TBNT S07E01 | Anticipated Reads Q1 2024

Hello book nerds!

We're back with a whole new season and we're kicking it off with our anticipated reads for the first quarter of 2024!

It's an eclectic list filled with family drama, witches, crime, tea, and all sorts. It's going to be an interesting reading year and we hope you'll join us.

Books mentioned:
- You Only Call Me When You're In Trouble by Stephen McCauley
- You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrique, translated by Natasha Wimmer
- Good Material by Dolly Alderton
- Illium by Lea Carpenter
- The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
- The Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
- Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
- Butter by Asako Yuzuki
- The Book of Love by Kelly Link
- Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
- Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
- The Searcher by Tana French
- Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Hello, friends and book lovers,Welcome to the first show of two book
net Stocking in twenty twenty four.I am your host, Hanya Ahmed,
and with me is my partner inbooks, Diana. Yo. How are
you, Diana? How's twenty twentyfour so far? Hey, honey.
We don't want to tell people whatthe date is today doing because you know

(00:28):
you're getting a little bit of alate start to the year. But I
mean it's okay, right, thebeginning of the year doesn't have to be
It doesn't just start with a bang, you know, like we've kind of
like just taken it easy so far. But that's the beauty of it.
I think you're here to decide whatyou want to do with yourn podcast,
right. I mean, I stillmaintained that the real New Year is Chinese

(00:50):
New Year, and it's a littlebit later this year, so you know,
you had a little bit more timeto get used to the idea of
a new year. Yeah. Imean, like, in case all of
you think that we are no longerin operation, we are still in operation.
Don't worry. We're still going tobe in your ear holes in twenty
twenty four. I think part ofit is my fault because I went for
Umrah in January. January, Yes, I came back from the Holy Lands.

(01:11):
It was really pretty cold, veryholy not a well it's like twenty
degrees or something in my Dina,but Tomoka was Mecca was hotter, but
it became colder. So by thetime I left Mcca it was sweater weather.
Right, it was in the teens. Okay, okay, that's not
was quite lovely. Actually, yeah, yeah, makes a nice change.

(01:34):
So we thought we'll start this year, and I suppose we're in season seven.
We finished up season six last year. Finally it was like a two
year season or something. But we'restarting season seven with some reads for your
year, right, So we've gota list of January, February, and
March books. Diana came out ofa really cool list, So we're just

(01:57):
going to ease you into the newreading it even though it's already February.
You know, this was going tobe a huge list because like, I
think it's got something you do withthe way everything like kind of stopped for
you know, two or three years, and then suddenly everything came back.
So so there was a very littlepublishing going on in that time. And
now suddenly everybody's publishing, right,and there's like, oh my god,

(02:22):
a ton of books out. Sothese are the kind of things that we
like. I personally, I lookforward to most of these books, and
I think, I think, youknow, like, I'm pretty sure I
caught your eye with some of thesebooks as through all. Honey, right,
yep? Yeah, So yes,shall we get to it, Diana,
because like I was looking through itlike a couple of days ago and
I was like, hey, Iwant to read some of these books.

(02:43):
Yeah, and I checked in twomore books in so hopefully we get through
it. Yeah, we kind tokind of go on and on. We're
discussing books since we're doing this inFebruary, and some of these books are
actually out in January, so youcan probably just mark them down and just
look out for them straight away.So yeah, which of these books would

(03:06):
you yeah, would you run outstraight out and get the January releases?
Honey? Oh, I don't know. I quite I quite think that your
alternate history of Mexican conquest was quiteinteresting. Okay, so you dreamed of
Empires by Alvardo and Regue, Soyeah, this is a translated book,
right, So yes, there's alwayssomething special about translated books because you know,

(03:31):
it feels like books that are publishedin the West. There's always a
certain worldview that you do get right, you get used to that. So
that's the interesting thing about translator reads. And I think, yeah, so
it gives you a little bit extraspace. Do you want to tell us
a bit about it. Well,it is an alternate history of the Mexican

(03:53):
conquest, and some reviewers have calledit colonialism as a bloody heist comedy into
what it means by a bloody heightstcomedy. But basically, it's a riff
on a foundation of Mexico City bythe conquistador Hernn Contest, and it reimagines
it as a comedy of errors andlucky chances that might have led to a

(04:15):
completely different history. But what isinteresting about this is that it seemed to
be written from a point of viewof somebody hallucinating over magic mushrooms and magic
tomatoes and two very fine slices ofcactus gle stive honey. So it seemed
to be almost like a fever dream. I mean from what I've read,

(04:38):
right, Diana, Yeah, thatis that interesting. There's something about the
whole premise of it that it's justlike whoa like it really like wow,
like it just it just blew meaway, just like Okay, I get
this a girl. But yeah,we don't know that much about the actual
real history, so it'd be interestingto have this be our interest reduction to

(05:00):
that story. The way it's described, like, it's supposed to be like
a little bit very very out thereas well, like kind of like like
you were saying, like like feverdream kind of thing. You know.
So it's supposed to like chronicle thefirst contact within contest and Montezuma. But
it says here that they were trippingso hot in this book that they don't
even need translators. And I thinkthis is where you also have to be

(05:27):
some give some credit to the translator, because apparently Natasha women who actually translated
this, did an excellent job.En Rique also apparently uses modern language in
the narrative, so you know,is he uses like phrases like a pack
of clowns. Somebody had to haveMontezima's back, So I think he makes

(05:48):
it's a bit more contemporary as well, so that you're not just reading like
a dry historical fiction which the dayshistorical fiction is not dry these days.
A lot of it kind of readslike a thriller. Yeah, And my
favorite description is that parts of thenovel plays like an stec West wing.

