
very perspective changing andit's just been very enjoyable.
(43:29):
And I highly recommend"The Book of Alchemy."
I wanna do a couple shoutouts to the other things
that I encountered this year,
which is "Sunrise on the Reaping,"
which is the latest in the Mockingbird.
Sorry, shoot, wow, I'mcompletely blanking.
- "Mockingjay."- "Mockingjay," thank you.
The "Mockingjay" series,which I also really love
(43:51):
by Suzanne Collins in this latest edition,
which is the fifth,
comes from the perspectiveof Harper Abernathy.
And it's available on Hoopla
and is wonderful in that format on audio.
And the book, "The Catch" by Yrsa Daley
is an interesting fictionwith multiple narrators
that is again, unsettlingand you never know quite
(44:12):
what will happen and was a good read.
And last year I mostly recommended music,
and my highlight album of the year
was Wet Leg's latestrelease "Moisturizer."
Thanks so much for listening.
- [Heather] Hi, this is Heather.
I am a Page in Youth Services.
I'm one of the ones that shelve the books,
(44:34):
and the book I would like togive a shout out to this year
is "My Kitchen Year" by Ruth Reichl.
If I botched that, I apologize.
And I want to shout out to it
because it kind of gotme through Thanksgiving.
My mom's been ill, soI wound up doing a lot
or most of the cooking,
and while I like tobake and I like to eat,
(44:57):
dunno if I'm such a cook, buther recipe for corn muffins
and a simple recipe for Brussels sprouts
helps make Thanksgiving not bad.
I had to amend (chuckles)the Brussels sprout recipe
(45:18):
to use cabbage, but Istill had a framework
to cook something with, so I enjoyed that.
And what I like about this book,
besides faith that it got me through,
is that it's part cookbook part memoir.
She was also going througha not great time in her life
and cooking and baking and foodin general got her through.
(45:42):
Everybody eats 'cause we can'tphotosynthesize just yet.
But up until the last few months,
I've never really thoughtabout all the cooking
and the prepping that goes with it
and kind of following her,going through the seasons,
cooking and enjoying it,
I don't know if I say I'menjoying all this right now,
but the cooking and cookingwith somebody and food being,
(46:09):
not just the eatingitself, but the process.
The process of cooking, theprocess of finding things,
that's been helpful right now.
So, this, so yes, "My Kitchen Year,"
which I'm also readingfor our cookbook club.
Shout out to that and I hope one day
(46:29):
to actually own this book for myself.
But yes, "My Kitchen Year."
Thanks for listening.
Bye.
- [Nicole] Thank you forjoining us for this episode
of "Distracted Librarians."
- [Drew] Many thanks to BCTVfor their support in recording,
editing and releasing this podcast.
And to the friends of the library
for sponsoring closedcaptioning on every episode.
(46:49):
- [Killian] If you have anyquestions or suggestions,
feel free to reach out tous at distracted@btpl.org.
- [Amanda] Until then,keep those pages turning
and those screens lighting up.
We'll catch you in the next episode.
- [Emily] The views and opinions expressed
in "The Distracted Librarians" podcast
do not necessarily reflectthose of Bloomfield Township,
(47:11):
Bloomfield Township Public Library,
Bloomfield Community Television,
the Birmingham Area Cable Board,
or its producers or production staff.
- [Nicole] Hey, there.
Welcome to "The DistractedLibrarians" podcast.
We are your friendlyneighborhood bookworms
with a penchant forall things pop culture.
- [Drew] Picture thisas our digital campfire
where we dive into our latest obsessions,
analyze our favorite distractions,
and rediscover the joy of reading.
- [Killian] Whether you're amedia enthusiast, a book lover,
(00:21):
or just need a break from the daily grind,
you've come to the right spot.
- [Amanda] So, kick back, relax,
and get delightfully distracted with us.
- [Nicole] Hey, everybody, on this episode
of "Distracted Librarians,"
we're gonna talk about thebest books and music of 2025.
Did you guys have likea great year of books?
(00:41):
What did-
- [Drew] Sort of.- [Nicole] Sort of, okay?
- [Drew] So, like this'll come up
in the "Looking Forward" Episode 2,
but my main like readinggoal for this year
was to read more of my like print books,
traditionally published books.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew} And I had middling
(01:02):
results on that one.
- [Nicole] Really?- [Drew] Yes.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] I read aboutthe same number of books
that I did last year, but itwas a like 70% to 30% spread
of where the 30 is the trad pub.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] And that was not the goal.
- [Nicole] Okay, okay.
So, how many books did you read this year?
(01:22):
- [Drew] I'm at 107.
- Okay.- I think-
- [Nicole] That's pretty good.
Killian, how was your year?
- [Killian] I am still onthis like multi-year journey
of getting back toreading the way I used to.
I used to be a like overa 100 books a year person,
and then the last few years
(01:44):
and a couple years before that too
have been just the ability tofocus and sit down and read
or just have time to read
has been much less of a thing in my life.
So, we're working our way back up.
I set a goal of reading35 books this year.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] And I did pass
that already, so-- [Drew and Nicole] Yay.
(02:05):
- [Killian] And I didn'tup my goal on Goodreads,
which I am have a tendency to do.
We're I'll be like, oh, I met it,
I can make it higher and get that,
I'm like, no, I canjust be further past it
and that's okay.- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Drew] I will only amend my goal
if it's still within like August.
- [Nicole] Right, I mean,there's no sense doing it
in December, right?- [Drew] Yeah.
