What Are You Reading? with Brad Summerville (@bradboughtabook)

Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Gaze reading where the greatsdrop by trendy authors.
Tell us all the who, what, andwhy.
Anyone can listen.
Comes we are spoiler free.
Reading from Stars to book clubpicks.
The curious minds can get theirpicks.
So you say you're not gay.

(00:24):
Well that's okay.
There's something for everyone.
Gays rating.

Jason Blitman (00:33):
Hello and welcome to Gays Reading.
I'm your host Jason Blitman, andon today's episode I have the
fantastic Brad Summerville, AKA.
Brad bought a book to talk to meabout what he's reading'cause
I'm trying something new whereI'm just gonna do a little
chitchat with someone who I liketalking to and ask what they're

(00:54):
reading.
A few things before we start.
As always, if you like whatyou're hearing, share us with a
friend.
Follow us on social media.
We are at Gaze Reading onInstagram on Blue Sky.
You could find us on substack,on YouTube.
Yeah, watch us on YouTube.
And what else?
Oh, the book club.
But Brad and I'll talk about thebook club.
Anyway, all that said, welcometo Gay's reading.

(01:17):
Brad bought a book.
Hi.

Brad Summerville (01:20):
I, you know, it's always so awkward listening
to you do that, like waiting tospeak and, so now that

What do you mean always?

Like I, I've, okay, this, the two times I've
done this

I did not do this introduction the first time you
did Gaze reading.
Thank you very

I had to wait for you to like introduce me
'cause you talked about like mebeing Colorado.
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
I thank you for the lovely

it's fine.
Welcome to Gay's reading again.
Welcome back.
Um.

Be back.

Brad and I were catching up and we were talking
about so many wonderful things,and I hadn't hit record yet
because I didn't think we weregoing to talk about fun things
like reality television.

He missed out on some really great
opportunities for.

I did.
Building the band, is that whatit's called?

Building the band on Netflix if you I did
not.
I'm not a reality show person.
I'm not a musical competitionperson, but it got me, so thank
TikTok for that because I saw agroup singing and then I had to
figure out what it was about

I have been watching Big Brother.

Oh, see, I'm not a big brother person.

It is just such a good social experiment and I'm
obsessed.

I, I'm very behind on Survivor.
I love Survivor.
And I, I just, I know they'rethe same TV network, but never,
never.

I think I'm gonna watch Survivor this year with
some friends and you can watch,it hasn't started yet.
You could watch afar.
We could have like a survivorcross country watch group.

Wait, have you seen every season?

No,

Oh, why?
Why did you laugh at that?
That is not,

there are 30.

there's more than that.

You also don't have to have watched them in
order to appreciate them.

Fair.
Although an upcoming season hasreturning players come back.
So you will need to, I hope it'snot the season you're planning
on watching'cause you might beconfused.

it's fine.
It'll be fine.
We could keep talkingintermittently, but I don't know
what books you have to sharewith me, but I have to know.
I'm so curious.
Brad, what are you reading?
Wait, let me tell, let meexplain.
Wow, this came to be, soobviously I don't have an author
guest today and I have beenreading a bunch, not for the

(03:45):
podcast.
I've been reading for pleasure.
Wait, I need to rephrase that.
I'm always reading for pleasure,but I'm not, I wasn't reading
books to interview people.
And so I wanted to just like geton and talk about the books that
I was reading and I said.
Who would I want to do thatwith?
'cause I don't wanna do it bymyself.
And I said, I know, let me textBrad and what, and he is reading

(04:06):
things and I saw her Instagramthat you're reading a bunch of
things that I don't typicallyread.
So I feel like it's a goodbalance.

Oh, that is true.
We have different vibes.

Yeah.
So what's something that you'rereading right now?

What did you see on Instagram that,

you posted like a, like a little July update
image.

Oh to my

And I would say 0% of them are,

You know what's funny is one of those
books we actually were going tobuddy read together.

Oh, yes, we were

yeah.
Um, we can start with that oneif you want.
So I.

I was definitely excited about it.

Yes.
And the C the second one, it's atrilogy.
It's part of a trilogy.
It's called Road to Ruin by HanaLee and my, the book club I'm in
decided to read.
It was my choice.
Although my book club, it wasnot too happy with me because
they don't really read sci-fifantasy.
And it is a sci-fi fantasy book.
It's about this girl, she, it'slike mad max vibes.