(06:09):
Yeah, do you do figure?Sounds quite interesting, so political maneuverings while
tripping on something this kind of novelalways. The thing that we get nowadays
is we have very few novels thatcan be encapsulated into one single genre.
I think a lot of times peopleare writing things that that you know,
like that. It's it's part historicalfiction, it's also part like magical reality

(06:32):
kind of thing, and also atthe same time it's kind of like a
farcical kind of novel as well.All of these added together, it's it's
so much more interesting nowadays the booksthat we get, right, it's not
just something that you can pick youcould read. I could pick this up
and I'll know exactly what I'm gettingfor it. So it's a little bit.
I think it's quite picoresque in itsown way as well. It's definitely

(06:57):
I think one of the more interestingones on the list. I don't know
whether it's a comedic novel, butthere is a comedic novel here, and
it sounds like something you would tellyour children, Diana, because he's called
you only call when you're in trouble. By Stephen mccowny. The key premise
that people say the book is aboutis basically it's asking the question, is

(07:18):
it ever okay to stop caring forothers and start living for yourself? Okay?
So it's about a guy who he'san architect who specializes in building tiny
houses, and he's like, okay, like this is my year, right,
this is this year. I'm goingto be building this the greatest masterpiece

(07:42):
of my career. Right, Andhe's getting ready to do this, and
suddenly he's pulled back into his family, all the drama in his in his
sister's family's life. In a way, it kind of reminded me of like,
you know, like you always think, Okay, I need to handle
one thing at a time, Likewhen my family's busy and with the stuff
going on, I don't have theheadspace to go and do stuff that I

(08:05):
want to do, so you alwaysput that off until later, and then
before you know it, it's beenlike years and years and you can't ever
get away from that family drama.Right, There's always something going on in
life. You know. I guessevery family has that, right, Every
family has that person who sort oflike is the one that drops everything in

(08:26):
order to deal with a family crisisperhaps, you know. And you're following
this guy and he's in his sixtiesand literally he's been picking up the pieces
of his sister and his niece allhis life, and he's just been dumbed
by his boyfriend as well. Soit's just literally it's kind of like a
late middle aged novel, I guessof choices that you make and wondering whether

(08:46):
or not your life, you know, like whether or not you made the
right decisions in your life. Andat the same time, you love your
family, but sometimes you want tosmack them, you know. But it's
supposed to be really funny, yeah, also meant to be quite warm,
and it's one of those like it'sa family story but told through some bright

(09:07):
humor. And it's also very relatablein that way, right because you know,
like it's there's always something going onin your lives and if you if
you allow yourself to be sucked in, it's this is never ending, is
it? I mean? I meanthe issues are very contemporary, right because
in a way he has to youknow, he has to look for a

(09:30):
new job. And you know thisidea that after the pandemic, so many
people have to sort of like gofor second careers and study, having to
write your CV and at a middleage, you know, and then his
sister kind of like is entralled bya self help guru, so you know,
like trying to find belonging, joiningsout sort of like this new age
kind of like nature cult. Imean, I love the book that this

(09:52):
self help guru wrote. Her nameis Fiona Snow and her book is called
The Nature of Success in Successful Natures. Such a little crime. It had
been the guiding principle of her relationshipwith her. She'd talked with her daughter

(10:13):
about her problems with men, heruse of drugs, Tom's her brother,
and Cecily's uncle, sexuality, eventhe love affairs of the assorted people who
sometimes stayed with them. She'd alwaystreated Cecily like a much younger friend.
Telling her now that she'd known theidentity of her father all along, and

(10:35):
obviously how to contact him, wouldbe an admission of her having lied about
this crucial piece of information for decades. She hated to paint herself as a
liar, especially as a result oftelling the truth. She couldn't bear the
thought of turning Cecily against her.She read over the email yet again.

(10:56):
She had to send this off.The opening party. The word gala had
the same cringe factor for her astown home was in two weeks, and
she'd promised Fiona, her business partner, she would invite as many people as
possible. In fairness, she neededto give Cecily advance warning and time to
make plans. The whole point ofincluding these hints was to demolish the option

(11:22):
of changing her mind about telling her. The retreat center was Dorothy's last chance
at a business success, a wayto redeem herself for past disappointments, to
repay Tom what she owed him,and to leave Cecily a small legacy.
Fiona had assured her that with hername made from a best selling self help

(11:43):
book Dorothy hadn't read yet, theycould run a couple of weekend seminars each
month and bring in an impressive midsixth figure in the first year alone.
When my next book comes out,she'd said, we can expect band and
Things will really take off. Thiskind of book, it never used to

(12:09):
to appeal to be like but Ithink I think it's just something about just
recognizing that families are dysfunctional and liesare dysfunctional, and leaning into the humor
of that, and being and beingokay with things being messy and being okay
with things just having things happen aroundyou and not getting to thrown sideways by

(12:33):
that. And I think that's alesson that you have to learn, and
you never really learned that until you'reolder. So that's pretty much do you
because clearly you're this dude here,right, he's in his sixties, right,
and still to not have learned,well, at the very least,
to have boundaries in his family.Well, it's one hopes that you know,

(12:56):
like like like not like even ifyou don't learned the lesson when you're
in your fifties, even as inyour sixties, you know, you can
still learn something and you can stilllearn how to handle these things. So
yeah, so yeah, there's ifyou think that this kind of like warm

(13:16):
you like family relationships kind of likea slight kind of not really satire,
but a witty novel about family issomething that you're looking out for. You
could also look out for this otherbook called Good Material by Dolly Elderson,
which is also coming out in January. And yeah, also a story about

(13:39):
a guy who is trying to pickup the piece of his life. Yeah.
What did you think of this one, honey? Well, this is
almost like the other side of thebook that we were discussing before, because
this is sort of like you haveI guess, baby boomer ennui on that
side, and this is like millennialnui, you know. So these are

(14:01):
problems that thirty somethings have, andgenerally right, people in their thirties now
they are sort of like going throughI guess you and I have been through
this right where you're kind of likereevaluating your life. You're approaching your forties,
you're wondering have I made the rightdecisions? But people in the thirties
today have more to reckon with becausethey have kind of like grew up,

(14:24):
I guess in the age of Internet, in the age of seeing all these
people achieve great things on YouTube.So in a way, I feel when
I was reading the blurb on this, I felt that it's sort of like
Aldertons kind of like gets the zeitguistof what it is of a generation,
you know what I mean. Soit's just this obsessive self reflection that I

(14:48):
think a lot of millennial my millennialfriends have like obsessive self reflection, and
yet they don't quite do anything aboutit. Okay, am I being mean?
I don't know, I'm not sure. I mean, I think it's
it's it's sort of like we're allowingthirty somethings to still be in the stage

(15:09):
of exploring now, Like I think, I think that's what I've noticed about
it. Good point, because youknow, it used to be that you
had to be kind of like settledin your thirties and you had to be
like you you be on the rightpath, you be on your way to
you know, like to hitting allthe goals right. But books like these
you basically realize that, no,it doesn't mean that you can you you

(15:33):
have everything figured out in your thirties, you know, it often is the
case that you don't and thirty something, your own people are still having to
figure out dating relationships, you know, like breakups, you know, like
trying to figure out your own identity, trying to figure out where you're headed
in your life, right, AndI think that's that's honest, and it's

