Inside Gone Before Goodbye: How Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben co-wrote their new suspense novel
October 28, 2025 • 35 mins
This may be a peak Bookmarked conversation — It’s got joy, surprises, a strong female lead, best-selling energy, and our Book-Lover-in-Chief, Reese Witherspoon. On this live Bookmarked episode, recorded at the Apple SoHo Store in New York City, Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben introduce the world to their first collaboration — and the thriller of the season — Gone Before Goodbye. They talk about stepping toward creative fear, what their writing process was like, and the many real-life inspirations behind their heroine, Maggie McCabe. This live recording was made in partnership with Apple Books, where you can read and listen to the audiobook of Gone Before Goodbye, voiced by Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine.
BOOKS MENTIONED:
Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben
Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens
The Measure of Our Success by Marian Wright Eastman
Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
Poems and Prayers by Matthew McConaughey
My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club is presented by Apple Books. Hi,
I'm Danielle Robe. Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese's book Club.
This week we have what might be a peak Bookmarked
conversation about a peak bookmarked book. Okay, it has joy,
(00:22):
it has suspense, it has surprises, it has a strong
female lead, and it has best selling energy. And did
I mention it has the one and only Reese Witherspoon.
We are sharing a live Bookmarked podcast recording that took
place recently at the Apple so Hoos store in New
York City, and it's a conversation between Reese Witherspoon and
Harlan Coben, the collaborators and co writers of the thriller
(00:45):
of the season Gone Before Goodbye. We got to talk
to them on their actual pub day. And because we
announced pub days on the show, I just want to
share why they're such a celebration. Also because my mom
called me one week and asked me what a pub
day was. So pubday isn't just a release date. It's
when a story leaves the author's hands and finds its
(01:06):
readers after months or sometimes years of writing, rewriting, editing.
It is the moment that an author's story stops belonging
to them and starts belonging to everyone. It's ready to
be loved and shared and savored. So before we get
into this episode, I am really curious. Have you stayed
up all night reading Gone Before Goodbye yet? Because you
(01:28):
know I told you I was up until two am.
I could not put it down. And I'm dying to
know what you think. So send me a little voice
memo at bookmark at Reese's book Club dot com. That's
bookmark at Reese's book Club dot com. And if you
share yours, I'll share mine. Okay. In the meantime, if
you're looking for a conversation that will inspire you to
(01:49):
take a leap to try something new while sending chills
down your spine, you are in the right place. Let's
turn the page with Reese, Witherspoon and heartn Covina. Thank
you so much. Welcome everyone, It's so exciting to do
(02:11):
this live at this gorgeous space at the Apple Soho
store in New York City with our partners at Apple Books.
We are celebrating the release of Gone Before Goodbye. It's
the first collaborative suspense novel by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Covin.
And if that's not exciting enough, it is actually their
(02:33):
pub day. Their book is out into the world. It's official,
So now you can officially say that you were here
at the beginning. Reese and Harlan have shaped how millions
of us read, watch, and experience stories. Reese has built
Hello Sunshine into a storytelling powerhouse. Her book Club alone
(02:57):
has turned over seventy titles into bestsellers and adaptations. And
Harlan his books have sold over eighty million copies and
he's one of Netflix's most adapted authors. Who what do
you get when two of the most influential storytellers in
the world join forces. Well, I was lucky enough to
(03:19):
get an advanced reader copy, and I can tell you
you get something totally unexpected and a little dangerous. You
also get a heroine who is both relatable and aspirational.
So Maggie McCabe is a brilliant Army combat surgeon and
her life starts to unravel after tragedy and the loss
(03:40):
of her medical license. She's thrust into the world of
the ultra wealthy. And I'm not going to spoil anything.
It gets pretty twisty from there. So please give me
a big New York City warm welcome, Ese Witherspoon and
Harlan coven.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Thank you, Van y'all. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
From that, I always say welcome to the club, but
it feels sort of silly because it's your club race.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
But it's different. It's different being an author, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
As an actor for so many years, I would always
walk into other people stories. So the script was already ready,
or it was based on a book that was already written.
And this was the first time I had an idea
for a character and I thought, Okay, I'm gonna give
it away. I'll give it to somebody and have them
write a movie or and then I thought, wait a second,
why don't I try I've worked in worlds where that
(04:31):
I've watched people do this.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I've read so many books.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I was a huge fan of Harlan Covid, and I
read all his thrillers, and I thought, well, why don't
I give it a shot, you know, and try to
write up my thought.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You're always pushing forward into this stuff that feels so
scary for so many people. I love that first line.
It gave me chills when I read it. You guys wrote,
I don't hear the scream. I always feel like you
remember your first everything, like your first concert, your frien
first kiss. I'm not going to ask you about your
first kiss, but that first line made me feel like
(05:05):
you guys wanted to say something. Harlan, what were you
trying to make the reader feel at that moment?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I think we wanted to get writ in the story
right away. Both Reesa and I are storytellers, and while
a lot of fancy things we'll talk about today, we
also want this to be the book that tonight. You
take the bed at eleven o'clock and you think you're
going to read for ten minutes. Yeah, and next thing
you know, it's four in the morning and you're cursing
us out, but you're also deliriously happy. You know that
feeling when you're immersed in a book and you can't
(05:32):
put it down. It's kind of your whole world. We
both love feeling that, and the idea that we may
give that experience to somebody else's the coolest feeling in
the world.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I heard you both at Shinaway this weekend, and Reese,
you said that you called Harlan, and you had this
amazing idea and you kind of pitched it over the phone.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, but I'm scared.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Boy. I don't know because he's never collaborated with anybody before,
and I was asking him basically to let me into
his secret writing worlds and that's really private for a
lot of authors and artists. So the fact that he
even just you know, entertaining the idea and then I
had to go and pitch my heart out to him
and it was it was great. It was scary too,
(06:15):
but he was so receptive and so open to it.
And he immediately started scribbling notes and I was like,
what's he doing?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Does that mean he likes it? Or does some like it?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
And I thought he was going to give me notes
and say, okay, well here's some really great thoughts and
good luck, and then I set at the very end,
after we talked for like an hour, I was like,
does that mean.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
So I wasn't just writing notes. We were riffing back
and like, okay, what if we take her and do this?
And then she would go, well and then over here
and I'm doing this And it was hours long, and
at the end of it we just were like oh yeah,
this is there was no question in my mind. I
was already totally in. I was wary when we spurs
(06:57):
called just because I'm not that guy. I don't I'm
not the collaborative guy. There's other guys were that collaborative guy.
I'm just that's just not me. And I didn't want
it to I didn't want anything that was gonna be
gimmicky or anything else. So recently said ground rules, right away,
we are going to write every word of this book.
There's not even a no taker in the room. It's
only going to be you and me. We have to
(07:17):
be obsessed. This has to be the best thing we did.
We do and we both became completely obsessed. We both
shared this vision of wanting what we want out of
this story. And so when we started saying the ideas
like dang, that's good man, I could do something with that.
And so you know, we started right away. That's how
you know. We just did Kelly Clarkson's show and Kelly
(07:40):
was saying, sometimes when she gets in a room with
somebody else to write a song, either happens or it
doesn't happen. I think we both knew right away that
this was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Was the riffing sort of indicative of your collaborative process.