(05:05):
Anyway, she is a courier betweentwo cities and she delivers
letters between a prince and aprincess.
And, and that's like really allyou need to know, but it's a lot
of, like, it leans heavy on likethe world building.
And my group did not like thatbecause they, their fantasy that
they prefer is set in our world.
So they have like an entrypoint.
And to be fair, like I, I evenadmitted like, I would say this

(05:28):
is like in middle of the roadbook for me, I enjoyed it
because I love.
Sci-Fi fantasy is it, did Ithink it was the most amazing
book I've ever read.
No.
But I did get something out ofit.
It is queer too,'cause the maincharacter is bisexual, which is
awesome.
But yeah, I would say overalllike this, if you were on the
fence about this, I would tellyou specifically know, because

(05:50):
this, I don't think that youwould enjoy it as much as maybe.

Yeah,

or scifi lover,

that's fair.
I appreciate that.
There are some fantasies orsci-fi books that I do super get
on board with, but they have tobe, there's a very specific sort
of like entry point for me.

What are some of those?

your face.
Okay.
Entry point is the wrong word orphrase or

Yeah.

way to describe it, but it's, I think so many
fantasy novels or sci-fi novelsare are about a vibe or about a
plot, and I.
Really need to fall in love withcharacters and need to fall in
love with a good story.

Okay.
That also came up in ourconversation because a lot of.
It's very plot driven, likethere are plot points that, and
that makes a lot of sensebecause I just go for vibes too,
but I don't really think aboutI'll go either way.
I'll read a really greatcharacter driven story or a
really great plot driven story.
Like if one of those things issuffering over the other, it's
not like a deal breaker for me.

That's fair.
It's not necessarily a dealbreaker for me either.
I think it is harder for me totap into a world that is
confusing.

Mm-hmm.

If it's just about the plot,

That of a hundred percent valid.
I

I give me a thriller.
That's just the plot and set intoday's world, and I am all for
it because I like don't need toalso build the world in my
brain.
Yeah, I feel like I'm learningabout myself right now a little
bit.
Thank you.

I'm so to be here guide you.

Yeah, but I was just talking about this because
How to Train Your Dragon is oneof my favorite movies, and it's
not my typical genre, right?
It's fantasy, it's dragons andlike I'm not a big fantasy
dragon person.
But the story is so compellingand the characters are so rich
that I just love it so much.
Have you seen it?

The new one.

I actually have not seen the new one.
I'm talking about the, like justthe original.

Yes.
I thought you were gonna baseall of this off of seeing the
new movie and not the original,and I was about to.
You through the for that, butI'm really glad that you said
what you said.

Yeah.
A book that I just read that Iloved that I would not recommend
to you,

Okay, great.
See I.

this, I know this is actually a really fun
exercise is when the cranes flysouth.
By Lisa Ridin.
It was, it's the winner of theSwedish Book of the Year Award,
and it's the story of this likeelderly man and the last four or

(08:41):
five months of his life, it isquiet, it is slow.
It is simple.
But you really get to spend timewith him and in his brain and
it's really moving.
And even though I sort of knew,I don't, it's like hashtag
spoiler alert, he dies at theend.

(09:01):
I think that's like sort ofclear, like when you have, when
there's a dog on the cover,like, you know.
Do you know what I mean?
Like the dog is gonna die.

Did you just spoil every single book with a
dog on the cover for me, becauseI typically don't pick those up.

I know Franklin too, he does not pick them up.
But you, you do sort of, you dosee that this is heading to the
end of his life.
Whether you watch him die ornot, like, you know, it's the
end of his life.
That's very clear.
Um, and because, you know,you're at the end, like, you
sort of feel like, oh, whatever,I'm sort of in it, I get it.
But it really is this you'rejust, it's beautifully paced.

(09:39):
Not very calm.
It's very Frederick Beckman.
In fact, a bookseller put thisgalley in my hand and was like,
take it and read it.
I think you'll like it.
And then literally later thatday, Frederick posted on
Instagram how much he loved thebook.
And I wrote to him and I said,how funny, I literally just got
this today.
And he was going on about how,how lovely it was.

(10:00):
And sure enough I cried at theend.
So

You cried?

I did.
Do you cry books?

Yes, but like, I feel like yes, I, I cry.

Do you not think that I have emotions, Brad?

No, I feel like, I can't remember.
I feel like there was a book weboth read that I definitely
turned up at.
But you were like, it was fine.

I mean,

yeah,

everyone has their thing.

different vibes.
I probably would, would cry if Iread that book.
I, in fact, I could almostguarantee I would.