(15:54):
also very real, and it's alsosomething that pretty probably really quite relatable,
right because I think that that's that'skind of Dolly Elderton's stick, now,
isn't it She kind of like,does this she examines this kind of era
quite a fair bit. No,But but this this is what I thought
was quite interesting about this list,because when you look at what the book

(16:15):
is about, you're going like,Okay, that sounds like, you know,
somebody going to a heartbreak, youknow, if there's a million books,
so I think, to be honest, a lot of this is actually
you are reading it for the author. You're reading it for their point of
view or how they write their pros. And I kind of like the fact
that it has a lot of sliceof life on this list or I mean,
you know, I mean the Mexicanone. Maybe not how many of

(16:40):
you can make like you know,Conquistinots. But you know, it's like,
but I don't know whether you willcall this a romantic fiction. Maybe
I don't know, but I thinkit's more like how does somebody deal with
heart break? Yeah? And youknow, I suppose in different parts of
your life you feel things differently I'mtrying to think whether a hypbrink in your

(17:02):
thirties is any worse than hyghbrink inyour forties. Summer twenty nineteen, Reasons
why It's good I'm not with Jencan't dance has no rhythm at all.
Used to find it adorable until Isaw people laughing at her, and I

(17:26):
hate to say I was embarrassed.Generally, it has quite nineties ideas about
what is glamorous, like cocktails orspending twenty pounds on a plate of taglia.
Telly in a Little Place refuses toget to the airport a minute earlier
than ninety minutes before a flight takesoff. When she would go for a

(17:47):
run in the evening, she wouldcome into the living room, stretch in
front of the TV and say,what's this and make me explain the program
I was watching, even though sheknew what it was, just to make
a point that she was exercising whileI was watching Help. I'm a hoarder.
Always used to boast about how she'dreject an OBE if it were offered
to her because of her apparent leftyRepublican values, but would never know why

(18:12):
she'd been offered an OBE. Inthis fantasy when I asked her, would
definitely never reject an obe if itwere offered to her, would take an
hour to go to bed, nomatter what time she got in, because
she'd do a seven step skincare routine, browse shopping apps, and listen to
podcasts, and yet only left twentyminutes from her alarm going off to having

(18:36):
to leave the flat in the morning. Always late for me, never late
for work, can't drive childish somehowmanaged to relate the plot of every film
we watched back to her own life. Her work friends boring and clique and

(18:57):
not fun or funny, was tooconnected to dougs and spoke to them as
if they were people. Her routedad. Her weird mum comes from a
family who go on long circular walksand playboard games, annoyingly loquacious, and

(19:18):
was on a debating team at herschool, which meant I didn't win an
argument in nearly four years, evenwhen I was right about loads of them.
Talked at the cinema, lingered toolong in museums at every artifact or
painting, and would ever go atme if I walked through the exhibition too
quickly. Once saw her nod respectfullyat a tiny jade spoon in the British

(19:44):
Museum. I only saw a crya handful of times in nearly four years
together, and it wasn't when webroke up. One time was when we
were watching a Johnny Mitchell documentary RuinedMy Life. Yeah, it used to

(20:06):
be that you would call this,uh, like you'd shelve this in the
romance section, right, because it'sall about dating and relationships. But but
what I like about a lot ofthese books that are coming out now,
it doesn't always have to end uphappier ever after. I don't know where
this book ends up, so likeno spoilers or anything like that. I
haven't read it, but but Ithink I hope that, you know,

(20:29):
like we're okay with picking up booksthat are about dating and relationships and and
you know, like trying to findyou know, try to find love for
yourself if not with someone else,and it's okay if they don't end up
with a relationship. I think it'sfine. I think it's I think it's
perfectly fine. I think we thinkI think we should definitely open it up
so that more books talk about endingup with just yourself and being okay with

(20:55):
it. Yeah, I don't knowwhether this is that kind of book,
but it's interesting because it goes intothings like cyberstalking your ex, going to
your friends children's birthday parties, andfeeling very odd because you don't have children.
So I think a lot of thescenarios that she puts Andy in so

(21:15):
and these your protagonist is very relatable, you know, because you are at
that age where you have enough friendswho are married with children, but your
children are still young, and you'vegone through a couple of relationships. But
you're also probably thinking about, oh, maybe I should get married right at
this point if I want children.So there's a lot of these sort of
things that go in your head becausein some ways you're kind of like at

(21:40):
the cusp, right at the cuspof real adulthood. I don't know,
coming to terms with the fact thatperhaps your path is not the same.
It's not the conventional path if youhave not found a one or if you
not had that job, you know, if you're not children. So maybe
I think it's a book that definitelyis relatable, but it is dating and
modern relationships through the eyes of amale character. You don't often have that,

(22:03):
right, So the tire's true.Yeah, well, I mean,
like, you know, maybe wedon't haunt the the romance section enough to
be able to say that. Imean like Nick Hornby's books come to mind
because he writes the male point ofview, right, and a dating male

(22:25):
point of view, So you know, there you go. So maybe that's
sort of like the baseline of thesesort of books, you know, if
you want to know what is theflavor of it? Although I really,
I really would wonder if if hisreadership is mostly still women. Huh,
women trying to understand men. Idon't know. Okay. Now, the

(22:48):
next book on Dinah's Fantastic list issort of like, I feel, almost
made to be made into a TVseries or a movie. Yeah, it
is exactly yeah, right right.It's called Ilium by Lee Carpenter, and
it's an edgy confessional novel with thetrappings of spy fiction. And it's set

(23:08):
in the dark hole of international espionagefrom London to Mayoca, Croatia, Paris
and Capt Ferret. I don't knowwhere Cap Ferret is. And it's a
suspenseful story of a young woman whounwittingly becomes a perfect asset in the long
overdue finale of a COVID special ops. Okay, so I don't know it's
giving me vibes. It almost givesme Rebecca vibes a little bit, because

(23:30):
it's about a young girl who meetsan older man, gets swept up in
a whirlwind romance, only to findherself having to act as an art dealer
to sort of like a trap aRussian oodigarch or something. And I think
what's interesting about it is that eversince the Cold War ended, spy novels

(23:52):
have never really been the same,right because during the I mean the Co
War era, when you talk aboutpeople like Lakai, you know, I
mean, and honestly, I waslistening to Thinker Tailor Soldiers by the other
day in the car because my husbandwas rereading it, re listening to it.
And it's true, right if youthink about the espionage, the golden
age of espionage, that is,the Core War was like where everything was