Were you using notes? Did you send voice notes? What
was that like?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, we sent a lot of text messages. And I'm
kind of nerding about research. So I read all these books.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Memoirs about war surgeons, and there's trauma surgery and this
guy was like doctor and he got shot in head.
I was driving and he was like great.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
And I was like, it's not the thing that happened.
How he felt about it.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And so it was really fun doing the research on
longevity clinics in Dubai and trying to figure out cutting
edge technologies that were just on the cusp of happening.
Whether that was you know, certain kinds of.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
AI, plastic surgery, yeah, plastic.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
I want to explore grief, I mean also that was
the other thing that we talked a lot about. This
is a novel that deals with grief a lot, and
we both wanted to explore that as well.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I was curious about your research process because the details
were so vivid. It fell inside baseball and a really
fun way to read. I'm shocked that it was memoir
and it was such a deep dive Reese. I heard
that it was a little bit inspired from your dad
as well.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, my dad was a military surgeon in the Air Force.
So the first five years of my life I grew
up on a military base in Germany, and my mom
was a military nurse and then Air National Guard. So
I grew up kind of around a lot of army
surgeons and they would all talk at dinner parties and
at our house. But these surgeries, you know, helping soldiers
(09:30):
coming back from conflict, and I learned a lot about
just their dedication to helping say lives. But also I
thought it'd be really interesting to put a character like that.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
In a morally kind of vague world.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
So the ultra wealthy who can buy private surgery or
figure out how to get an organ donation, that's maybe
not the most ethical thing, and then put this really
principled character in that the cross roads of.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That she was living in, the contradictions a lot, which
was interesting to read about. I want to dig into
Maggie the protagonist more. She's a surgeon, she's a soldier.
She's caught between her husband Mark and their friend Trace.
And we actually have a clip from the audio book
and Reese, we get to hear your voice. Can we
play that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I haven't heard this day?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
How easy to say, they gee, Mark Trace created World
Cures Alliance for purely all truistic reasons. That had been
a good story Three calmbat doctors who saw any and
eschewed the comforts of home to save the needy and
revolutionize healthcare.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
But that felt too much like spin. To Maggie.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
It's not that you aren't genuinely concerned about your patients.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You acutely are, or don't believe in your mission.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
They did.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
But the terrible secret gret She and market Tree shared
is that you do it to be special.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Ooh, that's a good note to end up.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Maggie is such a fully formed character in that I
hear that she's feisty. I hear that she kind of
says the quiet part out loud. When you concepted her originally,
what were you thinking?
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Well.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Part of what Harlan and I have talked about was
I'd never seen a woman in kind of a James
Bond world and be the lead. I'd always seen a
girl in a James Bond movie sort of in a
bikini or stirring her drink and clining the poison in it.
But I've never seen her be kind of this very intuitive,
(12:11):
skilled person who navigates a really difficult situation.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
And I thought, well, that's who what I would be
if you put me in one of those movies.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I'm not going to be able to shrink the bad
guy or punch a guy out, you know, but I
would use what I had to my advantage. So that
was something we talked about before we even began.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
We wanted her to be real, I said, Teresa, she
doesn't be likable or nice or kind or any of that.
She has to be real and then people will relate
to her. And I think that's what we tried to do. Like, say,
she's not beating up six guys to escape the scene
when she goes out on the roof and just had
no idea how she's going to get out of it,
And I hope she does in a realisticly kind of way.
(12:49):
She's thinking the same way that we would be thinking.
You are in her head. We wanted that experience from
the reader very much.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Speaking of in her head, we know so much about
her interior life. I know that she is loyal, I
know that she likes her showers hot and her whiskey meat,
and after three hundred and thirty three pages, I have
no idea what she looks like. I don't even know
her hair color. Was that purposeful?
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Yes, we want you to put I always kind of
do that with leads. That's a TV or movie experience,
to see exactly what the person looks like. One of
the things recent I discussed we often get the question
about an adaptation, and maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't.
But the book has to be the book. If you
write a book thinking oh, this is going to make
a great movie or TV, it's the kiss of death.
(13:39):
We want the he just said, you get that interior life.
You can't get that in a movie. It's different. So
just different experience. I'm not saying one's better than the other,
but we have to give the people the best book experience.
Then we can worry about when we had if we
had adapt We worry about all of that later and
recent both understood that early on.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I was casting in my head, so was I Beside
the point, I don't think I'm allowed to ask you,
but maybe after I will. Okay, one scene Reese that
really stuck with me flipped the girl in the line
at the bathroom sort of stereotype on its head. It
was almost like a link to women, where parts of
(14:17):
Maggie inspired by women you knew for sure.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
And I'd have these interactions and I'd call Harlan immediately.
I was on vacation somewhere and I actually saw a
very young girlfriend of an older man crying in a
bathroom and I gave a comfort and without judgment, and
we talked about being safe. And I called Harlan and
I was like, that's the scene that we need to have.
It's not especially a female doctor. She wouldn't bring her
(14:42):
judgment to it first. She would bring this feeling of
care and safety in particularly it was for patient. So
as all as trying to lay a woman's perspective over
the character as well.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
There was one time when I asked Price very early on, well,
what would Maggie be wearing to go to this? And
I figured it would be like, you know, two words
in dress, and she went on a semi rant, which
all that's her did for you now, And I'm literally like,
slow down, I'm using every word of this in the book.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
So to tell them they should find this email but
it was like it's the worst day of her life
and she has to figure out what to wear to
a party that honors her mother, and she wants to
She's in her sweatpants, but she wansn't sink into the ground,
but she wants to wear practical shoes so that she
can walk and feel comfortable. But she also wants to
look pot together and like she has her life together.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
But she can't wear black because it's not a funeral.
But she shouldn't wear navy blue. Maybe navy blue.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
They can't be too long because that would be too formal,
and it can't be too short because that would be
too revocative. And you don't want to threaten other women.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
And the mental math.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
I'm watching all the women nod as you go as
you say all.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
This right, and that's I need to mention her hair
and makeup, like you're like, oh, am I going to
wash my hair?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Am I gonna make this blue out? Lost?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Like the kind of mental math you have to do
as a woman before you walk into any situation in
the world.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
And that was a whole other layer and we had
to put it.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I kept saying to Harlan, Okay, well, she's going to
go to a ball in Russia.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Where's she getting the clothes? She walks into a nightclub
in Dubai? What's she wearing?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And how did we get And we have to really
work out the logistics of like where would she get
a brand new oufit? But it was it was kind
of cool too, because I always wanted to make sure
that wasn't a barrier for her aunt, that we addressed
it in a way that women would go, what's she like?
It's the first thing you would think, what's she gonna wear?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
It's the first thing we and those decisions also informed
the character, so it really does everything has to do
work more than one thing. Can't just be a description
or a theme or setting. All those things have to
inform each other. And that's what I think one of
the things we learned in this experience.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So we learned that Maggie is based on a lot
of real women. Harlan, I've heard you say that there's
a lot of you in your books, Reese. Do you
see Harlan in this story?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Oh yeah, oh yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And then I start, well, first of all, he's known
for his epic twists, and you just I was so
lucky that I got to have a front row seat
because I think very linear linear. I think, oh, there's
the character and there's the conflict, we have to resolve it.