If it happens in thefirst like two thirds,
(02:28):
maybe three quartersof the year, then it's,
oh, okay, I didn't setan appropriate goal.
- [Nicole] Sure.- [Drew] If it's beyond that,
like within the last threeor four months of the year,
then it's cool, I've hit the goal.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had a pretty good year of books.
I had a not so awesome yearin terms of media and stuff
(02:51):
which we're gonna talkabout a little bit, I think.
And you know, specificallytalking about stuff
that came out in 2025, right?
So, that is very limiting
'cause sometimes, like for example,
I watched "The Lighthouse" the other day,
which is a really awesome movie
with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.
(03:12):
Is it Pattinson?
- [Drew] "The Twilight Kid?"- [Nicole] Yeah, "The Twilight Kid."
And I was like, oh, my gosh,I'm gonna put that on my list
of what I'm gonna, you know, talk about.
And then I looked at, I'mlike, this came out in 2019,
what on Earth and how did that like,
like it wasn't even on myradar that it was a thing,
it just seems like it just came out.
So, anyway, it makesthings difficult sometimes,
(03:34):
like putting the actual year on it.
- [Killian] Well, I knowI don't watch things
as they come out a lot of the time too,
so it'll be years beforeI get into something
that everyone else has beenwatching for something like,
everyone's talking about"Stranger Things" right now.
I have not watched any of it.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] I might'vewatched part of Season 1,
I don't remember.- [Nicole] Okay.
(03:56):
- [Killian] So, I tend to watchthings really late anyway,
and I just don't watcha lot of normal media.
We've talked about that on here before.
I am a Dropout and YouTube kind of girl.
And it doesn't, it's just not the same.
Like, you don't talkabout it the same way,
but books and video gamesare kind of where I'm at.
(04:16):
- [Nicole] Okay.
But that's good.- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] That works too, totally.
All right, well we are gonnatalk about some of the books
that we really enjoyedthat came out in 2025.
Drew, did you wanna start?
- [Drew] Sure.
So, one of my books is called"The Fall" by Tal Bauer.
It is a self-published thing.
(04:37):
He is one of my like peak authors.
And a couple of years agohe put on his Facebook group
that he was going to needto step away from writing
and step away from likeinteracting with readers,
anything like that forundisclosed life reasons.
(04:57):
- [Nicole] Oh, geez.
- [Drew] Totally cool-- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Of course, people deserve
their own lives.- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah.
- [Drew] The man crops backup in, I wanna say June.
No, it was just in September.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] With, hey, thanksfor holding down the fort
while I was gone.
Here's an 800-page book-- [Nicole] Whoa.
(05:19):
- [Drew] That I've beenworking on in secret.
- [Nicole] Wait, so howlong was he in under hiatus?
- [Drew] A year and a half,two years, somewhere in there.
- [Nicole] Wow, that's crazy.- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] And then just popped back up
like, hey, here's this thing,I'm releasing it in six days.
- [Nicole] Oh, my goodness.
Wow.
- [Drew] Set the like world
(05:41):
of self-published romances a tizzy.
It was very, it was so good.
It is a hockey player.
He starts off super, super depressed.
He doesn't have a support system,
and then he goes into amatch and gets a concussion
and wakes up a year later.
(06:03):
And he has, you know,been living his life,
but has no memory of it.
- [Nicole] Oh, weird.- [Drew] But when he does wake up,
he is in a different cityplaying for a different team
with someone in his bed who loves him
and a good support system among the team.
And he's like, okay, cool,
(06:24):
I have no idea how I didthis over the last year.
- [Nicole] Well, I wish Icould go to sleep and wake up
and everything was absolutely smashing.
I mean, my life is pretty good.
But I just gotta say like ahockey star in a new place
with somebody that loves you, et cetera,
like that sounds pretty golden.
- [=Drew] Yeah.- [Nicole] Great job, unconscious you.
- [Drew] So, he's like in his head,
(06:46):
he wakes up at like 3:00AM on whatever day it is
and starts like puttingall the pieces together
and he's like, okay, well Ican't tell anyone anything
about the fact that I'vejust realized where I am.
because I can't give any of this up.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Drew] I need to experience this.
And so it's him likeputting the pieces together.
(07:08):
There's a big like weirdlypseudo metaphysical twist.
It doesn't end up actually being,
but-- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] That I can'treally talk more past.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Drew] Because experiencing that
for the first time waslike one of the first times
in the last few years thatI was like, oh, my God.
- [Nicole] Yeah, okay.- [Drew] Changed my life.
(07:30):
- [Nicole] So, an 800 page romance novel-
- [Drew] Yeah.- [Nicole] About hockey?
- [Drew] Uh-huh.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Could have been 900.
(Nicole and Killian laughing)
Could have also been 500, but-
- [Nicole] Yeah, okay, okay.
- [Drew] I wouldn'thave been mad at either.
I might have been a little mad at 900.
- [Nicole] Maybe, okay.
All right, cool, what wasthe name of that one again?
- [Drew] It was called "The Fall."
- [Nicole] "The Fall," okay?
(07:52):
Wow, I mean, you disappearand then come back with that.
Pretty great.- [Drew] So good.
- [Nicole] Awesome.
All right, Killian, what's yours?
- [Killian] So, this was one of my things
I'm looking forward to in2025 at the start of the year.
And I am happy to come backand be able to talk about it
as one of the best because it means
it lived up to all that hype.- [Nicole] Yes.
(08:13):
- [Killian] Especially because it is one
that had been delayed a few times.