Yeah.
So this is so random and sospecific.
'cause I was gonna say, I can,if a, if a story is beautifully
told, no matter what the mediumand it's moving, it can move me
to tears, even a commercial andimmediately makes me think about
a Publix commercial.

(10:51):
And I know that you're also fromFlorida, so I am,

I

might even know what I'm

you're gonna say, but keep going.

but you do or don't know what I'm gonna say.

mean, there have been many, a Publix
commercial that has broughttears to people's eyes, but I am
waiting with bated breath.

It was a Thanksgiving one, I think.

It's always the holiday ones.

Yeah.
Anyway, I think it was, I thinkit was like something about salt
and pepper shakers.
Does this sound familiar to you?

Are they like moving?
Like they're like little, theylike hold hands.
I.

I.

Are they little or am I wrong about this?

think so.

I'm gonna,

Yeah.
They're like, they're pilgrimsalt and pepper shakers.

Yes.
I know exactly which one you'retalking about.
I'm gonna have to Google whenwe're done

I know.
Me too.

Publix commercial salt and pepper
shakers.
Thanksgiving tears.
That's that.
Be my search.

Anyway, I can be a very emotional fella.
Is what I'm trying to say.

Ah.

What else are you reading?

You know what else is on my list this month
that you, I, so I have been downlike mm, romance, hockey, rabbit
hole.

So I saw.

Oh, you saw some of those hit a little bit
harder than others, but I'mreading, I'm currently reading
the Game Changer series byRachel Reed.
It's six books and I'm throughthe first five, but.
last one I the most recent one Iread is I, it's, I cannot stress
this enough.
It is so good.

(12:23):
And oh, I love it.
I already am talking about itand I'm like getting excited.

Is it?
Is it the hockey aspect?
Is it the, that you love thesepeople?
Is it romantic?
Is it sexy?
Is it.

Yeah, they're all definitely spicy.
But I think the reason I reallylove this one is like the topics
it deals with.
Each book in the series kind ofdeals with a different
relationship dynamic between thetwo main characters.
And this one is like grumpysunshine.
So like the hockey player is.
He is not a nice person.
He is kind of like angry all thetime.

(12:58):
And the other mc is this likeout comfortably queer and proud
and just like he's socomfortable in his own skin that
it, it creates a really greatcomparison between the two, but
the other one isn't out.
And so he.

(13:19):
Hides behind a lot of like toxicmasculinity and homophobia and
throughout the whole book, sortof like battles that within
himself and like really looks atlike his relationship with his
father and the relationship withsome other hockey players and
his like, redemption arc is sowonderful that I just, I cried,

(13:44):
I, I cried at the end of thatone.

All right.
I.
Don't want to get into a debateabout this'cause that's not the
point of this conversation, butI'm curious having read them or
you've read them, I've not readthem.
You having read them and I feellike you read a lot of a
romances in general.

(14:08):
And so the, the proportion ofthem that you read, a lot of
them happen to be written bywomen.
There's obviously always a veryhot debate about whether or not
women could or should bewriting.
Mm.
Romances that's not theconversation I'm curious to
have, but I am curious to knowif you have like a feeling about
why these women are drawn tothese stories or having read

(14:32):
them.
Do you, is there an interestingtakeaway, uh, for you as a
reader?

Uh, that is a loaded question.
I feel like such like aninteresting topic and I it is a
hot button topic and I feel likeit's very polarizing.
I, this is my personal opinion.
I just wanna like, preface thatbefore like I get into like the
nitty gritty.
I think that like, if.
You are intentional and likeyour motivations behind writing

(15:02):
and, mm.
Romance come from like a real,like, there's a difference
between like doing itauthentically and then writing
an MM romance because you knowthat it'll sell or you want to
capitalize on queer trauma or,uh, the queer experience or like
fetish fetishize.

FET Fetishize.

Ah, speaking quickly like an MM relationship.
And I think that itself isdifferent.
I think if you come from a queerstory where two men are just
falling in love and it'sauthentic and it's, it's done in
a way that doesn't come offoffensive, I think like you have
a really powerful story and I,what's funny is that.