And he's like, no, we're gonna bury this story and
you're gonna think one thing, and then.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Probably a third of the book, I'm gonna give you
the biggest shock.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
There's a scene with a tattoo in it when you
first see a tattoo, and all my girlfriends called me
when they read it.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
They were like, the tattoo and you expect me to
go pick up the kids. I'm reading this in carpool
and I'm flipping out.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
So it's like that he would put that in there,
and that was like genius. And then he kept doing
that so it was always like we had it all
mapped out, but he would pulse out information in this
cliffhanger way, and it was it was fascinating to watch.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
You really don't expect the tattoo thing to meet. It's
a really good turn. There's a big theme in this
novel of trusting your instincts, and there's a moment where
Maggie finally trusts Hers and Reese. You have that now
very famous speech where you talk to everybody about women
in action films and you say like as if a
woman wouldn't know what to do. Yeah, is there a
(18:18):
story that both of you are comfortable sharing about a
moment where you trusted your own instincts and it really
changed something for you deciding to do.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
This with Reese Witherspoon. Yeah, it was, you know, I
will say, because it was nerve wracking. And I think
for both of us, we've have some we've had some
success in our careers and to and to sort of
we're taking a risk. We're both a little terrified right now.
I mean we are people won't love this book or
(18:48):
it's something new. And for Reese touch where you're writing
a novel. You can't hide when you write a novel,
and yet there's such a thrill. One of the things
that I was just saying in the back room to
Reese I really look forward to for her we're doing adaptation.
Whenever I get to do an adaptation is that first
day I go on set and I watch all these
actors and actresses and the cast and crew or bringing
(19:09):
it to life, and I think to myself, I had
this little idea in my house in New Jersey and
now all these people bring it to life, and now
you get to have that You've never had that before.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
No, I've done it for other people.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Yes, now you'll be able to sit there going wow,
I had this little idea and.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
That would be also crazy.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
It's such a cool it's such a cool thing, and
so I'm so happy to share that with Reese.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That's so cool.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
So shared experience with turn.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
What do you mean when you say that you can't
hide behind a novel, because I think most people would
expect the opposite. You feel like you can't hide behind nonfiction.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Oh no, Well, for example, if you're an actor, you
can blame the script. If you're a script, you blame
the actor. There's a maillion other people working on it.
You know, it was the producer's fault, it was it
was a studio's fault. There's a lot of people to blame.
This is us. We got no one else to blame.
You can blame us or love us for this. And
I personally that it's one of the things I love
about being a novel writer. It's like you're you know,
(20:04):
you're a golfer with no coach or tennis player. You
can't go blame in anybody else. There's no referees here
or anything like that. So I'm scaring you. So this
is fun. So this is this is this is a
new thing, and it's fun and it's it's exciting. And
I love the fact that at our age or whatever,
not that I'm a lot older than Reese, but that
(20:24):
we're willing to still do new things. And it's reminding me.
One of Reese's first book picks, we'd say this, I
think to inspire people. One of her main ones is
when the craw Dad Sings by Dealey Owens. She was
seventy when that book came out. You were never too late.
I'm not going to be an NBA player anymore. That
dreams over. But anybody out of here could be a
published writer, or write a screenplay or direct a movie.
(20:46):
It's never really too late. And this is kind of
a reminder to us to always keep pushing ourselves.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
To Reese, did trusting your instincts come naturally to you
or is it something that you've harnessed over the years.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Well, I think it got better.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I mean, I was a very nervous young woman when
I first started in the movie business. Because, as I
said before, my parents were in the medical field in
the military.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
They thought I was nuts. They were like, what are
you doing?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
And you're picking this unstable path. And for a long
time I thought I was going to be a doctor.
So I started making movies when I was fourteen. But
I had to just keep well. First of all, I
just had to keep going, and a little success starts
to build on itself, and you start to build confidence. Right,
But confidence came from doing and sometimes failing, but learning
(21:35):
for my mistakes, but then learning a little bit better,
doing a little bit better, making better decisions, better partnerships,
being brave enough to call somebody who's amazing at what
they do and go would you ever think about this?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You know? I think sometimes I think about that.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
For women to think brave enough to make that call,
that first move is really hard because you think why me,
Like why would they ever? But you never know, you know.
So I think I've become more bold as I've gotten
a little older.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I like hearing that, yeah, I'm only in the seat
because I took a shot and made a call.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
You're the best, Danielle. Let's love having you.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So we have a bookmark tradition, and we always ask
our guests something that they've bookmarked this week. It could
be a song and Instagram post, something that they've shared
with their best friend. What have each of you bookmarked
this week?
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Wow, that's a great question. I have two things that
came to mind.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Do you want me to go first?
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Please?
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Okay? First was actually a story on Apple News.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
It was about a man who fell in love with
his grief Bop and I was like, okay, we wrote
about the.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
And it came true. So that was kind of crazy.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And the second, this is just so random, but this
song by this band called Wednesday and it's called Eldberry
Wine and I listened to it every single day and
it just puts me in the best mood.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And I've sent it to my children, that sends all
my best friends. And it's just one of those random things.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
This whole week has been. It's been crazy. I have
a release on another service that I'm going to a
premiere in a few minutes called Lazarus with Sam Claflin
and Bill Nye and so Sam Claflin this morning on
a TV show and got to hug him from surprise
him on the show, and so bookmarked that and really
just this whole experience with Reese is it's you know,
(23:50):
we've been doing this for a long time, but now
it's like come to a head. It's like we've been
planning this and thinking about this. I think two years
ago we played first Start and then a year to
write the book. And all the people that we've run
across who have helped us, many of whom are here.
So everything about this week has been about the joy
of having this book. You know, to me, a book
is it's the Berkeley tree in the woods. If a
(24:11):
tree falls and no one hears, it doesn't make a sound.
If you write a book and no one reads it,
it's not a book. This is gone, you know, gone
before goodbye. It is not a book heet. It's not
a book until you read it. And then when you
read it, a whole new Maggie and poor Chop and
Noddy and all these characters come to life in your
head different from everybody else's. You have a special like
one on one relationship with us for two on one
(24:31):
I guess relationship with us. And that's still the part
that Jazz is me and she can different all of
your heads and we're going to have that experience. Now
it's finally book Now, finally that tree has fallen and
the sound you are hearing. And so that's the thing
that really excites me about this week, and that's the
thing I'm going to Bookmark to bring it all back
book Mark this week.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
That's a great question.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
It is we ask every week.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
I love that. I love.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Reese. I heard you have some exciting collaboration between Apple
Books and Reese's Book Club coming up, including a free
book drop program.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I know, you guys, this is really starting.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
I mean, I just I just kind of recorded an
announcement that we're going to put out in a couple
of days. But starting in the next month, Apple is
going to give away one thousand copies of our book
are Reese's Look cup pick too. Lucky people out there
who sort of weigh in. So that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That's really exciting. We get a clap for that. Yay.
I love when people give away free books.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
I know.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Okay, so I know you guys got to get gone,
but this is not goodbye.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I say.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
We have a little speed read. So we're going to
put sixty seconds on the clock and I'm going to
see just how many rapid fire literary questions you can
get through?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Oh god, this is a tax, tax as long as
it's not mad.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
But still it's not mad.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I promise they're fun. Okay, three to one. If Gone
Before Goodbye had a theme song, what would it be?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Since you're being one that's sent to me?
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
A book that's better to listen to than to read.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
This one. That's an easy one. Reese, Witherspoon and Chris
Pine read it. It's one of the best audiobooks you'll
ever heear. I know I'm losing some time on the
clock here, but it's important. You got to listen to.