(24:14):
kind of interesting and intriguing and andlike there's a lot of like double agents
and stuff like that. And thenafter that, you know, like it
kind of fizzle out. The genrekind of fizzle out, you know,
like the James Bond era you know, kind of fizzle out. So but
this one it actually sort of likebrings it back. You can still have
Russia as your enemy, I guess, yeah, right, Diana, I

(24:36):
don't know. Yeah, I'm gettingsomewhere with this conversation. Because it's actually
a plan to assassinate a Russian Itreally doesn't really seem to be something that
you have to limit yourself to inthe time, like you have intrigue between
the West and Russia, like thatgoes on throughout the years, Like you're

(25:00):
there's still a lot of meet inhaving Russian intrigue, even in TV series
around days, right, it's stillthere. But yeah, I mean,
I get what you're saying. Iget what you're saying. It seems to
be like it's not really something thatpeople have been using that much in spy
novels. Maybe what makes this novelinteresting is because it goes into moral ambiguity,

(25:22):
you know, like you start bondingwith this Russian oligarch, you meet
his family and his children, andit's just the idea that maybe at one
time you were a very dangerous killer, but you might have retired and you've
decided to turn over a new leave. But your sins come after you.
It really kind of goes into thosesort of like issues, right, And

(25:47):
this is why I feel it willbecome a movie. People still like to
watch shows about spies. Yeah,yeah, definitely definitely still exists. Also,
the whole idea of being the waythat people are doing these kind of
thing covert things just to try andhandle situations like this whole idea like we

(26:07):
always wonder what governments and you know, like agencies are doing behind our backs
to just to manipulate events. AndI think just like when when when Obama's
administration just suddenly announced out of nowherethat they had actually killed Osama bin Laden,
like, and no one had beenthinking about it for years, and

(26:30):
no one knew that they had beendoing all that all the time. So
all these things seemed to go onunder the under our radars. Yeah,
that's a very good real world exampleof you know, something that you don't
think about. I mean, likemy friend went and interviewed the second brother
in Pulpot's administration. But this wasyears after the Cami route pulled out of

(26:53):
Cambodia. And if you see him, he just looks like an old uncle,
but yet he was brother number two, right, so he kind of
you know, so many people diedunder his command. So it's just really
like at that point, right,if there was like a plot to assassinate
him or something like that. Butimagine this is like twenty years later,
twenty five years later, he's gotgrandchildren running around you, you know,

(27:15):
when you when you talk to him, it just feels like just like somebody
that you meet in a coffee shop, and yet he's like this killer,
right, So it's just interesting thatthe moral ambiguity is interesting. I feel
for the sort of light novels,so I guess it's a must read for
you, honey. I suppose byreading has been quite dismal lately. I

(27:36):
feel like a slightly failed book.Note. I should not tell this to
our listeners. I think everybody alwaysthinks that you and I read consistently,
and you know, let's let's trynot to disillusion everyone. But yeah,
you've got a couple of hye a'shere. I think the next one is
something that Stephanie, our producer,would love. Right. It's called because

(27:59):
it's by We're still Sutherland, andshe loved House of Honors. She did
she did read House of Hollow it'ssomething you would like do because it's about
witches. Actually, actually, Idid actually pick this. I picked this
because I thought it was like,oh, okay on I don't usually like
to pick out y A. Idon't know, there's something about ya that

(28:22):
feels like a little bit over dramaticfor me too much at once. So
I kind of like my novels lookquieter nowadays. But yeah, maybe I'll
give this on a try. TheInvocations by Crystal Sutherland. It's a paranormal
thriller, a darkly seductive, witchythriller with three young women team up to
track down a serial killer who's targetingwitches. See that's interesting because she used

(28:48):
the word serial killer. You know, like if a serial killer has a
type do Sira Kulla type witches?How do you know a person is a
witch? Though? So I don'tknow if the sirial knows how. There
are riches. But there's there's somany twists in this. Okay, So
the blurb goes, Jude Wolf becamecursed after a deal with a demon went

(29:11):
awry, and as a result,she was kicked out of her rich and
well connected family. Okay, soundgood so far. And then now we've
got switching to another character. SoZarah Jones wants to bring back her murdered
sister back from the dead. Okay, it's like, okay, necamancy thrown
in? Why not right? Andthen they they kind of like, so

(29:36):
these two kind of team up withanother witch known as a curse writer.
She's very cool. A curse writer. I've never heard of this country,
so it sounds really cool. Soshe's somebody who writes invocations that give women
power in exchange for letting a demonhave part of their souls. And that's
you know, that's what makes themwitches. Okay, So which brings us

(29:59):
back to how does regular knows thata person is a witch because they go
after Emmer's previous clients? So isthere a connection to mm or we don't
know? Right? Sometimes I feellike, okay, the thing is the
other thing. The other pet peeveI have with Ye with YA books is
that people aren't coloring within lines anymore when it comes to genre, right,

(30:22):
But when it comes to Ya sometimesthey color too far out of the
lines. It's too many elements,I feel. So it's it's a Ya
paranormal thriller with queer romance. Andfeminist rade feminist rage. Like, look,
I don't mind when it's done well. Sometimes it's it's trying too hard.

(30:44):
I think it's sometimes it is bitingoff too much that you can chew.
I like to be proven wrong.I like to try something and not
feel that it's you know, likeit needs to be toned down a bit,
not try to do too much atthe ones, not to be too
ambitious. And on top of that, it also has evocative body horror.
Yeah what is evocative body horror?I mean like it doesn't sound like something

(31:06):
that I would totally enjoy body horror. Yeah, it doesn't sound like your
cup of tea. Yeah. Soyeah, I do like Meo witching novel.
I do like BeO bitching novel.And I do like, you know,
I do want sometimes to be thrilled. I do like the way that
why A novels tend to be verybold and brave and and do things that

(31:29):
you wouldn't do in a a ina more laid back novel. Like you
know, like sometimes you need alittle bit more energy in your reading,
you like, just make you likejust punch through the pages. But yeah,
it remains me seen light from theirwindows reflects on the smooth surface of

(31:52):
the water, creating an eerie mirrorworld just below the real one. House
Boats sit snow against the canal's edge, the smell of wood smoke clinging to
the air around them. A huge, fat dog sits atop one, watching
her As she passes. The soundsof revelry dissolve into the distance, but

(32:17):
there is still life here, stillpeople to hear her if she were to
scream. She crosses beneath a bridge. She moves on quickly. The next
stretch of the walk is worse.There are no more houseboats, there are
no more fancy flats, There isno one to come to her aid.