And so I was just very muchlike, give me the book.
And that's "A Witch's Guideto Magical Innkeeping,"
which is by Sangu Mandanna
who also wrote "Very SecretSociety of Irregular Witches"
which I loved.
So, I was a little like,
okay, we've got anothersame kind of vibes,
(08:35):
I'm very hyped about this,what if it's not good?
Or what if it's not as good?
And then I didn't have to worry about it
because it was better.
(all laughing)
And that's saying something,I loved "Very Secret Society."
So, for me to come back and then say,
yeah, and I liked this one more, huge.
It is about Sera Swan whois like super powerful witch
(08:57):
and then brings her,
I think it's her greataunt back from the dead
and loses most of her power.
- [Nicole] Oh, no.
- [Killian] And getsexiled from her guild.
So, it kind of like messes upher whole trajectory in life.
So, she becomes this very, like we,
you see a lot of grumpy sunshine romances?
(09:19):
This is kind of likegrumpy and also grumpy,
just different grumpy.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] And it's very cute
and very fun, but there's also, it's cozy,
but there are some stakesto the things going on.
And there is this wonderfulassortment of side characters
who are all weird andzany in their own ways.
(09:42):
And I just loved it all somuch, I just kept reading it.
As soon as I got around topicking it up, I was just like,
okay, and we're readingand I'm doing nothing else
until I finished this book.
- [Nicole] Mm-hmm.
- [Killian] And, yeah.
- [Nicole] Do you thinkit's set up for a sequel?
- [Killian] I don't think so.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] A lot ofpeople were looking at this
to be something of a sequelto "Very Secret Society."
(10:03):
And I don't think eitherof them is intended to be,
they're supposed to be more-
- [Nicole] Standalone-- [Kikllian] A moment in time,
type of things.- [Nicole] Cool.
- [Killian] But I wouldn't say no.
(all laughing)- [Nicole] Yeah, right.
Okay, well, the bookthat I enjoyed this year
was "The Black Slide" by J.W. Ocker.
This is a middle grade kids book.
(10:24):
Well, it might be a littlebit upper middle grade,
I would say.
And the reason for that isgoing to become very clear.
So, it is a horror book,
and I mean, it is a horror book.
Like this is like not even playing around.
And I kind of love that
because I think kids need horror too.
Anyway, getting into how this story goes,
(10:48):
there is a slide thatshows up on the playground
at this boy's school.
His name is Griffin.
And he's always in this classroom that he,
what does he call it?
Ah, I can't remember.
Anyway, he's always in this classroom
that always looks out onto the playground
(11:09):
and he thinks of it as liketorture because he is like,
oh, I just wanna be outside so bad,
why am I stuck in this classroom?
Well, he notices this slide appears
and it's an ominous looking slide.
It's not a normal looking slide,
like one that you might want to go down.
It has like blackleather-ish sort of outsides.
(11:30):
They look like bat wingsand it looks spooky.
And then he sees somebody,
no, he's actually thefirst person to go down it.
Okay, he gets asked to godown the slide by a bully.
The bully is like, I will leave you alone,
I'll not beat you up anymoreif you go down the slide.
So, Griffin's like, okay,I'm gonna go down the slide.
(11:51):
He goes down the slide andendures this horrific torture
to which it seems almost never ending,
like months have gone by.
- [Drew] Oh, my God.
- [Nicole] And then he is ejected out
the bottom of thisslide with a broken arm.
Okay, fast forward into thefuture, he goes back to school
(12:11):
and he's got his eye on theslide because he's like,
there's something wrong with this slide-
- [Drew] You think?
- [Nicole] Yeah, I do-- [Killian] That's probably fine.
- [Nicole] He startsnoticing like other children
from school muttering tothemselves and going up the slide.
Only they go down the slideand never come back again.
(12:32):
So, he decides he's gonna go after,
'cause like his best friendis going down the slide
and he gets draggeddown the slide with her
and he ends up in thishellscape, literal hellscape.
It is like the "Hellraiser" movies.
It is insane.
There are these people that live there
(12:52):
with like weird bald heads
and they've got very strange features
and everything is about pain and torture.
Like, they can't even leave a room.
Like, I'm gonna open thedoor and go through the door.
Nope, it's not like that.
They have to stand in atorture ray for however long
and then they have to passthat to get into the next room.
(13:15):
And that's just like a startof what this place is like.
It's insane.
- [Drew] Incredible.
- [Nicole] It's insane.- [Drew] This is middle grade?
- [Nicole] This is,
well, so one of my coworkersread the book and was like,
yeah, this isn't gonna befor like the fourth grader.
- [Drew] Nope.
(all laughing)
- [Nicole] So, we put it under Y Fiction
instead of J Fiction, which just means
(13:36):
that it's for like theupper end of middle grade.
Anyway, I highly recommendthis book even for grownups.
Like I know severaladults that have read it
and they're like, wow, this is amazing.
So, good job on "The Black Slide."
- [Drew] J.W. Ocker also wrotea couple of nonfiction books
that we've purchased for the library.
- [Nicole] Oh, okay.
- [Drew] "Cursed Objects" and"United States of Cryptids."
(13:58):
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Where it's a litany
of exactly that cursed objectsor US cryptids going on tours
around the country and talking
about (crosstalk) those things
or, you know, the urban legendsaround some of the world's
most famous cursed objects.
- [Nicole] Sure.- [Drew] Really interesting.
- [Nicole] That sounds really cool.
(14:18):
Anyway, he's sort of likeClive Barker in a way.