Thank you. Actually, I read part where Reese and I
was literally going like this. I started to cry a
little bit. Like one of the sad scenes is really cute,
So go ahead. Yeah, I am god.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I also love that Chris Pine voices the beginning and
it's like a bait and switch because the story is
really more about Maggie. Right, Okay, what book shaped the
way you see the world?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Gone Before Goodbye by Yes, Flythermspool and the Harlin Boben
now available in hardcover.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh my God on Apple Books.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Harlan I'm going to kick you out of the game.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
I would seriously say The Measure of Our Success by
Marian right Edelman. I read it when I was eighteen.
It's a beautiful letter she wrote to her sons on
their eighteenth birthday, and it's really it's really gorgeous.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
I'm going to pick my very first mystery novel, which
is called Are You My Mother? By P. D. Eastman.
Every remember that little bird falling out and then he
thinks his mom's a dog and a catch. That thing
was scary us, wasn't. I think giant shovel picks up
the bird at the end. I'm going to go with that.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I'm going to have to read that I never knew.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
My Mother by P. D. You've never heard of Are
You My Mother? Who raised you? Seriously? Everyone here who
has not read Are You My Mother? By P. D. Eastman?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Only you? All right, harln.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I'm going to go crawl into a hole now. Thank you.
What's your favorite audiobook to recommend to new listeners?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I mean he just said I'm a more goodbye. I
have to say.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Matthew mcca hey listening to his new book, his voice
is just so hypnotic to me, and I also really
love just hearing him ponder and find the words.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
He's a fantastic performer.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
I also love memoirs, celebrity memoirs read by the person.
I just did artist Draisens, which took me about seven
years to get through. It's literally about forty eight hours long,
and you can hear she's going off script for wild Tangents.
But it was so fun.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
We're all waiting for Reese's my memoir.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
We'll be waiting a while. She she just take me
for wine.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
We'll have wine only enough you'll be like, well, I
don't need to read a book.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I'll take you up on that. Okay. What was the
most fun you had writing the book together? Was there
a particular chapter, a moment, a twist.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Maybe When I first pitched to you the very last
paragraph ending, and I said to her beforehand, and they go,
are you really? Are you? Do you want to go
super dark with this ending? And she's, oh yeah. But
she started up very nicely, and then I corrupted her.
I think she became super and all of a sudden
she's coming up with why don't we do? And she's
come up with vicious ideas like whoa whoa come down.
(29:11):
But I really that day was kind of fun when
we were discussing the ending and then we changed the ending.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Also, I think when he told me about the character
of pork Chop and pork Chop, when you read it,
you're going to fall so deeply in love with this
character who is like.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
A six foot five guy from New Jersey. I'm just saying.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Somewhat like the verson sitting to my love. But he's
just so endearing. It's a great character.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Also, I've never heard of a character named pork Chop before.
It was so memorable.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
We actually now into two because Nate Burlson today and
CBS told us he has an uncle named pork Chop. Yes,
and I based him off an artist named pork Chop
in Asbury Park. And then I wanted to change his
name to something else, like we just to pork Chop
be a good temporary name, and then we couldn't come
up like Wolf.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
No, that's terribly Give a free book to everyone really
named portob that's righty, Like you can verify your name
is pork Chop, you get a book.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
It's a brilliant idea.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
And if you've walked through life with the name pork Chop.
You deserve a free book.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
We're hoping people are going to name their child pork Chop. Girls, boys,
everything we want it all.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
So this book is about secrets and grief and what's
left unsaid. What's one small truth or life lesson that
you hope readers carry with them after turning the last page.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
We hope to break your far. I mean, it's serious.
For one moment, I lost my parents at a young age,
and the grief of losing them affects everything that I
do and a lot with what I was trying to
channel here in the grief here, and I think it's
a healthy outlet for it to accept and understand that
grief is not something that you fully recover from. To me,
(30:57):
it's like losing an arm. You're going to function in
life if your life could still be happy, but that
arm's not growing back. You're going to learn to use
your right arm more and all of that, and I'm hoping, Wow,
that was really sad. I'm sorry I brought the room
down with this answer, but that's sort of what I'm
thinking about when I when you mentioned that.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Thank you for your real answer, he writes, so beautifully
and such a deep evocative way about grief. You know,
it's very real and it's it's beautifully written. I would
say there's a part in the book where Maggie is
in a really tough spot and she doesn't know what
(31:32):
she's going to do, and she says, my instincts kicked in.
I didn't know when they would. I knew there would
be some point, but they did, and it completely saves her.
So I would say, everything you kind of need is
inside of yourself.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
You just sometimes have to dig deep.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It's a beautiful note to end on. Thank you both
so much. Now, thank you Reese Harlan. Congratulations on pub day,
and to everybody, don't forget to grab your copy available
today on Apple Books. Cheers to an unforgettabook collaboration. Hey
call okay friends. Before we wrap today's episode, I'm bringing
(32:14):
back our monthly audiobook recommendation segment, brought to you by
Apple Books. It's called Turn Up the Story. Apple Books
editors are always reading and listening so they can bring
you the best new books every single month, including brilliant
new voices. This month, Apple Books editors are spotlighting a
book called Maggie or A Man and a Woman Walk
(32:36):
into a Bar by Katie Ye. In this poignant debut novel,
a Chinese American woman's life is thrown into total chaos
after she finds out that her husband is having an
affair and she has breast cancer. During date night at
a restaurant, the unnamed narrator's husband Sam drops the bombshell
that he's leaving. But despite the pain and misery that follows,
(32:57):
the narrator finds solace in a few in the Chinese
folklore inspired bedtime stories she tells her kids, in the
advice she gets from her wonderful best friend Darlene, and
in keeping the news of her cancer diagnosis a secret
from her ex Apple Books editors loved the chapter free
non linear structure here, which reflects the nature of memory
(33:18):
and the messiness of life. So those who enjoy the
portrayal of strong female friendships in books by Taylor Jenkins
read or the big questions posed in works by Katie Kittamara,
will love this defiant and memorable novel. For a limited time,
you can get the audiobook of Maggie or A Man
and a Woman Walk into a Bar for just nine
(33:38):
to ninety nine only on Apple Books. And if you're
curious about what inspired you to write this courageous debut,
you'll find that too. Head to Apple dot co slash
Debut Listens to listen in, and while you're there, don't
miss the full collection of debut audiobooks that the Apple
Books editors love, all chosen with Bookmarked listeners in mind.
(34:04):
And if you want a little bit more from us,
come hang with us on socials. We're at Reese's book
Club on Instagram, serving up books, vibes and behind the
scenes magic. And I'm at Danielle Robe Roba y come
say hi and df me And if you want to
go nineties on us, call us. Okay, our phone line
is open, so call now at one five zero one
(34:26):
two nine one three three seven nine. That's one five
oh one two nine one three three seven nine. Share
your literary hot takes, book recommendations, questions about the monthly pick,
or let us know what you think about the episode
you just heard, and who knows, you might just hear
yourself in our next episode, so don't be shy, give
(34:49):
us a ring, and of course, make sure to follow
bookmark by Reese's book Club on the iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your shows until then see in
the chapter. Bookmarked is a production of Hello Sunshine and
iHeart podcast. Its executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and me
Danielle Robe. Production is by ACAST Creative Studios. Our producers
(35:14):
are Matty Foley, Brittany Martinez, Sarah Schleid. Our production assistant
is Avery Loftus. Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer are the
executive producers for a Cast Creative Studios. Maureene Polo and
Reese Witherspoon are the executive producers for Hello Sunshine, Olga COMINWHA.