(15:43):
I went to Queers and Quills, uh,recently, which is a queer book
convention.
And one of the panels I went towas talking about this idea of
like, who should write Mm.
And it comes up a lot, but Ithink that there are authors,
female authors who get anopportunity when they're writing

(16:07):
Mm.
To kind of explore their own.
Either sexuality or gender andlike use that medium to like
figure stuff out on their ownand like come to terms with like
who they are and their identity.
And I think that's very powerfuland I never really, I had never
really thought about it beforethat conversation about like how
writing that medium and writingthat content is like an

(16:29):
opportunity for them to kind ofhold a mirror up to their own
sexuality and be like, Hmm,maybe I'm not.
As straight or as cisgender as Ithought I once was.
And I

I also, you know, and it's interesting, it's
complicated, right?
You know, on one hand it's like,why should a queer story be the
thing?
It's, it's essentially a journalentry.
You know what I mean?
To have them unpack theirfeelings.
I have a lot of conflictingfeelings about it and can, and
for me, I think the biggestpoint is.

(17:03):
I don't want the paychecks to betaken away from the queer
people.
So as long as there's sort ofroom for everyone I'm kind of
fine.
But when, if a publisher says,oh, we're sort of, we have our
fill of male, male romances andall of them are written by
women, that's where I start tofeel differently.

(17:26):
It's about like capacity,

That makes sense.
Well, what's funny is a lot,most of the popular MM romances
are all in independentlypublished.
Like they're not publishedthrough.
A trad publishing company, um,which I find interesting.
But to your credit, like I doagree.
I think that they'retraditionally published stories.

(17:50):
There is definitely more spacefor male authors who write
romance.

Anyway, just an interesting thought

way to throw that

I didn't, no, it's whatever.

And I, here's the thing is like, again, I
think

I.

if you write a good story, you write a good
story.
And I think for me personally,like positivity, queer
positivity, even if it, in myopinion, if it comes from
someone who maybe not, might notbe queer, but the story still
accomplishes, like visibilitywriting queer happiness and
queer joy.

(18:31):
I'm all for it.
I think the line is really drawnwhen like you're writing a story
but you're using queer trauma tosell your plot or to sell books.
That is where I kind of feel.

So this is sort of, this is an interesting segue
because among the books that Iread that has, it's been a
backlist, it's been on my TBRfor.
For ages but it's RazorbladeTears by Sa Cosby.
And I just had Sa Cosby on Gay'sreading a few weeks ago, and he

(19:07):
was an incredible person to talkto.
And when I asked him about whatallyship means to him, his
response really moved me.
In fact, he actually had aresponse to a different question
that fully unpacked whatallyship meant to him before I
could even ask him about it.
Have you read this?

Yes, I have, and I loved it.

Okay.
Well, I, I loved it.
I loved it so much, but it doesfetishize queer trauma or it
takes queer trauma and turns itinto this book.
I don't think it, to me, this isan exemplary example of how it
can be done successfully, but itwas really a story about.

(19:51):
Learning how to be an ally andwhat it meant and means to be
black and gay and what it meansto be the parent of a gay kid
and really what the book wasabout.
But at its core, it does it'sinciting incident.
It is gay trauma.

Yes.
However.
Doesn't, all that trauma ha allthat trauma happens before the
book even starts.

Yes, that's true.

And so you're not focused on like reading and
focusing on the trauma happeningto the queer characters.
It's like the, what happensafter that point.
And the story really focuses onthe father and the relationship
between father and son.
That is a really good book.
I'm glad you read it because.

I, I.
Everyone loved it.
I, it's, like I said, it's beenon my list for such a long time.
The problem with the podcast isthat if it, if a book has been
out for so long I don't oftenhave time to read it.
But I did and I genuinelycouldn't believe how much I
loved it.

That's the only essay Crosby I've read.

He is great.
I, I didn't re so I, his, he wason the show for, uh, his new
book, king of Ashes, and I lovedit.
And so I was like, wait, am I acrime fiction girly now?
Because of the event.
Then I read Razor Blade Tears,and now I'm in the middle of

(21:19):
this book, fog and Fury.
By Rachel Hausel Hall and alsoit's, it's crime fiction and I
am obsessed.
I love it so much.
I'm like, oh my God, this is mynew favorite thing is crime
fiction.
Anyway, that's all

fiction.
I don't have, I'm not readingany crime fiction right now, so
I apologize.

don't, that's okay.

That's so funny.

Rachel was at the book festival that I produced
this year in Palm Springs, andI'm obsessed with her as a
person.
But additionally in theconversation that she was having
at the festival, she brought upsomething that was so
interesting and has stuck withme for months now.
But the concept of we are all avillain in someone's story.