(32:38):
The girl crosses under a second bluelit bridge, and then a third that's
rancid with the stink of urine.She makes it to the base of the
stairs that leap up out of thedarkness and onto the brightly lit street above.
A girl walks home alone, butnot alone. She feels him before

(33:00):
she sees him. There's no soundor movement or smell, just some primordial
response left over in the blood froma time before humans were humans. A
sudden prickle of fright in her gut. Her eyes find the figure immediately,

(33:21):
standing stationary on the path. He'sa slip of shadow, nothing more,
no face, no weapon, nothingto indicate that he might do her harm.
Just a man. But she isa girl, and she is alone,
and it is night, and thatis enough. She ducks her head

(33:45):
and takes the stairs two at atime, but tries to do it casually,
the way women do when they're afraid, but trying not to look rude.
She forces herself not to run.There's no need for desperate measures.
Not yet. He's just a manon the tow path at night. It
would be rude to run. Andsometimes, well sometimes if you run,

(34:10):
the monster chases you. Will youpick this up, honey, I don't
know. That's probably not going tobe on top of my list, although
the next one by half. Yeah, yes, this one sounds really good.
I've not read Wee Hand a Flame, but I know she's got tons

(34:31):
of fans. But this is aduology. It's about an orphan girl and
her crew who get tangled in aheist with fat bias, perfect for Lee
Bardugo's six Off Crows. So FatBias Secrets at Tea. Yeah, so
if you're a fan of Crows,yes, sir, and I'm a pet
of vat bios and tea, andI do enjoy a secret or two.

(34:54):
So so apparently this is already causingquite a lot of hype on TikTok.
I like, I like how it'sit's talking about, Like it's set in
this like tea establishment. Right,that's a cute way to start a book,
right, But at night it becomesa bloodhouse and it caters to vampires.

(35:15):
So teas tea during the day forhumans and blood at night. It's
a that a cute way of noddingat you know, I guess the terms
of praises as well, Like,you know, it's not just tea as
in drink the tea you drink,it's also tea because it's he's a collector
of secrets, so he spells teabecause he's a criminal mastermind. So yeah,
cool, right, yep, yep, yep. And then of course

(35:37):
something happens and the establishment is threatened, so she has I think it's a
woman, right, I'm not surethe name is Arty Arthy Casimir, Okay,
it's the is the owner of saidtea house. She has to plan
something and this is where the heightscomes in. So she calls on a

(35:58):
band of misfits. They have toinfiltrate the dark and glittering vampire society known
as the Ethereum. Uh. Andof course all kinds of conspiracies and secrets
unfold. It is dark, action, fact and sowoon worthy. So there
must be some kind of hot vampiresomewhere Tea. You know, if there's

(36:22):
one thing, there's one trend thatI really quite I can get behind,
it's this whole trend of like invertingthe whole evil vampires are evil trope.
So now now now we're we're gettingto the stage where vampires they just misunderstood.
You know, you only think ofthem as evil because you don't know
anything about them. So it's badvampires and good vampires, like there's good

(36:43):
people in bad yeah. Yeah.So like you know, like okay,
we had we had the era whereyou know, like Twilight just kind of
like made us we think the wholeyou know, vampires just just exists to
suck your blood. You know,it's completely with the vampires so much differently
now because everything that people are writingnowadays about vampires. So this is another

(37:06):
one of those books that has youknow, it's about the vampire society and
like things go wrong, it happensto them. It didn't. They don't
cause the trouble. So well,you know, you live for so long,
right you kind of like, Imean, something's got to give,
right your sanity. You you youjust have a very different point of view

(37:28):
on cruelty because it's just that age, right, It's just that you live
for for like a thousand years orsomething or more than that. Right.
Oh No, I mean like Ihave to counter that with you know,
you know how jaded young people arenowadays. The most jaded people in society
are the gen zs. Okay,so you should an optimistic vampire Diana and

(37:53):
optimistic upbeat vampires. So I completelyI would completely say, like you know,
like by the time you get toyour thirties, they kind of calm
down a little bit. So millennialsthey are chiller than they used to be.
Yeah, yeah, you notice that, right, you know, sounds

(38:14):
like do all antis honestly you tellit like it is Okay, we haven't
even got that past January yet.No, but we we can't leave beauty
land behind. We had to talkabout beauty Land like this is such a
I don't. I mean, like, I don't know what to think about
this book, but but yeah,but like I want to check it out

(38:36):
just because it's because I just like, huh, I'm like reading this blood,
I'm like, huh, what's this? So? Okay, Beauty Land
by Burrie Helene Bertino, It's okay. It's about a woman who doesn't feel
at home on Earth, and that'snatural because she's not from Earth. She's

(38:57):
actually an alien. So okay,let's start with who she is. It's
her name is Adina Giorno, andshe always knew she was different because she
was born with this knowledge of afar away planet, and she's she's like,
she's like, she's always known thatshe's different from everyone around else around
her. And then her suspicions areconfirmed when she receives a fax machine that

(39:24):
allows her to contact her relatives ingalaxies far far away. Okay, so
she's basically been sent to Earth tokind of be a spy and find out
about, you know, all theseridiculous human beings. Right. So she
lives in the world and she's tryingto make a life for herself among humans,

(39:47):
and she's writing home and telling themabout what it's like here and what
people are like and how and whathuman beings are like, and in a
way, it's kind of like averse figuring out of what it means to
be human like from the outside.It's an interesting premise. It definitely is
interesting because she was sent down toEarth in Vitro, so she was born

(40:13):
of a woman, so she wassending to somebody's somewhat basically, I think,
I think that is the premise.So she has a mother. But
I thought what was interesting is thatit's kind of like an outsider, right,
So she's an outsider that looks likean insider, you know. And
I suppose again, it's apparently it'sdescribed as a funny, sad novel.