Kristin Perla and Ashley Rappaport are associate producers for Reese's
(35:34):
book Club. Ali Perry and Lauren Hansen are the executive
producers for iHeart Podcasts.
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club is presented by Apple Books. Hi,
I'm Danielle Robe. Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese's book Club.
This week we have what might be a peak Bookmarked
conversation about a peak bookmarked book. Okay, it has joy,
(00:22):
it has suspense, it has surprises, it has a strong
female lead, and it has best selling energy. And did
I mention it has the one and only Reese Witherspoon.
We are sharing a live Bookmarked podcast recording that took
place recently at the Apple so Hoos store in New
York City, and it's a conversation between Reese Witherspoon and
Harlan Coben, the collaborators and co writers of the thriller
(00:45):
of the season Gone Before Goodbye. We got to talk
to them on their actual pub day. And because we
announced pub days on the show, I just want to
share why they're such a celebration. Also because my mom
called me one week and asked me what a pub
day was. So pubday isn't just a release date. It's
when a story leaves the author's hands and finds its
(01:06):
readers after months or sometimes years of writing, rewriting, editing.
It is the moment that an author's story stops belonging
to them and starts belonging to everyone. It's ready to
be loved and shared and savored. So before we get
into this episode, I am really curious. Have you stayed
up all night reading Gone Before Goodbye yet? Because you
(01:28):
know I told you I was up until two am.
I could not put it down. And I'm dying to
know what you think. So send me a little voice
memo at bookmark at Reese's book Club dot com. That's
bookmark at Reese's book Club dot com. And if you
share yours, I'll share mine. Okay. In the meantime, if
you're looking for a conversation that will inspire you to
(01:49):
take a leap to try something new while sending chills
down your spine, you are in the right place. Let's
turn the page with Reese, Witherspoon and heartn Covina. Thank
you so much. Welcome everyone, It's so exciting to do
(02:11):
this live at this gorgeous space at the Apple Soho
store in New York City with our partners at Apple Books.
We are celebrating the release of Gone Before Goodbye. It's
the first collaborative suspense novel by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Covin.
And if that's not exciting enough, it is actually their
(02:33):
pub day. Their book is out into the world. It's official,
So now you can officially say that you were here
at the beginning. Reese and Harlan have shaped how millions
of us read, watch, and experience stories. Reese has built
Hello Sunshine into a storytelling powerhouse. Her book Club alone
(02:57):
has turned over seventy titles into bestsellers and adaptations. And
Harlan his books have sold over eighty million copies and
he's one of Netflix's most adapted authors. Who what do
you get when two of the most influential storytellers in
the world join forces. Well, I was lucky enough to
(03:19):
get an advanced reader copy, and I can tell you
you get something totally unexpected and a little dangerous. You
also get a heroine who is both relatable and aspirational.
So Maggie McCabe is a brilliant Army combat surgeon and
her life starts to unravel after tragedy and the loss
(03:40):
of her medical license. She's thrust into the world of
the ultra wealthy. And I'm not going to spoil anything.
It gets pretty twisty from there. So please give me
a big New York City warm welcome, Ese Witherspoon and
Harlan coven.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Thank you, Van y'all. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
From that, I always say welcome to the club, but
it feels sort of silly because it's your club race.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
But it's different. It's different being an author, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
As an actor for so many years, I would always
walk into other people stories. So the script was already ready,
or it was based on a book that was already written.
And this was the first time I had an idea
for a character and I thought, Okay, I'm gonna give
it away. I'll give it to somebody and have them
write a movie or and then I thought, wait a second,
why don't I try I've worked in worlds where that
(04:31):
I've watched people do this.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I've read so many books.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
I was a huge fan of Harlan Covid, and I
read all his thrillers, and I thought, well, why don't
I give it a shot, you know, and try to
write up my thought.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You're always pushing forward into this stuff that feels so
scary for so many people. I love that first line.
It gave me chills when I read it. You guys wrote,
I don't hear the scream. I always feel like you
remember your first everything, like your first concert, your frien
first kiss. I'm not going to ask you about your
first kiss, but that first line made me feel like
(05:05):
you guys wanted to say something. Harlan, what were you
trying to make the reader feel at that moment?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I think we wanted to get writ in the story
right away. Both Reesa and I are storytellers, and while
a lot of fancy things we'll talk about today, we
also want this to be the book that tonight. You
take the bed at eleven o'clock and you think you're
going to read for ten minutes. Yeah, and next thing
you know, it's four in the morning and you're cursing
us out, but you're also deliriously happy. You know that
feeling when you're immersed in a book and you can't
(05:32):
put it down. It's kind of your whole world. We
both love feeling that, and the idea that we may
give that experience to somebody else's the coolest feeling in
the world.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I heard you both at Shinaway this weekend, and Reese,
you said that you called Harlan, and you had this
amazing idea and you kind of pitched it over the phone.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, but I'm scared.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Boy. I don't know because he's never collaborated with anybody before,
and I was asking him basically to let me into
his secret writing worlds and that's really private for a
lot of authors and artists. So the fact that he
even just you know, entertaining the idea and then I
had to go and pitch my heart out to him
and it was it was great. It was scary too,
(06:15):
but he was so receptive and so open to it.
And he immediately started scribbling notes and I was like,
what's he doing?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Does that mean he likes it? Or does some like it?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
And I thought he was going to give me notes
and say, okay, well here's some really great thoughts and
good luck, and then I set at the very end,
after we talked for like an hour, I was like,
does that mean.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
So I wasn't just writing notes. We were riffing back
and like, okay, what if we take her and do this?
And then she would go, well and then over here
and I'm doing this And it was hours long, and
at the end of it we just were like oh yeah,
this is there was no question in my mind. I
was already totally in. I was wary when we spurs
(06:57):
called just because I'm not that guy. I don't I'm
not the collaborative guy. There's other guys were that collaborative guy.
I'm just that's just not me. And I didn't want
it to I didn't want anything that was gonna be
gimmicky or anything else. So recently said ground rules, right away,
we are going to write every word of this book.
There's not even a no taker in the room. It's
only going to be you and me. We have to
(07:17):
be obsessed. This has to be the best thing we did.
We do and we both became completely obsessed. We both
shared this vision of wanting what we want out of
this story. And so when we started saying the ideas
like dang, that's good man, I could do something with that.
And so you know, we started right away. That's how
you know. We just did Kelly Clarkson's show and Kelly
(07:40):
was saying, sometimes when she gets in a room with
somebody else to write a song, either happens or it
doesn't happen. I think we both knew right away that
this was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Was the riffing sort of indicative of your collaborative process.
Were you using notes? Did you send voice notes? What
was that like?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, we sent a lot of text messages. And I'm
kind of nerding about research. So I read all these books.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Memoirs about war surgeons, and there's trauma surgery and this
guy was like doctor and he got shot in head.
I was driving and he was like great.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
And I was like, it's not the thing that happened.
How he felt about it.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And so it was really fun doing the research on
longevity clinics in Dubai and trying to figure out cutting
edge technologies that were just on the cusp of happening.