(22:09):
That is just interesting.
We've all done something at somepoint in our lives directly,
indirectly on purpose, not onpurpose, uh, where we are the
villain in someone else's story.
And it sort of broke my brainwhen I thought about that.

I'm, I'm not a villain.
I've never done anything wrongever in my life.
I'm only nice.

I find that so hard to believe.

Fine.
I was mean to my siblings.
It's okay.

Well, and like we all strive to be nice and to be
kind and to have empathy andAbsolutely.
But that doesn't, but we're notperfect, right?
We're only human.

That came from, she said that at the book
festival.
No.

Yeah.
So that, that has been a thingthat stuck with me.
And then because I'm on my crimefiction.
Journey.
Claire Leslie Hall, who wrotethe book, broken Country that I
loved so much, and Claire wasalso on Kay's reading.
She said, the Death of Us byAbigail Dean is one of her
favorite books of the year.
And she was like, Jason, youhave to read it, you'll love it.

(23:15):
And so this is Next afterFucking Fury.
But this is also, I believe,thrillery.
I don't know that it's crimefiction, but it's definitely
thriller.

Do you typically read those quicker?
Like you like can't put'em down?

I, I think so.
And it's, it's funny'cause we,you know, obviously talking
about character development andstuff earlier, I think tropes
are tropes for a reason.
And in rom-coms, in thrillers,in mysteries, you sort of know
the plot beats and so it'seasier to get to them.

(23:52):
It's like driving.
When you know the directions youget there, it's easier to get
there.
It takes the same amount oftime, but it's, but it is
mentally easier to get there.
Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, but I do, I do.
'cause there's a formula tofollow and a lot of times I feel
like if you do that, you got agood, you gotta, you got a good
outline of a

Yes.
And they work for a reason.

Yeah.
I'm trying to think of likereally good queer crime.

There's, um, lavender house

yes.
I was just

is solid.

Have you read all, have you read that whole
series

I read the first two.
I haven't read the third one.

and did you like those?
I haven't read those yet, but Iwant

I did, yeah.
I didn't love them.
They're a little cozy for me.

Oh, you like, you like, okay.
You.

Oh yeah.
Razor blade tears is so gory andking of ashes was so gory and
violent.
Listen, I don't love theviolence per se, but you know,
and sometimes cozy is the right,is the right vibe.
Oh my God.
For anyone who's just listening,Brad is, he just got up and got,

(25:10):
went to his bookcase, rummagingthrough, what did you pull?

Okay.
Have you heard of the softwareat all?

And there he kept her by Joshua Mulling.

Yeah,

No.

he is.
This would be like queer crimefic or crime.
What were you saying?
Crime

I said crime fiction, but a thriller crime
novel, all sorts of, okay.

Yeah, so the main character is gay and he is
a detective and

Yeah.

sorry, former police officer.

Officer, like that's fog and fury too.
She's a former police officerand now

Three books.
I think his third one just cameout actually, um, in the series.
So I'll have to look what it'scalled.
But

I really am.
Okay.
I'll have to check that out'cause I am in my crime thriller
adventure era.
Now if this is like commercialbreak for the Gays Reading Book
Club with Altoa, because nobodyknow Crime by Tess Sharp is

I just picked that up from the library.

Why did you not join the Gays Reading Book Club
Brad?

don't have money.
It's a library.
Library is free.

I know.
Thank you for supporting thelibrary.
Thank you for enriching thelives of the young people of our
future.
For those who don't know, Bradis an elementary school teacher
on his journey to become aprincipal.
We're very proud of Brad.
But nobody, no crime is sodelicious.
I loved it so much, and it's aqueer, it's a sic action

(26:47):
adventure thriller,

And that is your pick for all this month.

Yes,

Oh, nice.

I know.
And for those who don't know,when you join the Aldo Book
Club, you get 30% off the Altorowebsite.
You get the book deliveredstraight to your door.
You get to join the onlinecommunity of people who are also
reading the book, and Altodonates a book to an LGBTQ plus
young person.

All right.
You're selling me on it.

The link is in the bio, in the show notes.

Little bit at a time, a little.
You're gonna break down thesewalls.

No, listen I'm also thrilled you supported your
local library.
That is very important and moreimportantly, you can pause your
book club membership if you wantto or need to.

oh, that is a good, that is a good thing,

Yes.
But I'm the one picking thebooks, and I promise you're
gonna love them.

right?
But also in the sameconversation you said, we have
very different tastes,

do.
I have sort of branded the AltoaClub as accessibly literary.
so there are books that you'regonna feel like you could take
something away from it.
But and it's maybe a littlemeaty, but it is not hard to
read.