If you guys have read Clive Barker,
and Clive Barker doeshave kids' books also,
which is interesting.
But yeah, like if you'rereally into horror,
this is probably a good one.
- [Drew] Nice.- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] Speaking of descents into hell.
(all laughing)
- [Nicole] Tell me more.
(14:40):
- [Drew] The next one Igrabbed was "Katabasis."
"Katabasis."- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] However youpronounce it by R.F. Kuang.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Love her.
She wrote "Babel," "Yellowface,"
a lot of really, really good books.
But this book is two graduate students
in a magical university
(15:00):
whose grad professor has just passed away
through a failed magic experiment.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] And the two of them team up
to open a portal tohell to go and find him
to get letters of recommendation
for their next path in life.
- [Nicole] Oh, my gosh, really?- [Drew] Yes.
(15:22):
- [Nicole] Wow.
- [Drew] Because without thesign off of their thesis,
they can't continue on
in their-- [Nicole] Oh my goodness.
- [Drew] Their lives and you know,
what they wanted their lives to be.
- [Nicole] Wow.
- [Drew] And it's, you know, straight up,
Emily would've loved it.
- [Nicole] I can imagine, yeah.
- [Drew] Because it is, youknow, the circles of hell,
(15:42):
you go through each one in stages.
- [Nicole] So, very Dante's "Inferno."- [Drew] Exactly.
- [Nicole] Okay, cool.
- [Drew] And they are, youknow, research students.
So, they went down withtheir detailed notes
on all of the various depictions of hell
and are trying to navigate themselves
based on what theprevious people have said.
(16:04):
- [Nicole] Wow.- [Drew] Really fascinating.
- [Nicole] Oh, that sounds so good.- [Drew] So, intricately researched.
- [Nicole] Yeah, that sounds great.- [Drew] A lot of fun.
- [Nicole] Very cool.
- [Killian] I don't haveanything horrifying on my list.
- [Nicole] That's okay,
because I'm gonna add some more horror.
(all laughing)
- [Killian] This has been my cozy era,
and I'm okay with that, so-
- [Nicole] We are okaywith it too, Killian.
(16:26):
(all laughing)
- [Killian] Sometimes thingsjust need to be soft fun.
(all laughing)
So, the next book isactually a three-book series
that I read in a rather quick succession
that was only broken out bythe fact that the third one
hadn't come out yet.
And that is the "Adenashire"series by J. Penner.
(16:48):
It starts with "A Fellowshipof Bakers & Magic,"
which is very "Dungeons & Dragons" meets
"The Great British Bake Off."
And it's very cool.
It's very just fantasycreatures and baking.
And there's a littlebit of stuff going on,
(17:08):
and you meet all of thesecharacters in the first book,
and then the next booksin the series focus
on a different character from that group.
And they're, you know, romance and their,
life in their, interests.
And so you get to learn moreabout these side characters.
And that's, so what I get into,I love a good side character
(17:29):
that we then get to learn more about
and see them as a main character,
and still see the maincharacters that we've loved
as side characters doing other things.
So, the first three booksof it, like I said, are out.
The one that just came out
is "A Fellowship of Games & Fables."
And that is a very likewinter holiday esque one,
(17:49):
so it's very good for this time of year.
But there's two othersthat have been written
that just haven't beentraditionally published yet.
And I am going to needmatching copies of these
for the ones that I have.
So, I do need to, I need that release date
because I can't find it anywhere.
- [Nicole] Oh, my gosh.- [Killian] But I'm very excited
to keep reading within that world.
(18:11):
- [Nicole] Cool, that sounds great.
I got an advanced readercopy of Joe Hill's new book.
- [Drew] Oh, wow.
- [Nicole] And then I wasn'tallowed to talk to anybody
about it, which is like a whole thing.
But anyway, so it did come out this year,
it is called "King Sorrow."
Joe Hill is a mastermind and I love him.
(18:33):
We've talked extensively aboutJoe Hill on this podcast.
- [Drew] He's come up from time to time.
- [Nicole] Yeah, from time to time.
This book was really interesting.
It is a chonky book.
And I think that there was a point
when I was reading likethe ebook version of it
where I was like, oh, this is wrapping up,
(18:53):
and then it did, I mean, no,not even close to wrapping up.
Like it was like, oh, wait,now there's 35 more things
that you have to like, you know, consider.
Anyway, so this is about acharacter named Arthur Oaks,
and he is a student atRackham College in Maine.
Of course, Maine.
- [Drew] As always.- [Nicole] You know?
(19:14):
So, he is madly in lovewith this woman named Gwen
and is shattered when a local drug dealer
and her partner corner him
in one of the worst crimes that he can,
oh, corner him into one of theworst crimes he can imagine.
So, let me just get,do a little backstory.
(19:36):
His mother is in prisonbecause she's an activist.
And when she was planninga peaceful protest,
someone got killed andshe was blamed for it,
so she's in prison.
Now, this drug dealer knowsthat his mother's in prison
(19:57):
and her mother is also in the same prison.
So, she has like this kind of like this,
well, there's influence there, right?
So, she's basically like,you're gonna steal this book
from the rare bookcollection at your college,
or I'm gonna have yourmom killed in prison.
(20:19):
And he's like, whoa.
Like, oh, my God, thisis like the worst thing
that could possibly happen, right?
Anyway, so he ends up getting this book,
not realizing that this bookis like made from human skin,
et cetera, et cetera.
It ends up being a whole thing.
He invites his friendsto kind of help him get
(20:41):
through this situationwith this drug dealer.