Whether that was you know, certain kinds of.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
AI, plastic surgery, yeah, plastic.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
I want to explore grief, I mean also that was
the other thing that we talked a lot about. This
is a novel that deals with grief a lot, and
we both wanted to explore that as well.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I was curious about your research process because the details
were so vivid. It fell inside baseball and a really
fun way to read. I'm shocked that it was memoir
and it was such a deep dive Reese. I heard
that it was a little bit inspired from your dad
as well.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, my dad was a military surgeon in the Air Force.
So the first five years of my life I grew
up on a military base in Germany, and my mom
was a military nurse and then Air National Guard. So
I grew up kind of around a lot of army
surgeons and they would all talk at dinner parties and
at our house. But these surgeries, you know, helping soldiers
(09:30):
coming back from conflict, and I learned a lot about
just their dedication to helping say lives. But also I
thought it'd be really interesting to put a character like that.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
In a morally kind of vague world.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
So the ultra wealthy who can buy private surgery or
figure out how to get an organ donation, that's maybe
not the most ethical thing, and then put this really
principled character in that the cross roads of.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That she was living in, the contradictions a lot, which
was interesting to read about. I want to dig into
Maggie the protagonist more. She's a surgeon, she's a soldier.
She's caught between her husband Mark and their friend Trace.
And we actually have a clip from the audio book
and Reese, we get to hear your voice. Can we
play that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I haven't heard this day?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
How easy to say, they gee, Mark Trace created World
Cures Alliance for purely all truistic reasons. That had been
a good story Three calmbat doctors who saw any and
eschewed the comforts of home to save the needy and
revolutionize healthcare.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
But that felt too much like spin. To Maggie.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
It's not that you aren't genuinely concerned about your patients.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You acutely are, or don't believe in your mission.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
They did.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
But the terrible secret gret She and market Tree shared
is that you do it to be special.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Ooh, that's a good note to end up.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Maggie is such a fully formed character in that I
hear that she's feisty. I hear that she kind of
says the quiet part out loud. When you concepted her originally,
what were you thinking?
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Well.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Part of what Harlan and I have talked about was
I'd never seen a woman in kind of a James
Bond world and be the lead. I'd always seen a
girl in a James Bond movie sort of in a
bikini or stirring her drink and clining the poison in it.
But I've never seen her be kind of this very intuitive,
(12:11):
skilled person who navigates a really difficult situation.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
And I thought, well, that's who what I would be
if you put me in one of those movies.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I'm not going to be able to shrink the bad
guy or punch a guy out, you know, but I
would use what I had to my advantage. So that
was something we talked about before we even began.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
We wanted her to be real, I said, Teresa, she
doesn't be likable or nice or kind or any of that.
She has to be real and then people will relate
to her. And I think that's what we tried to do. Like, say,
she's not beating up six guys to escape the scene
when she goes out on the roof and just had
no idea how she's going to get out of it,
And I hope she does in a realisticly kind of way.
(12:49):
She's thinking the same way that we would be thinking.
You are in her head. We wanted that experience from
the reader very much.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Speaking of in her head, we know so much about
her interior life. I know that she is loyal, I
know that she likes her showers hot and her whiskey meat,
and after three hundred and thirty three pages, I have
no idea what she looks like. I don't even know
her hair color. Was that purposeful?
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Yes, we want you to put I always kind of
do that with leads. That's a TV or movie experience,
to see exactly what the person looks like. One of
the things recent I discussed we often get the question
about an adaptation, and maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't.
But the book has to be the book. If you
write a book thinking oh, this is going to make
a great movie or TV, it's the kiss of death.
(13:39):
We want the he just said, you get that interior life.
You can't get that in a movie. It's different. So
just different experience. I'm not saying one's better than the other,
but we have to give the people the best book experience.
Then we can worry about when we had if we
had adapt We worry about all of that later and
recent both understood that early on.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I was casting in my head, so was I Beside
the point, I don't think I'm allowed to ask you,
but maybe after I will. Okay, one scene Reese that
really stuck with me flipped the girl in the line
at the bathroom sort of stereotype on its head. It
was almost like a link to women, where parts of
(14:17):
Maggie inspired by women you knew for sure.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
And I'd have these interactions and I'd call Harlan immediately.
I was on vacation somewhere and I actually saw a
very young girlfriend of an older man crying in a
bathroom and I gave a comfort and without judgment, and
we talked about being safe. And I called Harlan and
I was like, that's the scene that we need to have.
It's not especially a female doctor. She wouldn't bring her
(14:42):
judgment to it first. She would bring this feeling of
care and safety in particularly it was for patient. So
as all as trying to lay a woman's perspective over
the character as well.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
There was one time when I asked Price very early on, well,
what would Maggie be wearing to go to this? And
I figured it would be like, you know, two words
in dress, and she went on a semi rant, which
all that's her did for you now, And I'm literally like,
slow down, I'm using every word of this in the book.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
So to tell them they should find this email but
it was like it's the worst day of her life
and she has to figure out what to wear to
a party that honors her mother, and she wants to
She's in her sweatpants, but she wansn't sink into the ground,
but she wants to wear practical shoes so that she
can walk and feel comfortable. But she also wants to
look pot together and like she has her life together.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
But she can't wear black because it's not a funeral.
But she shouldn't wear navy blue. Maybe navy blue.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
They can't be too long because that would be too formal,
and it can't be too short because that would be
too revocative. And you don't want to threaten other women.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
And the mental math.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
I'm watching all the women nod as you go as
you say all.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
This right, and that's I need to mention her hair
and makeup, like you're like, oh, am I going to
wash my hair?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Am I gonna make this blue out? Lost?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Like the kind of mental math you have to do
as a woman before you walk into any situation in
the world.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
And that was a whole other layer and we had
to put it.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I kept saying to Harlan, Okay, well, she's going to
go to a ball in Russia.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Where's she getting the clothes? She walks into a nightclub
in Dubai? What's she wearing?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And how did we get And we have to really
work out the logistics of like where would she get
a brand new oufit? But it was it was kind
of cool too, because I always wanted to make sure
that wasn't a barrier for her aunt, that we addressed
it in a way that women would go, what's she like?
It's the first thing you would think, what's she gonna wear?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
It's the first thing we and those decisions also informed
the character, so it really does everything has to do
work more than one thing. Can't just be a description
or a theme or setting. All those things have to
inform each other. And that's what I think one of
the things we learned in this experience.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So we learned that Maggie is based on a lot
of real women. Harlan, I've heard you say that there's
a lot of you in your books, Reese. Do you
see Harlan in this story?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Oh yeah, oh yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And then I start, well, first of all, he's known
for his epic twists, and you just I was so
lucky that I got to have a front row seat
because I think very linear linear. I think, oh, there's
the character and there's the conflict, we have to resolve it.
And he's like, no, we're gonna bury this story and
you're gonna think one thing, and then.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Probably a third of the book, I'm gonna give you
the biggest shock.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
There's a scene with a tattoo in it when you
first see a tattoo, and all my girlfriends called me
when they read it.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
They were like, the tattoo and you expect me to
go pick up the kids. I'm reading this in carpool
and I'm flipping out.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
So it's like that he would put that in there,
and that was like genius. And then he kept doing
that so it was always like we had it all
mapped out, but he would pulse out information in this
cliffhanger way, and it was it was fascinating to watch.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
You really don't expect the tattoo thing to meet. It's
a really good turn. There's a big theme in this
novel of trusting your instincts, and there's a moment where
Maggie finally trusts Hers and Reese. You have that now
very famous speech where you talk to everybody about women
in action films and you say like as if a
woman wouldn't know what to do. Yeah, is there a
(18:18):
story that both of you are comfortable sharing about a
moment where you trusted your own instincts and it really
changed something for you deciding to do.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
This with Reese Witherspoon. Yeah, it was, you know, I
will say, because it was nerve wracking. And I think
for both of us, we've have some we've had some
success in our careers and to and to sort of
we're taking a risk. We're both a little terrified right now.