(40:39):
I like that, a funny sadnovel. Yeah, so yeah, I
mean, there's this one line thatI was reading about, you know about
it. It's where somebody described itas a novel of startling originality about the
fragility and resilience of life on ourearth and in our youth universe. And

(41:00):
it's apparently a remarkable evocation of thefeeling of being in exile at home and
nice yeah, and introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for all times so I
kind of get why somebody writes thisbecause because everyone kind of feels like an
alien sometimes. Okay, like ifyou like like like everyone feels like nobody

(41:22):
else understands what they're going through,nobody nobody really gets what you are.
Like inside your head, you feellike sometimes you feel like an alien,
like like you know, everyone elsegets knows what's going on, and I
don't. I'm just lost here.But what is the purpose of extraterrestrial relatives?
Is it because they're going extinct andthey want to find out where the

(41:42):
Earth is somewhere they can live on. Are they going to come and invade?
Yeah? Because if it's kind oflike a funny set novel, I
think the aliens are not evil.I think they're quite benign. I think
they're probably trying to find it.It sounds like they're trying just trying to
figure out to finding new you know, like like let's send and that mission
and find out whether you know,we can. It kind of sounds like

(42:02):
something that Becky Chamber is my righteYes, yes, yeah, it's true,
it's true. And also I thinkhop punk like hope punk. I
think I hope it is. Ihope it is it's it sounds like it
could be. It's quite promising,but at the same time, there are
things there that could go wrong.I'm not sure. Well, you know,

(42:27):
each book that you open is arisk of time well spent or time
wasted. So you know, wellsaid it's true. Yeah, yeah,
but you know then that's a perpetualquestion of like where do you stop in
Indeed, indeed, okay, let'sKorean into February. The book that I'm
looking forward to is Catherine Arden's TheWarm Hands of Ghosts. So after she

(42:50):
wrote The Bear and the Nightingale trilogy, she has not written an adult novel.
I read her Small Spaces series.She wrote a whole bunch of middle
grade books. Of course, shewas trying to finish this book. Okay,
I have had knowledge of this bookfor maybe seven years. I think
it took us seven to eight yearsto write this book. It's a very
ambitious novel. But I love thetitle, The Warm Hands of Ghosts.

(43:14):
Such a cool title. So basicallyit is set in World War One,
where a Canadian nurse searches for herbrother believed did in the trenches, despite
eviie science that suggests otherwise. Thegymnasium had been turned into a hospital.

(43:36):
Ward sensibly laid out, ruthlessly organized, competently staffed. Laura was doing rounds
bent over a bed, and hernext patient was a blistered little boy.
The child wept as she peeled offhis dressings. Hush, said Laura,
it'll only hurt for a moment.And if you're crying, how can I

(43:59):
tell you about purple horse? Thelittle boy scowled at her through his tears.
Horses aren't purple. There was one, Laura snipped away, stained gauze.
I saw it with my own eyesin France. Naturally, the horse

(44:19):
didn't start out purple. It waswhite, a beautiful white horse that belonged
to a doctor. But the doctorwas afraid that someone would see his white
horse on a dark night and shoothim. Turn that way. He wanted
a horse that would be hard tosee at night, so he went to

(44:39):
a witch, a lurch. Thereare witches in France, of course there
are be still, don't you rememberyour fairy tales? Freddy loved them.
Well. The witches havn't stayed inFrance, the child informed her, in

(45:00):
a voice that quivered with the waron. Maybe witches like the war.
They can do what they like witheveryone busy fighting. Now, do you
want to hear about the purple horseor not turn back? Yes, said
the little boy. He was lookingup at her, now wide eyed.

(45:22):
All right, well, the witchgave the doctor a magic spell to make
the horse dark. But when thedoctor tried it poof purple as a hyacinth.
The child was finally distracted. Wasit a magic hourse? He demanded

(45:43):
after it turned purple. Laura wastying off the bandages. The child's tears
had dried. Yes, of course, it could gallop from Paris to pee
King in an hour. The doctorwent straight to Berlin and hold the kaiser's
nose. The child smiled. Atlast, I'd like a magic course.

(46:07):
I'd gallop away and find Elsie.Elsie was his sister. They'd been walking
to school together when the ship blewup. Laura didn't reply, but smoothed
the matted, tow colored hair andgot up. Her brother's real name was
Wilfred, but hardly anyone remembered.He'd been Freddy from infancy. He was

(46:30):
serving overseas. He still hadn't writtenback Freddie, even which is the brother
of this Canadian nurse was wounded entrappedwith an enemy soldier, Hans Winter under
appeal box during World War One.Wouldn't mind dying, but after he and

(46:52):
Hans Claudia way out, returning tofight against each other seems impossible. When
I a serious stranger offers them shelterin a way forget their trauma, the
lies between reality and imagination start toblow. Months later, Freddy's sister Laura
is notified of his death, butwhispers or battlefield hauntings call her to the
trenches to see whether Freddy has survivedor fallen victim to something more sinister.

(47:16):
H What do you think of that, Dina? I was actually quite interested
in the idea of it, althoughI think, you know, like it
sounds like it could be quite aharrowing read, and I think I think
a lot of people have found itquite grim. So that's something to be
aware of. You know. It'snot anything at all like the Bear and

(47:39):
the Nightingale, so bye bye,way do they make like some kind of
a deal with a devil or somethingto be able to exist in some kind
of twilight existence? I'm not reallysure where it goes with it. I've
read something like if you go tothe good Reads page for this book,
there's something that that Catherine Arden hasactually written a note that she's written about

(48:02):
this book there, because she saysthat it took her a long time to
write this book, like it waskind of like she was really compelled to
write it, but it was verydifficult, and I think a lot of
people said that there's there's something veryjarring about the way it's written, and
also the way that what happens inthe book is actually quite you know,

(48:23):
like dark as well. So it'sit's it's basically you know, her contemplation
about love and loss and trauma,marama and war like like you like,
it's how evil and and and howhellish you know, this this thing we
put ourselves through is you know,like like and and you think sometimes that

(48:46):
we're done with talking about war,but you know, like still going on.
No, We're still talking about war. We're talking about war all the
time. Like this is like we'renot out of we're not away from war.
Like most of the time, itfeels like we're we're just caught in
this loop time loop because people areon the one hand, they've forgotten about

(49:07):
the traumas from the wars. Like, you know, people said that after
World War Two they're gonna remember whathappened and they're never going to do that
again. But now people are talkingabout war so openly all the time now,
like it's going on right now.Yeah, you've completely forgotten what it's
like, and so it's it's supposedto be really heartbreaking in that sense.