And they're all a very interestinggroup of people as well,
highly intelligent, some havea lot of wealth and power,
and so there's a lot ofcomeuppance and that kind of thing.
All right, let's get to "King Sorrow."
All right, so there's ametaphysical aspect to the story,
of course, because it's not Joe Hill,
(21:03):
unless there's ghosts andgoblins and whatever else.
They have like this ritual wherethey bring a dragon to life
whose name is King Sorrow.
And the whole thing about the dragon
is that they have to offer asacrifice to him every year.
(21:26):
And the group of people is like,
well, we'll just offer likethe worst people in humanity,
like this horrible personthat killed a bunch of kids
at a local elementary school.
- [Drew] Sure.- [Nicole] We'll just put him up.
And so King Sorrow divesin, takes care of business
and usually walks away with other people
kind of in tow in the situation.
(21:48):
So, there's this kind ofinteresting back thing
where like he's dealing withtrying to keep his mother safe,
but now he's unleashedthis horrible dragon demon
onto the world and theyhave to keep feeding him
like a person.
And sometimes the peoplethat they feed him,
they don't realize it, butthey might have been innocent.
(22:08):
And there's a lot ofmorality issue in play
kind of happening in the story.
Anyway, super good.
It was very well done.
You get to know each one of the characters
really, really well, andthey all have very severe,
like, serious issues.
Every single one of themhas a serious issue.
So, anyway, I highlyrecommend "King Sorrow."
(22:28):
- [Drew] I do wish you could all have seen
the frown on Killian's facewhen the human skin came up.
- [Nicole] Oh, human skin.
(all laughing)
You're not into human skin, are you?
- [Drew] Under veryspecific circumstances,
sure, human skin is fine.
(all laughing)
- [Nicole] All right.- [Drew] Okay.
My third that I brought iscalled "Winging It with You"
(22:50):
by Chip Pons.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] It is a contemporary romance
where a guy who has been withhis partner for three years,
they decide to sign upfor a fictional version
of "The Amazing Race" together.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] And then in the airport,
on the way to the starting gate,
(23:13):
the partner quits andsays he can't do this
and means both the competitionand the relationship.
Just dumps him in the airport
on the way.- [Nicole] Oh, boy, okay.
- [Drew] So, he is drowning his sorrows
with margaritas and mozzarellasticks in the Chili's
in the airport as one does,
and meets a pilot who wasjust grounded by his airline
(23:38):
for I think three weeks
because he'd beenoverworking himself and not,
you know, following thework-life balance guidelines
that you need to, you know, be a pilot
and control an entire plane.
- [Nicole] Right.- [Drew] So, he signs on
to be the partner andthey're gonna, the fake date,
and convince America thatthey are madly in love.
(24:02):
- [Nicole] Oh, my goodness.- [Drew] While just getting
to know each other
in this really stressfulcompetition circumstance.
- [Nicole] Sure, sure.
Well, that sounds fun.- [Drew] Super cute, super fun.
- [Nicole] Yeah, thatsounds really fun, cool.
- [Drew] Throw a little bit of levity in
other than Killian's.
(Killian laughing)
- [Killian] I'm gonna, it'sme going, I have so many,
(24:24):
and what do I wanna talk about?
I'm gonna talk about "The River Has Roots"
because I-- [Nicole] Oh, I love that book.
- [Killian] Really loved this one.
And it's so short,
and it's so good and it'sso lyrical in the writing.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] But it'salso one of those things
that had a really bizarreconnection for me.
(24:45):
It is based on the balladof "The Twa Sisters,"
which has been retold in severaldifferent ways over time.
But my first ever exposure toit was in Patricia C. Wrede's
the "Book of Enchantment."
She has this short story version and it's,
you know, this pair of sisters,
(25:06):
one is jealous of theother, so she kills her
and then her bones getused to make a harp.
And the person who makesthis harp ends up going
and performing at the homeof these sisters' family.
And the harp then sings whathappened to this daughter.
- [Nicole] It's pretty great.
It's wild.
(25:26):
- [Killian] It might've mildlyscarred middle school me.
I have a really weirdrelationship with this story
because the time I that I just went,
this is horrific and Ihate it, and oh, my gosh.
So, if I had known that thiswas a retelling of that,
would I have read it?
I don't know.
(25:46):
But I did read it becausewithout having that connotation,
it just sounded interesting.
It's very based in fairylore and things like that.
And I don't wanna say too much,
'cause again, it's only 105 pages,
but it is about a pair of sisters
who rather than likebeing hateful and jealous
towards one another arehave a very strong bond.
(26:09):
And it's about how thatbond ties 'em together,
even through death and things going on
and the things that happen throughout life
that can pull people apart.
So, like I said, I have ahard time talking about it
without giving away toomuch, but just go read it,
it's 105 pages.
- [Nicole] And it's reallybeautifully put together too-
(26:30):
- [Killian] And these illustrations.- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] And it's lovely, nice.
- [Nicole] I'm gonnapop ahead to some media.
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] So, have you guysseen the movie "Sinners?"
- [Drew] Yes.- [Killian] No.
- [Nicole] You did watch it?
- [Drew] Mm-hmm.- [Nicole] Oh, my gosh-
- [Drew] So good.- [Nicole] It was like crazy.
I had, well, I saw the Trailerfor "Sinners" and I was like,
(26:50):
oh, my gosh, this looks really good.
This looks like my right up my alley.