I mean we are people won't love this book or
(18:48):
it's something new. And for Reese touch where you're writing
a novel. You can't hide when you write a novel,
and yet there's such a thrill. One of the things
that I was just saying in the back room to
Reese I really look forward to for her we're doing adaptation.
Whenever I get to do an adaptation is that first
day I go on set and I watch all these
actors and actresses and the cast and crew or bringing
(19:09):
it to life, and I think to myself, I had
this little idea in my house in New Jersey and
now all these people bring it to life, and now
you get to have that You've never had that before.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
No, I've done it for other people.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Yes, now you'll be able to sit there going wow,
I had this little idea and.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
That would be also crazy.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
It's such a cool it's such a cool thing, and
so I'm so happy to share that with Reese.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That's so cool.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
So shared experience with turn.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
What do you mean when you say that you can't
hide behind a novel, because I think most people would
expect the opposite. You feel like you can't hide behind nonfiction.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Oh no, Well, for example, if you're an actor, you
can blame the script. If you're a script, you blame
the actor. There's a maillion other people working on it.
You know, it was the producer's fault, it was it
was a studio's fault. There's a lot of people to blame.
This is us. We got no one else to blame.
You can blame us or love us for this. And
I personally that it's one of the things I love
about being a novel writer. It's like you're you know,
(20:04):
you're a golfer with no coach or tennis player. You
can't go blame in anybody else. There's no referees here
or anything like that. So I'm scaring you. So this
is fun. So this is this is this is a
new thing, and it's fun and it's it's exciting. And
I love the fact that at our age or whatever,
not that I'm a lot older than Reese, but that
(20:24):
we're willing to still do new things. And it's reminding me.
One of Reese's first book picks, we'd say this, I
think to inspire people. One of her main ones is
when the craw Dad Sings by Dealey Owens. She was
seventy when that book came out. You were never too late.
I'm not going to be an NBA player anymore. That
dreams over. But anybody out of here could be a
published writer, or write a screenplay or direct a movie.
(20:46):
It's never really too late. And this is kind of
a reminder to us to always keep pushing ourselves.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
To Reese, did trusting your instincts come naturally to you
or is it something that you've harnessed over the years.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Well, I think it got better.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I mean, I was a very nervous young woman when
I first started in the movie business. Because, as I
said before, my parents were in the medical field in
the military.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
They thought I was nuts. They were like, what are
you doing?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
And you're picking this unstable path. And for a long
time I thought I was going to be a doctor.
So I started making movies when I was fourteen. But
I had to just keep well. First of all, I
just had to keep going, and a little success starts
to build on itself, and you start to build confidence. Right,
But confidence came from doing and sometimes failing, but learning
(21:35):
for my mistakes, but then learning a little bit better,
doing a little bit better, making better decisions, better partnerships,
being brave enough to call somebody who's amazing at what
they do and go would you ever think about this?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You know? I think sometimes I think about that.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
For women to think brave enough to make that call,
that first move is really hard because you think why me,
Like why would they ever? But you never know, you know.
So I think I've become more bold as I've gotten
a little older.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I like hearing that, yeah, I'm only in the seat
because I took a shot and made a call.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
You're the best, Danielle. Let's love having you.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So we have a bookmark tradition, and we always ask
our guests something that they've bookmarked this week. It could
be a song and Instagram post, something that they've shared
with their best friend. What have each of you bookmarked
this week?
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Wow, that's a great question. I have two things that
came to mind.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Do you want me to go first?
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Please?
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Okay? First was actually a story on Apple News.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
It was about a man who fell in love with
his grief Bop and I was like, okay, we wrote
about the.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
And it came true. So that was kind of crazy.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And the second, this is just so random, but this
song by this band called Wednesday and it's called Eldberry
Wine and I listened to it every single day and
it just puts me in the best mood.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And I've sent it to my children, that sends all
my best friends. And it's just one of those random things.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
This whole week has been. It's been crazy. I have
a release on another service that I'm going to a
premiere in a few minutes called Lazarus with Sam Claflin
and Bill Nye and so Sam Claflin this morning on
a TV show and got to hug him from surprise
him on the show, and so bookmarked that and really
just this whole experience with Reese is it's you know,
(23:50):
we've been doing this for a long time, but now
it's like come to a head. It's like we've been
planning this and thinking about this. I think two years
ago we played first Start and then a year to
write the book. And all the people that we've run
across who have helped us, many of whom are here.
So everything about this week has been about the joy
of having this book. You know, to me, a book
is it's the Berkeley tree in the woods. If a
(24:11):
tree falls and no one hears, it doesn't make a sound.
If you write a book and no one reads it,
it's not a book. This is gone, you know, gone
before goodbye. It is not a book heet. It's not
a book until you read it. And then when you
read it, a whole new Maggie and poor Chop and
Noddy and all these characters come to life in your
head different from everybody else's. You have a special like
one on one relationship with us for two on one
(24:31):
I guess relationship with us. And that's still the part
that Jazz is me and she can different all of
your heads and we're going to have that experience. Now
it's finally book Now, finally that tree has fallen and
the sound you are hearing. And so that's the thing
that really excites me about this week, and that's the
thing I'm going to Bookmark to bring it all back
book Mark this week.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
That's a great question.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
It is we ask every week.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
I love that. I love.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Reese. I heard you have some exciting collaboration between Apple
Books and Reese's Book Club coming up, including a free
book drop program.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I know, you guys, this is really starting.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
I mean, I just I just kind of recorded an
announcement that we're going to put out in a couple
of days. But starting in the next month, Apple is
going to give away one thousand copies of our book
are Reese's Look cup pick too. Lucky people out there
who sort of weigh in. So that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That's really exciting. We get a clap for that. Yay.
I love when people give away free books.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
I know.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Okay, so I know you guys got to get gone,
but this is not goodbye.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I say.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
We have a little speed read. So we're going to
put sixty seconds on the clock and I'm going to
see just how many rapid fire literary questions you can
get through?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Oh god, this is a tax, tax as long as
it's not mad.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
But still it's not mad.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I promise they're fun. Okay, three to one. If Gone
Before Goodbye had a theme song, what would it be?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Since you're being one that's sent to me?
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
A book that's better to listen to than to read.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
This one. That's an easy one. Reese, Witherspoon and Chris
Pine read it. It's one of the best audiobooks you'll
ever heear. I know I'm losing some time on the
clock here, but it's important. You got to listen to.
Thank you. Actually, I read part where Reese and I
was literally going like this. I started to cry a
little bit. Like one of the sad scenes is really cute,
So go ahead. Yeah, I am god.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I also love that Chris Pine voices the beginning and
it's like a bait and switch because the story is
really more about Maggie. Right, Okay, what book shaped the
way you see the world?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Gone Before Goodbye by Yes, Flythermspool and the Harlin Boben
now available in hardcover.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh my God on Apple Books.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Harlan I'm going to kick you out of the game.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
I would seriously say The Measure of Our Success by
Marian right Edelman. I read it when I was eighteen.