(49:29):
This book, it sounds like avery very difficult read, but maybe necessary.
I'm definitely going to read his book. I am. I think I've
read pretty much everything she's written.I am quite a fan. Okay,
the next book is really cool aswell. So we're talking about Butter.
It's a novel of food and murderby Asako Yuzuki. Now, the translated

(49:51):
novel by Polly Barton. Polly Bartonis is she's I don't know how she
does it, but she's like she'stranslated everything, right, She's just basically
trans the entire Japanese of the entireworld japan literature, and we're also grateful
for it. Every almost every singlebook that comes from Japan nowadays is called

(50:13):
fresh and original. So again thisis called fresh and original. But they
can't all be fresh and original.But it's considered a highly fresh and original
novel that follows a journalist in contemporaryJapan, and she's actually an investigator who
is investigating a serial killer who choosesher victims by having cooking classes. Okay,

(50:38):
she offers cookie classes to these wealthymen and then she seduces them,
murders them, robs them. Ilike the role reversal of being like,
you know, the woman is aserial killer and she's using food to lure
these people in. Like, that'sthis great line here, that's this.
There are two things that I simplycan tolerate, feminists and margarine. So

(51:06):
she's a gourmet cook, this Sayraculer. Her name is Manacle Kaiji, Manacle
Kaji. She's in the Tokyo Kaji. Yeah, we see how you say.
She sits in the Tokyo detention house. So she kills lonely businessmen after
seducing them with delicious home cooking,you know. So like she gives lonely

(51:27):
men a respite, a delicious meal, and then she kills them fair enough,
you know. You know, butshe doesn't want to speak to the
press at all until journalist Rika Machidawrites a letter asking her for her recipe
for beef stew, and she writesback as their correspondent goes on and she

(51:49):
probably starts cooking. She also findsherself changing, so she's taken some of
like you know, Kai Kaji's confidence, but also some of a daily intention.
So there you go. Part ofthe blurb it says that it's set
in twenty eleven, when dairy productshortages across Japan made butter a hot commodity.

(52:14):
So butter. I guess it's anothermetaphor, another layer of metaphor in
the in the in the story richyeah, rich enough right to buy butter?
Interesting, okay? Supposed to bea kind of a point of view
of Japan, contemporary Japan as seenthrough this diverse cast of Japanese women,
which is I mean, like Ifind that very like it's such a such

(52:36):
a great idea to talk about,like you know, like like you take
this story which is ostensibly like aboutlike a serial killer, you're trying to
figure out why why she kills right, And it's supposed to be really entertaining
because like, you know, thisjournalist might become turned, like she might
be getting like you know, she'sbeing influenced by this person, but she's

(52:58):
it's probably really compelling and really intriguingperson because otherwise, you know, like
why would she, you know,be getting through to all these men as
well? And I don't know,it's like, it sounds like it's such
a such a cool premise. Iwant to see this as a movie or
TV show as well. Yeah,yeah, I find the premise because apparently
it's also got intoxicating descriptions of foodand the body, so it's all about

(53:21):
pleasure, pleasures of you know,the flesh and pleasures of the stomach.
I don't know. I hope thisbook is already I did not look at
the date of the release, andyou haven't checked if it's available yet.
But yeah, we should check thisout. It sounds weird and just really
you might have to discuss this book. Might have to I don't think we
have a choice about it. Bookof Love by Keddy Link there's another paranormal

(53:47):
fiction for teenagers are caught up ina struggle with deities who control access to
death. So the book opens withyou know, teenagers who have been date
for months, Laura, Daniel andMoore, but they return from the date
reanimated by their high school music teacher, mister Annabin, do you think he's
annual bias? Do you think it'ssort of like a kind of like a

(54:07):
play on annual bass. So anothersupernatural person appears, taking various human and
animal forms or wolf and a rabbit. He writes a message on a music
classroom blackboard with his fingernail to returnto remain So, the mister Annabin gives
the revenants a series of tasks whichthey believe will allow two of them to
stay alive while the other two,they presume will die again. But you

(54:30):
know, Kelly Lynk, she doeswrite quite interesting spectic I quite enjoy some
of her short stories. I don'tthink I've actually read a book like a
novel. I read mostly her shortstories. I have not read anything of
hers. But yeah, this onesounds like, hmm, like it could.
It sounds like it could get prettydark, really interesting way of exploring

(54:52):
like death and you know, likeall this, this, this whole fascination
we have with the paranormal on thislike you know, necromancy and all that.
I mean, I do like someof her fantasy stuff, Kelly Link
And this sounds like, you know, kind of like a little bit horror,
a little bit dark. It mightbe interesting. We are going into

(55:13):
March. We only have a couplemore left and just bear with us.
This is the longish show. Soton of French, one of my favorite
crime writer, has a new bookcoming out on the fifth of March called
The Hunter. And this is asequel to The Searcher. And I actually
thought The Searcher was a stand alone, and she thought The Searcher was a
stand alone as well, and thenshe realized she was not done yet,

(55:36):
so named The Searcher. It followsretired Chicago detective Carl Hooper, which has
actually like left Chicago and decided tolive in Ireland. And it goes into
very kind of like small town sortof like issues, which is very different
because like tan of French wrote theDublin Murder series, so she writes about

(55:58):
a murder squad, you know,like quite terrible people, terrible cases.
But this one was a very quietbook and it's a more hopeful book,
so nicer characters in this book.In The Searcher, he starts having a
relationship with a woman named Lena andthen has sort of like a friendship with
a teenager named Trey. So inthis book he follows The Searcher two years

(56:21):
later. So Trey, which quitelike a half farah teenager, has started
becoming called a decent person. He'sgot Karl, has got a good relationship
with Lena. Then Trey's long absentfather suddenly reappears, bringing along with him
an English millionaire searching for goal.So Carl now has to protect the life
that he has built because Trey onlywants revenge against her father. The thing

(56:46):
about kind of friend, she writesvery nuanced characters, so you are also
reading it for the characters and forthe relationships that they have. People have
described The Searcher and a little bitlike the you know, the Hunter as
an Irish Western Wow, that's interesting, which I thought was kind of interesting,

(57:07):
And she herself said, there arethere are actually a lot of resonance
between Western and Irish literature, becauseit shows that rural island can be a
place that is very far removed fromthe centers of powers, sort of like
a Western you know, where yousee Tumblewheat going and all these kind of
like little hokey little towns right inthe middle of nowhere. How a tiny

(57:28):
little microcosm of a community, howit functions how it makes its own laws.
So that to her is kind oflike Western territory. So she kind
of reckons yeah, Irish Western isa very good description of a book like
The Switcher and the Hunter. Okay, moving right along. You mentioned The
Hunter and I count her with abook called Song of the Huntress. This

(57:51):
is a new book out by LucyHolland. You remember doing, Oh,
okay Holland's Sister Song, don't you, honey? Yes, so yes,
yes, Sister Song. I guessthis is another re retelling, is another
reimagining kind of Sister Song would notin my mind be considered a retelling.
It's kind of like a like likeit takes it takes the mythology and and