Okay.

Yeah.
That's my, and not you are, youare, obviously, you can read
hard books.
That is not, I don't mean toimply otherwise, it'll be,
they're fun to talk about.
Anyway, uh, I'm excited that youjust got it.
I can't wait to hear what youthink.

Well, so this is my problem is like the, so
the library near us was underrenovation for so long, and so I
just was driving by'cause I waslike, oh, I wanna see the new
building and see what it lookslike.
It's gorgeous.
Beautiful.
I'm like, gosh, I've never beenin a nicer library.
And of course I was like, well,I'll just look and see what.
They have because my current TBRis literally like a hundred

(28:35):
million thousand.
But yet I walked outta thatlibrary with four books.
Now I know good and well, I'mnot reading four books, so why
did I check them out?
I, because I have noself-control.

What for?
Are they, can we help you narrowthem down?

that one the resurrection is by a Ray Dunlap.
And that is about, like, it'squeer.
It's like a body snatcher.
I, it's it's set, it's like an,it's like historical fiction,
but, I had, this is why I gotit.
I'll tell you, I had applied onthe galley for the arc and it's,

(29:14):
I never read the digital copyand I felt, see this is, this
goes back to like feeling likeyou have to read every book that
you're given.
And I was like, well, maybe if Ihave the physical copy, I'll
read it.
And so that's why I got theResurrection is the other one is
the Palace of Eros, which is aqueer like Greek retelling.

(29:35):
And then I got the book yourecommended, and then I got Adam
RA's history is All You Left Me,which I heard was really good.
But again, I, I, so I went tothe library, I got all four of
those books, and I started abook that I owned last night.
I started gay The Pray Away by,

Oh,

Natalie Naus, who

is.
It is.
Okay.
Wait, okay.
I'm sorry.
This is this episode.
What is this episode?
Listeners?
You're gonna be like, Jason,what is happening?
Okay.
On, so Tess Sharp who wroteNobody, no Crime, she, I had her
on two weeks ago as a guestreader.

(30:17):
So she told me what she wasreading, but she also, we of
course talked about nobody, nocrime.
And one of the books that shetalked about re rereading and
loving is Gay the Pray Way.

Really,

Yes.

I, it's actually like really good.
It's.
About a girl who is in areligious cult.
And she at the library picks upone last stop by Casey McQuiston
and hides it from her family andlike, reads it and like slowly
comes to terms with hersexuality.
But this is, this is why I said,so the author, she does a lot

(30:49):
of, like, she's a narrator foraudio books and she wrote in
here like the note at thebeginning that.
When she started narrating, shewas drawn to queer stories and
then like really was like, huh,I wonder like why that is.
And then through narrating thosestories, realized that she saw

(31:11):
herself reflected in thosebooks.
And so like, which I thought wasreally cool.
And so like this is, I don'twanna say it's like a her story,
but like it's based off of likeher growing up.

Very cool.

It's really good so far.
I'm liking it.

Part of why I had a freak out about you mentioning
that book and the connection toTess is because Franklin and I
have been listening to thepodcast, the Telepathy tapes,
and it's a little, it's like,inappropriate to talk about
other podcasts on your ownpodcast, but.
The telepathy tapes is out ofcontrol.

(31:50):
It is so fascinating.
It's a 10 episode series withsome bonus episodes and
basically there is how do I wantto phrase this?
That is like accurateindependent.
Studies, so not like full-blown,scientifically accurate.

(32:12):
So I will just preface withthat.
But there have studies haveshown that nonverbal children or
nonverbal people with autism canread minds and can be
telepathic.
And I, I see the face you justmade.

(32:32):
And I, I receive that.
I hear it.
I, I understand it.
And this series blew my mind andthe concept of us all sort of
being connected and these sortof little moments of quote
unquote telepathy happening likethis.

(32:56):
Me talking about Tes Sharp, youbringing up that book
specifically, you didn't start abook from the library.
Little tiny moments that aresort of mysterious in the world.
This unpacks things and I amfascinated by it.
Highly recommend listening.
It

I feel like my husband would love that podcast.

Yeah.
Gotta tell him.

I actually will, I actually might give it a
listen.
I don't, it's not really like.
That's cool though.
I think that's like fan fantasyrelated, like it's hard to wrap
your head around telepathy beinglike a real thing.