It's a beautiful letter she wrote to her sons on
their eighteenth birthday, and it's really it's really gorgeous.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
I'm going to pick my very first mystery novel, which
is called Are You My Mother? By P. D. Eastman.
Every remember that little bird falling out and then he
thinks his mom's a dog and a catch. That thing
was scary us, wasn't. I think giant shovel picks up
the bird at the end. I'm going to go with that.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I'm going to have to read that I never knew.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
My Mother by P. D. You've never heard of Are
You My Mother? Who raised you? Seriously? Everyone here who
has not read Are You My Mother? By P. D. Eastman?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Only you? All right, harln.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I'm going to go crawl into a hole now. Thank you.
What's your favorite audiobook to recommend to new listeners?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I mean he just said I'm a more goodbye. I
have to say.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Matthew mcca hey listening to his new book, his voice
is just so hypnotic to me, and I also really
love just hearing him ponder and find the words.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
He's a fantastic performer.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
I also love memoirs, celebrity memoirs read by the person.
I just did artist Draisens, which took me about seven
years to get through. It's literally about forty eight hours long,
and you can hear she's going off script for wild Tangents.
But it was so fun.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
We're all waiting for Reese's my memoir.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
We'll be waiting a while. She she just take me
for wine.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
We'll have wine only enough you'll be like, well, I
don't need to read a book.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I'll take you up on that. Okay. What was the
most fun you had writing the book together? Was there
a particular chapter, a moment, a twist.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Maybe When I first pitched to you the very last
paragraph ending, and I said to her beforehand, and they go,
are you really? Are you? Do you want to go
super dark with this ending? And she's, oh yeah. But
she started up very nicely, and then I corrupted her.
I think she became super and all of a sudden
she's coming up with why don't we do? And she's
come up with vicious ideas like whoa whoa come down.
(29:11):
But I really that day was kind of fun when
we were discussing the ending and then we changed the ending.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Also, I think when he told me about the character
of pork Chop and pork Chop, when you read it,
you're going to fall so deeply in love with this
character who is like.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
A six foot five guy from New Jersey. I'm just saying.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Somewhat like the verson sitting to my love. But he's
just so endearing. It's a great character.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Also, I've never heard of a character named pork Chop before.
It was so memorable.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
We actually now into two because Nate Burlson today and
CBS told us he has an uncle named pork Chop. Yes,
and I based him off an artist named pork Chop
in Asbury Park. And then I wanted to change his
name to something else, like we just to pork Chop
be a good temporary name, and then we couldn't come
up like Wolf.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
No, that's terribly Give a free book to everyone really
named portob that's righty, Like you can verify your name
is pork Chop, you get a book.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
It's a brilliant idea.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
And if you've walked through life with the name pork Chop.
You deserve a free book.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
We're hoping people are going to name their child pork Chop. Girls, boys,
everything we want it all.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
So this book is about secrets and grief and what's
left unsaid. What's one small truth or life lesson that
you hope readers carry with them after turning the last page.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
We hope to break your far. I mean, it's serious.
For one moment, I lost my parents at a young age,
and the grief of losing them affects everything that I
do and a lot with what I was trying to
channel here in the grief here, and I think it's
a healthy outlet for it to accept and understand that
grief is not something that you fully recover from. To me,
(30:57):
it's like losing an arm. You're going to function in
life if your life could still be happy, but that
arm's not growing back. You're going to learn to use
your right arm more and all of that, and I'm hoping, Wow,
that was really sad. I'm sorry I brought the room
down with this answer, but that's sort of what I'm
thinking about when I when you mentioned that.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Thank you for your real answer, he writes, so beautifully
and such a deep evocative way about grief. You know,
it's very real and it's it's beautifully written. I would
say there's a part in the book where Maggie is
in a really tough spot and she doesn't know what
(31:32):
she's going to do, and she says, my instincts kicked in.
I didn't know when they would. I knew there would
be some point, but they did, and it completely saves her.
So I would say, everything you kind of need is
inside of yourself.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
You just sometimes have to dig deep.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It's a beautiful note to end on. Thank you both
so much. Now, thank you Reese Harlan. Congratulations on pub day,
and to everybody, don't forget to grab your copy available
today on Apple Books. Cheers to an unforgettabook collaboration. Hey
call okay friends. Before we wrap today's episode, I'm bringing
(32:14):
back our monthly audiobook recommendation segment, brought to you by
Apple Books. It's called Turn Up the Story. Apple Books
editors are always reading and listening so they can bring
you the best new books every single month, including brilliant
new voices. This month, Apple Books editors are spotlighting a
book called Maggie or A Man and a Woman Walk
(32:36):
into a Bar by Katie Ye. In this poignant debut novel,
a Chinese American woman's life is thrown into total chaos
after she finds out that her husband is having an
affair and she has breast cancer. During date night at
a restaurant, the unnamed narrator's husband Sam drops the bombshell
that he's leaving. But despite the pain and misery that follows,
(32:57):
the narrator finds solace in a few in the Chinese
folklore inspired bedtime stories she tells her kids, in the
advice she gets from her wonderful best friend Darlene, and
in keeping the news of her cancer diagnosis a secret
from her ex Apple Books editors loved the chapter free
non linear structure here, which reflects the nature of memory
(33:18):
and the messiness of life. So those who enjoy the
portrayal of strong female friendships in books by Taylor Jenkins
read or the big questions posed in works by Katie Kittamara,
will love this defiant and memorable novel. For a limited time,
you can get the audiobook of Maggie or A Man
and a Woman Walk into a Bar for just nine
(33:38):
to ninety nine only on Apple Books. And if you're
curious about what inspired you to write this courageous debut,
you'll find that too. Head to Apple dot co slash
Debut Listens to listen in, and while you're there, don't
miss the full collection of debut audiobooks that the Apple
Books editors love, all chosen with Bookmarked listeners in mind.
(34:04):
And if you want a little bit more from us,
come hang with us on socials. We're at Reese's book
Club on Instagram, serving up books, vibes and behind the
scenes magic. And I'm at Danielle Robe Roba y come
say hi and df me And if you want to
go nineties on us, call us. Okay, our phone line
is open, so call now at one five zero one
(34:26):
two nine one three three seven nine. That's one five
oh one two nine one three three seven nine. Share
your literary hot takes, book recommendations, questions about the monthly pick,
or let us know what you think about the episode
you just heard, and who knows, you might just hear
yourself in our next episode, so don't be shy, give
(34:49):
us a ring, and of course, make sure to follow
bookmark by Reese's book Club on the iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your shows until then see in
the chapter. Bookmarked is a production of Hello Sunshine and
iHeart podcast. Its executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and me
Danielle Robe. Production is by ACAST Creative Studios. Our producers
(35:14):
are Matty Foley, Brittany Martinez, Sarah Schleid. Our production assistant
is Avery Loftus. Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer are the
executive producers for a Cast Creative Studios. Maureene Polo and
Reese Witherspoon are the executive producers for Hello Sunshine, Olga COMINWHA.
Kristin Perla and Ashley Rappaport are associate producers for Reese's
(35:34):
book Club. Ali Perry and Lauren Hansen are the executive
producers for iHeart Podcasts.
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