- [Drew] Yeah.- [Nicole] And then of course
it was an evening whenmy husband was away,
so I put on my horrific movies
(all laughing)
and it was like perfect.
And I really, really loved it.
When I realized that thetwo brothers that were there
were like, they're twins obviously,
(27:12):
but it's just Mr. Jordan.
(all laughing)
So, "Sinners" is set in 1932in the Mississippi Delta
with Michael B. Jordanas these twin brothers.
And they are criminals.
They're kind of involved in bootlegging
and like some other things.
Apparently they had a stint inChicago where they were with,
(27:35):
they worked with Al Caponeor something like that,
I believe is what was said.
But anyway, they come hometo the Mississippi Delta
and they're really interested
in having this juke joint put together.
So, they find a place for it,
and they have to deal with rampant racism
because it's just the time.
But these are powerfulmen and are not interested
(27:57):
in what the KKK has to say to them.
It's pretty abundantly clear.
So, they get the boozeand they get the music,
and then they invite everybody,
and they have this crazy party.
But then the vampires showup, and things get wild.
I mean, wild from therebecause one person goes outside
(28:21):
and the next thing you know,
they're a vampire andthey're asking to be let in.
Like, it's crazy.
Yeah, It was enjoyable.
I loved it.- [Drew] That was a great time.
- [Nicole] The music was amazing.
The characters are just wonderful.
And I mean, who doesn'tlike a vampire flick?
So, yeah.
(28:43):
- [Drew] Cool, I'm gonna quickly talk
about two pieces of media.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Because they'reboth relatively short.
Surprise, one is another Hockey romance.
- [Nicole] Oh. my gosh.
(Drew laughing)
- [Drew] The TV show "Heated Rivalry."
As of recording, onlytwo episodes are out,
as of episode release, onlyfour episodes will be out.
It is so good.- [Nicole] Is it?
- [Drew] It is so faithful to the books.
(29:06):
The actors are fantasticboth in the roles,
but also in the press tour of it.
It had this whole likegrassroots movement behind it
because it's a Canadian production.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] So, for the longest time,
all of their advertisingwas, you know, only on Crave
and we'll figure out internationalrelease at some point.
(29:29):
Who knows?
Everyone was scramblingon how to watch it,
and then about 10 days beforeit released they announced,
oh, it's actually justgoing to be streaming
on HBO Max as well.
- [Nicole] Oh.
- [Drew] So, everyone ranto get their HBO accounts.
Black Friday was veryfavorable to us in that sense.
(29:50):
The hype around the show is very deserved.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] It is so much fun.
And then the other one that I really loved
was the season of "Celebrity Traitors UK"
that just happened.
- [Nicole] "Celebrity Traitors?"
- [Drew] Yes.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] So, "The Traitors" game format
is very similar to Mafia or Werewolf,
(30:12):
where you have people in,
you have a group of people,
but secretly two or three of them
are the evil people of the group.
So, every day the groupvotes for who they think
might be a traitor ora werewolf or whoever.
And then at night the remainingtraitors banish someone
(30:32):
from the castle.
Obviously one of thefaithful in that sense
because the traitorswouldn't banish themselves.
- [Nicole] Right.- [Drew] So, you slowly whittle
the group down of thislike social suspicion game.
And when the US does celebrity versions,
all of the people who arein it are like gamers.
They're people from"Survivor" and "Big Brother"
(30:53):
and "Challenge."- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] And I love that world too.
It's, you know,
one of my main worlds.- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Drew] But "The CelebrityTraitors UK" brought in
like comedians and talk show hosts.
- [Nicole] Okay, so anybody we know?
- [Drew] Celia Imrie did it.
- [Nicole] I'm not familiar, are you?
- [Killian] Mm-mm.- [Nicole] No?
(31:14):
- [Drew] Tom Daley was in it.- [Nicole] Oh, okay.
- [[Drew] Alan Ross-- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Was in it.
It's a lot of fun, likequintessentially British people,
but because they didn't bringin like these heavy gamers
who were there for the win-
- [Nicole] Right.- [Drew] And brought in
these like lighterpersonalities, so much fun.
(31:34):
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Drew] Such a fun game.
- [Nicole] Oh, cool, very nice.- [Drew] Yeah.
Can't recommend enough,ended up on Peacock.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] For streaming.
- [Nicole] Great.- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] All right, Killian,
I know you wanna talkabout this, let's do it.
- [Killian] So, I brought a video game,
the game "Tiny Bookshop"came out this year.
And this is a game that Ihad been looking forward to.
I added it to my Steam wishlistthe second I heard about it.
(31:57):
Because the entire premiseof this game is that you are,
you have left, you know, some,
I don't even rememberwhat it is you've left,
but you've decided you'regoing to go, you know,
leave everything behind andopen this tiny mobile bookstore
in a small seaside town.
So, as you play, you startwith very little to work with.
(32:19):
You can only go to one location.
You have very little rangein terms of shelving.
You get your books throughlike sales in the newspaper,
it's all secondhand book sales.
So, you're buying booksfrom the newspaper,
from the flea marketto resell in your shop.
And you're just, each day you decide
(32:41):
what genres you're gonna putout and the customers come
and they look and they'llbuy things and they'll leave.
And sometimes they'llask for a recommendation,
which, you know, that isone of my favorite things
about my job.
And so I'm okay withit being in this game.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah, yeah.- [Killian] It doesn't feel too much
like I'm taking work home.
But the really cool thing is,
when you pick the books to stock,
(33:02):
you are picking which genres you put in.
And they're big broad genre categories.