Yes.

but

that it comes up, the way that it's sort of
suggested in the book is like.
Imagine living at a time whereeveryone believed the earth was
flat and suddenly you're like,wait, the earth is round.
And we're all like, no.
How could it be round?
It's flat.
Obviously I know the earth isround.
I like wanna make that veryclear?

I mean, there are people that still don't

no, I, I know, I know, I know.
But my point being that like,there are, how could we be so
naive to think that there.
We know everything,

Yeah,

right?
That's

very true.
That's a good perspective to putlike.

Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway, I am obsessed with it.
Highly recommend.

Okay.

And I read one other thing.
I can't believe I read so manythings,

have one more too that I wanna talk about, but
you go, you, I can go first oryou can go first.

so I'll, I'm happy to go first, but we.
I have been in and outta townand we were had out of town and
had lunch with a friend and, andhe asked if I'd want to come to
his book club a few days later.
And I was like, sure, we'll bearound.
What are you reading?
And he said, Giovanni's room.
And I knew that it was short andI have never read it.

(34:51):
And I was like, sure, I can readthat in three days.
Let me pick it.
Let me go grab it.
So I went and bought it from myfavorite local IND bookstore.
And that is my, my last one,Giovanni's Room by James
Baldwin.
I've have never, ever, ever reada James Baldwin book, and it was
really special.
Have you read it?

No, but I just recently bought it because
someone, I saw someone wastalking about it on TikTok, and
I was like, it's time I need toread James Baldwin because I've
done posts about him before, butI've never actually read any of
his work, so

Yeah.
Highly

myself a service I feel

It is very literary.
There again, I know that that'snot a deal breaker for you.
Some of it is sort of hard toget through because of that, and
obviously it was written in, inthe fifties.
But there's a lot to talk aboutand a lot to unpack and so I
look forward to chatting whenyou finished reading it.

Yeah.
So when did you already go tothe book club?
Or Oh, nice.
So did

Yeah, it was last week.

I.

Yeah, it was like bing bang, boom.
I read it so fast.
I took my notes.
I went to the, and let me tellyou, Brad, this book club was
very intense.
I loved it.
They, it, there were like 20people there.

A.

it was all gay men and two women, which I've
never been to a book club withgay men before.
And.
They pulled out the study guidefrom Penguin Random House and
asked the questions from thePenguin Random House guide.
A guy made Jeopardy for the bookand we broke into teams and

(36:24):
played Jeopardy.
So I feel like I got a veryrobust Giovanni's room
experience.

Okay.
I would be there so fast for theJeopardy alone.

Oh my God, it was so fun.

academic competition and middle school,
like accelerated reader programin elementary school where you
have to take quizzes on thebooks.
You read let's bring that back.
I.

Yes.

I wish there was something holding me
accountable for remembering whatI'm reading.

I understand that deeply.
But Jeopardy really fun,

did your team win?

My team did win.

Oh, it's probably'cause you were on it.

It did no.
It was like, honestly, everyoneread the book.
It was a very it was intense ina good way.
And it was, everyone was soexcited to be there and to talk
about the book and there were alot of polarizing feelings about
it and, uh, it was a reallygreat discussion and yeah, it
was cool.
Anyway, I'm curious to hearwhat, you know, what other
people do for their book clubs.

(37:26):
Because that was never myexperience.
My experience is always talk forsix minutes about the book and
then chat about life.

I mean, we talk our, I'm in a book club
with like four other guys and weyeah, we just go through what
worked for us, what didn't workfor us, how we felt it is.
I do feel like we talk more thansix minutes about the book, but,

I, no, it's certainly more than six months.
I'm being slightly hyperbolic,but.
What is your last book?

Okay.
So my last book is the Build aBoyfriend Project by Mason
Dever.

Oh

and I started this for like, not really
knowing what to expect, but one,ah, have you read it?

no, I have not,

Oh,

but tell me more.

a rom-com.
Just so you know,

love a romcom.

So one of my favorite movies in the whole
entire world is how to lose aguy in 10 days.
Kate Hudson,

I just watched it a couple weeks ago.

of course you did, because it's a masterpiece.

Yes, I love it.

and this book is giving me like those vibes,
like the main character worksfor like an online newspaper and
he's being forced to write anarticle he doesn't really want
to write because that's whatsells.
And so he.
Is sort of like dating this guyand like teaching him how to

(38:45):
date, but is writing an articlebehind his back too.
And so I'm like, this is givingme all of the how to lose a guy
in 10 day vibes,

Wait.
This is so good to know becausethere's another book coming out
in December in October called,isn't It Obvious By, lemme Just
Grab It.
I'm like looking really faraway.

right.

Headphones, it's called, isn't it?
Obvious By Racial Run yet Catsand I believe it is a modern
queer, you've got male.

I have seen that come up.
I keep seeing that author comeup as well, but I've not, I've
not read anything by her.
Um.

Now I'm just so excited.
These like.
Contemporary queer rom-coms thatare inspired by nineties
rom-coms.
They're made for us, Brad,

well, I don't know if this is like, I don't
know if the author has said thisis a direct, it just gave me
those vibes and

regardless.

loved it more.

yeah,

my nineties, give me nineties.
I am okay with that.

Fun.
Okay.
That's so good to know.
Are there more hockey romanceson your list, on your coming,
coming up?
I mean, are you, are you likeimmersed in the world of hockey?

Yes, so.
Well, that's so funny you saythat because that series I'm
reading, there's one more leftand I'm like holding.
I'm waiting.
'cause one, I don't want theseries to end, but two, the
sixth book is.
The continuation of another of acouple from Book Two's story.
And it's like the most lovedcouple of that series.

(40:25):
Like people go feral for thosetwo, and they're actually making
a TV show out of that book in

Oh fun.

So I, I'm actually kinda excited for that,
but I almost like, I don't, one,I just wanted to take like a
little hockey break.
I don't play hockey, I dunnoanything about hockey.
And you don't really need to,when you read those books, it's
not like the focus, but I justdidn't want the series to end.
I don't want the series to end.

Yeah, I was that person who like wouldn't read
the last chapter of a book orwouldn't watch the last season
of a series, or would I like,wouldn't want things to, I've
still never seen the last seasonof queers folk.
The

version.

Yes, I watched all of it except for the last
season.
'cause I just didn't want it toend.

Okay.
You need to watch that

I,

What are you doing?

I know.
Did you watch it?

Yes.

Okay.

used to be, I used to have to sneak watch that
show.

I know.
Welcome everybody.
Welcome to being a nineties kid.
You had to sneak watch.

And I would have it on and I where this is
so wild because we only got thatchannel at my grandparents'
house because it was onShowtime.
And where the TV was, you couldhear people walking down the
hall.
So I would be like secretlywatching it and I could only
like watch it late at nightafter everybody else had gone to
bed.
But the se my hand was likefrozen on the remote control.

(41:54):
And the second I heard any kindof sound, I would quickly change
the show to like cartoons orsomething and be like, I want,
hi, what are you doing, awake?
I'm just watching.
C

Anything else,

this infomercial

right?
This

2:00 AM

Uh, now that's what I call music commercial.

or like popup video.
Do you remember that?
On VH one?
I sorry.
You music videos.
Now I'm thinking about stuff inthe nineties.
Ah.

I know.
We were at dinner with friendsthe other night and fell down a
similar rabbit hole.
Similar time.
Brad, thank you so much forbeing here on this weird, random
sort of bonus episode of Gay'sReading.
This is

this was nice.
I got to like talk about, Ithink like talking about this
got me excited for.
Even like books that I own thatI haven't read yet.
Like this, you talking aboutreading crime thriller, like
I've actually never read thisone, but now I want to because

now, yes, you have to, you have to report
back.

I

You need to be like a gaze reading
correspondent.
Go read it and then report back.
We'll cut to Brad in the studio.

reporting live from New Jersey.
That's so

Oh my God.
This is the second to lastepisode of this season.
Next week is my last episode ofthe summer, and then I'm back
the beginning of September and Icannot wait for the people to
hear that episode.
Um.
That's like a cliffhanger forwhat's to come.

(43:29):
Speaking of cliffhanger, jointhe Gays Reading Book Club with
Stora.
Nobody, no Crime by Tess Sharp.
There isn't a cliffhanger, butit feels like there can be.

Now I need to, I need to read that book

read that book.
Join the club everyone.
Follow us on Instagram.
Follow brad on Instagram.
He is.
Brad bought a book.
He also just started a YouTubechannel.
Go follow him on YouTube.
You could follow Gay's readingon YouTube.
All the places.
All the things.

all the places.

And probably about now the closeout music
will be starting.
And Brad, thanks for being here.

Yeah.
Thanks for having me.

Have a great rest of your day.

you too.

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