You'll have fantasy, you'llhave kids, you have crime,
drama, classics, fact and travel,
but you have sub genres within that
that you can't select exactly.
So, within travel,
you also have a lot oflike hobby or cookbooks.
Within fantasy, you alsohave science fiction,
(33:25):
you have some kids books that are,
you can find them in the fantasy genre,
but also in the kidsgenre, things like that.
Drama is plays and,
but also, you know, YA romances
and adult romances and things like that.
So, when you go into your story
and you start making your recommendation,
you kind of go through the books
(33:46):
and it'll give you the titlein a little description.
And you didn't know whatyou were stocking before,
so you couldn't stockspecific, specific genres,
you could only stalk the broad categories.
But the characters will come in
and they'll ask you something.
And some of these asksare really contradictory.
They're hard to like figure out,
and sometimes you don'thave the right book.
But you make a recommendation if you can,
or you tell 'em that you can't.
(34:07):
And it's just you build,
you start getting different locations
and you start meeting thepeople who live in this town.
And you get like theselittle individual stories
from all these charactersand it's very cool.
It uses real books.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] So, there aresome books that were created
just for this game,
(34:27):
but there's also a lot ofreal life books that you know,
"A Wrinkle In Time" is in there.
There's, I know there'sa few "Manga" in there,
including "Sailor Moon" is in there.
I'm off the top of my head what is there.
There's really recent thingslike Ali Hazelwood romances,
just a bunch of things.
So, that is really cool.
(34:49):
You can kind of get recommendations
for yourself as you play.
And that's the thing isthe devs for this game
set up a Discord server.
They've really built acommunity around the game
where it's people, yes,talking about the game
and like getting helpwith things that are like,
that they're strugglingwith or things like that.
But also just talking about books
(35:10):
and giving each otherbook recommendations.
And then the community started going,
oh, well, I think thisbook should be in the game,
that book should be in the game.
And they eventually opened it up,
they created a Book Councilof people to recommend books
to be added in the next update,
which that's a processthat's been ongoing.
And in the next update there will be,
I think it's like 1,000 new books going in
(35:33):
between all of the peoplewho are involved with that.
And it's across different,so they won't all go
into like every version of the game.
But it's very cool.
It's very cool to have like the community
have a say in it like that.
And yeah, once that update comes out,
keep an eye on the credits for that.
(all laughing)
(35:54):
- [Nicole] Well, as usual,
if any of you audiencemembers have anything
that you really loved in 2025,
feel free to email us and let us know.
We would love to hear what you loved.
And that wraps up ourlist of the best books
and media of 2025.
Stick around to hear some suggestions
from our fellow staff members at BTPL.
(36:17):
Also check out our postsabout "Distracted Librarians"
on our website at btpl.org
and get more suggestions from staff.
And we'll see you next time.
- [Amanda] Hi, this is Amanda
from the Adult and TeenServices Department.
I have two books to recommendfor my best of 2025.
(36:37):
The first is "Second Life:
Having a Child in theDigital Age" by Amanda Hess.
This book is for someone who is a parent,
especially a mother and/orsomeone who is interested
in how the internet is weird.
And we all know it's so, so weird.
(37:00):
Amanda Hess managed to pullapart the dissonant nature
of becoming a motherand then being barraged
by companies marketing to you.
So, you have on the onehand this very physical,
sacred, special and very personal event
(37:23):
of being pregnant and having a child.
And on the other hand
you have maternityclose companies and apps
and companies trying tosell you all sorts of stuff
in a way that really feelslike the two things clash.
(37:43):
There's a lot of funny moments
such as when instead ofcomparing a growing fetus
to a piece of fruit,
which is very classic for a pregnant mom,
you have companies marketingobjects to you and comparing,
(38:03):
say, your growing fetus to a hip pack.
And here's a link to whereyou can buy it for 99.95.
Many moments like that,
and all the while they'recollecting your information,
including really personal medical data,
especially if you are using an app.
(38:26):
And there's a lot ofcomplicated feelings around it.
And I think Amanda Hess did a great job
of detailing those and unpacking those.
So, highly recommend thatis a 2025 publication.
My other recommendation is"Nobody Ever Told Me Anything"
by Rachael "Steak" Finley.
This is actually a 2022 memoir.
(38:48):
Rachael "Steak" Finley
is a blogger from the early aughts,
from the time of when Tumblrwas in its sort of emergence.
And she tells about herchildhood in Florida
when she was 11 years oldand her mother neglected
(39:08):
and then unfortunately abandoned her,
and she was living squatting
in a Florida vacation rental.
She had a ton ofperseverance as a young kid,
pretty much taking care of herself.
And obviously she has a lot of trauma
(39:29):
that she sort of unpacks
and talks about how she canthen go on and raise herself
in a lot of ways and become an adult.
And how she navigated adulthood
without that solid backgroundor foundation as a child.
The thing that I lovedabout this, it's not,
(39:52):
even though there's a lot of hardship,
it's not super trauma heavy.
Really where I think Rachael Finley excels
is she uses plain language.
You aren't going to thismemoir thinking like,
oh, I can tell this person has an MFA.
No, this is a really,from a blogger standpoint,
and I think it was really refreshing to me
(40:13):
after reading so many memoirsthat were heavy in metaphor
and heavy in descriptionand all these things.
I thought that thiswas really a beautiful,
succinct and plainly stated,but not simple memoir.
So, "Nobody Ever Told Me Anything."
(40:35):
I recommend them both and check 'em out.
- [Linden] Hi, I'm Lindenfrom administration
and I'm an administrative assistant.
Last year I was so excited to participate
and share my opinion of thethings I enjoyed from that year.
And then I learned thatI hadn't actually read
any books written that year,
and I made it one of myNew Year's resolutions
(40:56):
to read a couple books thathad been published that year.
So, I'm excited to sharewhat I encountered this year.
One of the books I foundalmost by happenstance
is "Bat Eater and OtherNames for Cora Zeng."
This is by Kylie Lee Baker.
And it was a perfectstorm of horror, mystery,
(41:19):
a little bit of gore.
And also it raised alot of awareness for me
of things that people ofChinese culture experience
in this country.
But it's available in large print,
it's in the traditional book form
and it's also availableon audio through Hoopla,
which is how I experienced it.
This book is creepy, it's suspenseful.
(41:41):
You learn a lot about Hungry ghosts,
which is a cultural phenomena in Asia
that's pretty fascinating andI was really surprised by it
and highly recommend checking it out.
The antithesis of thatbook, but equally good
was "Raising Hare" by Chloe Dalton,
which is a memoir of a woman in England
(42:01):
who literally raised a wild hare.
And it's a gentle book and thoughtful
with interesting observations,
not only of a wild creature,but also the changing landscape
and how that relates to the environment
and how creatures need to be protected,
and all life needs to be protected.
But it's just sothoughtful and interesting.
(42:24):
It's the kind of book youcan tuck into bed with
and share with your friends.
The book that I also encountered this year
that I have been recommending to everyone
is "The Book of Alchemy"by Suleika Jaouad.
And she also wrote a wonderful memoir,
I think it's called"Between Two Kingdoms."
(42:45):
But "The Book of Alchemy"is 100 very short essays
by people that are very well known
and people you may not have heard of.
And they're from all walks of life,
from countries all overthe world, all ages.
And each of the essaysis only a page or two,
but at the end of each essay
is a gentle prompt to promote journaling.
(43:08):
Now, you could enjoy thisas a book that you just read
as a quick thing before you settle in,
but I have been using itas a journaling prompt
and it's been a very interesting exercise.
There are times when I wannathrow the book across the room
because the prompts are rather difficult
and not what I wanna do.
And other times I havefound them literally
very perspective changing andit's just been very enjoyable.
(43:29):
And I highly recommend"The Book of Alchemy."
I wanna do a couple shoutouts to the other things
that I encountered this year,
which is "Sunrise on the Reaping,"
which is the latest in the Mockingbird.
Sorry, shoot, wow, I'mcompletely blanking.
- "Mockingjay."- "Mockingjay," thank you.
The "Mockingjay" series,which I also really love
(43:51):
by Suzanne Collins in this latest edition,
which is the fifth,
comes from the perspectiveof Harper Abernathy.
And it's available on Hoopla
and is wonderful in that format on audio.
And the book, "The Catch" by Yrsa Daley
is an interesting fictionwith multiple narrators
that is again, unsettlingand you never know quite
(44:12):
what will happen and was a good read.
And last year I mostly recommended music,
and my highlight album of the year
was Wet Leg's latestrelease "Moisturizer."
Thanks so much for listening.
- [Heather] Hi, this is Heather.
I am a Page in Youth Services.
I'm one of the ones that shelve the books,
(44:34):
and the book I would like togive a shout out to this year
is "My Kitchen Year" by Ruth Reichl.
If I botched that, I apologize.
And I want to shout out to it
because it kind of gotme through Thanksgiving.
My mom's been ill, soI wound up doing a lot
or most of the cooking,
and while I like tobake and I like to eat,
(44:57):
dunno if I'm such a cook, buther recipe for corn muffins
and a simple recipe for Brussels sprouts
helps make Thanksgiving not bad.
I had to amend (chuckles)the Brussels sprout recipe
(45:18):
to use cabbage, but Istill had a framework
to cook something with, so I enjoyed that.
And what I like about this book,
besides faith that it got me through,
is that it's part cookbook part memoir.
She was also going througha not great time in her life
and cooking and baking and foodin general got her through.
(45:42):
Everybody eats 'cause we can'tphotosynthesize just yet.
But up until the last few months,
I've never really thoughtabout all the cooking
and the prepping that goes with it
and kind of following her,going through the seasons,
cooking and enjoying it,
I don't know if I say I'menjoying all this right now,
but the cooking and cookingwith somebody and food being,
(46:09):
not just the eatingitself, but the process.
The process of cooking, theprocess of finding things,
that's been helpful right now.
So, this, so yes, "My Kitchen Year,"
which I'm also readingfor our cookbook club.
Shout out to that and I hope one day
(46:29):
to actually own this book for myself.
But yes, "My Kitchen Year."
Thanks for listening.
Bye.
- [Nicole] Thank you forjoining us for this episode
of "Distracted Librarians."
- [Drew] Many thanks to BCTVfor their support in recording,
editing and releasing this podcast.
And to the friends of the library
for sponsoring closedcaptioning on every episode.
(46:49):
- [Killian] If you have anyquestions or suggestions,
feel free to reach out tous at distracted@btpl.org.
- [Amanda] Until then,keep those pages turning
and those screens lighting up.
We'll catch you in the next episode.
- [Emily] The views and opinions expressed
in "The Distracted Librarians" podcast
do not necessarily reflectthose of Bloomfield Township,
(47:11):
Bloomfield Township Public Library,
Bloomfield Community Television,
the Birmingham Area Cable Board,
or its producers or production staff.
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