(58:14):
and wigs into the story, right, so yes, it's kind of like
it takes the folklore behind the storyof the Wild hunt Okay, and it
spins it into this like like adark feminist fantasy, okay, which is
what she did for for, youknow, like Sister Song. And it's
again set in you know, likeancient Britain. It has women warriors,

(58:38):
two of them. One is acursed British immortal and the other is a
Saxon queen. Okay, So andthey they're kind of like fighting against each
other, and it follows three pointsof view Herla the King of the Wild
Hunt, ethel Berg, who isthe Queen of Wessex, and in A

(58:59):
who is a King of West Andit blends these historical fiction elements and incorporates
like Welsh folklore and magic as well. So it's it's kind of like it's
got like, you know, thepolitical intrigue, a lot of Christian pagan
conflict magic as well, like andyou like, and it's supposed to be

(59:21):
a very unique retelling of the WildHunt mythology, so yeah, very cool,
and and a callback to Catherine Arden. It's it's it's been compared to
The bar in Nightingale. Takes alot of that mythology and and just like
reimagines it as well. So apparentlyit's a lot more whimsical than her first
book, which which whimsical, okay, okay, yeah, and it sounds

(59:44):
interesting descriptions. Yes, it didnot sound like that at the outset,
right, because it's like, youknow, it takes a lot of these
like like British folklore and history andand of course set in a time when
it's like very dark and very likevery grit time like when there was a
lot of fear and there was alot of conflict between people's at that time.

(01:00:05):
So but apparently it's a very wellresearched novel and there's a lot of
like very deep dive into the historyof mythology and I we've we've read so
much British fantasy at this at thisstage that we we like, I don't
even need to explain to you whatthe Wild Hunt is. I think it's
it's quite interesting to to to seethe origins of it and you know,

(01:00:29):
like and how she how she tiesit into that, to that to that
time the time. Why is thisperson immortal? I want to know?
Yeah, that's true, right,Sex and Queen and an immortal warrior?
Interesting? Yeah, we have.Are we going to finish it with the
last two books on your list?We shall. Gabrielle Garcia Marquez, he

(01:00:49):
who passed away ten years ago,has a new book out called Until August.
It has to be said that it'sjust that it's newly translated, right,
Yeah, it's you stressed. Butalso it's because apparently when he was
writing it, he was struggling withdementia, dementia, and so he decided
that until August, even though he'sactually approved the proofs, he decided that

(01:01:12):
he should not be released, andthen his sons, rereading it again after
ten years after his death, discoveredthat the text had many highly enjoyable merits
and nothing that prevents us from delightingin the most outstanding aspects of Gable's work,
so capacity for invention, his magicalrealism, his poetic language, his
affection for people's misadventures, especially inlove. The premise is Until August is

(01:01:38):
set in the Caribbean, where awoman married for twenty seven years takes a
new lover every time she comes tovisit her mother's grave, and she gives
into her desires. A powerful narrativeabout love and freedom emerges. So the
novel promises to be full of theabsurd circumstances Colombian magical realism. Master Garbo
is known for, honestly, thinkit sounds like a Padroom Amadova movie starring

(01:02:01):
Benelope Cruz. I mean everyone willpick it up just because you know,
like like you never really get overover reading one of his books, because
there's something very there's such a certainessence about it that you just can't get
anywhere else, like, you know, like it's just like having that very
specific kind of feeling to his booksthat I think, yeah, yeah,

(01:02:24):
that's probably why you picked this bookup as well, because you know,
it's not easy to capture that feelingthat you can't really get from other books.
So yeah, I think I thinkthat's probably why I would definitely put
this on my list, because Iwant to know if this is this is
as good as I remember his booksbeing. You can never tell what it's

(01:02:46):
about when you read what the blurbtells you, Right, it's nothing to
do with the with the plot atall. That's not the point of the
books. Like pretty much nothing reallyhappens in hundreds that weird, weird shit
probably goes down. Yeah, yeah, but it's it's kind of like what

(01:03:06):
to try to protest also because he'ssort of like it's almost like a parody
of something that's going on right becauseyou know, one hundred years of Solitude
as a parody of a lot ofthings right now, but not a republic
all that kind of stuff. Soyou wonder whether he's dealing why is he
dealing with? Is it immortality?Is it mortality that he's dealing with here,
is it regret? Is it lost? You know, maybe he's dealing
with something that is not political necessarily, but more you know, like individual

(01:03:30):
kind of like feelings and stuff.But obviously there will be an absurdism and
maybe, I mean, I don'tknow, I don't know what would he
be writing at the end of hislife, you know what I mean.
So, yeah, I guess ifyou're curious, you should check it out.
Definitely, it comes out on thetop of the March. And yeah,
and if you compare to wait justtwo more weeks after that, this

(01:03:52):
is the book I think. Ithink, honey, if if you had
to choose just one, possibly thisthis one would have to be it.
I think. I'm not not reallysure, but I'm guessing. Okay,
So Stuart Turton has a new bookout. Okay, So and you have
a soft spot for Stuart. Yeah, I know, I'm just I'm just
like, I can't imagine how hecan outdo his last novel. So,

(01:04:15):
but yeah, this one is calledThe Last Murder at the End of the
World of course, of course,so it's not just about any old murder,
it's about the last murder in theworld. Okay. So it's set
in the end times, and youknow, like there's the whole world has
been obliterated and everybody's dead. It'sjust people on the killer Fog, Killer

(01:04:41):
Fog obliterated in the world. Soso yeah, just it's just just this
one protected island that is okay,so right that and then and yet people
still seem to need to kill eachother. So it's a high concept murder
mystery. Yeah, and it getsmore interesting the more you read about it.

(01:05:03):
There's there's there's only one hundred andtwenty two people left on this island
in the entire world, okay,no one else is alive. There's only
this one hundred and twenty two,and yet somebody wants to off someone else,
you know, like I think itwas just two people, somebody will
still want to kill the other person, so it I mean, that makes
sense. So I just one toone hundred and twenty two villages and three

(01:05:23):
and three scientists, okay, Andthen there's a one hundred and twenty five
people. There is a brutal stabbing, so someone maybe deserved it. I
don't know. So ideal like island, you know, like you know,
and the world you know, youthere's no more like the stresses of modern
life and all that, so youknow, it should be quite happy,

(01:05:45):
like people should be getting along,but nah, no, no, no,
you can still really annoy a personto the point that they would decide
to stab you. And of coursethe person that is stabbed is one of
the scientists. And what happens isthat the murder has triggered a lowering of
the security system around the island,and it was the only thing that is

(01:06:09):
keeping them safe from the murderous fog. So obviously this is the scientist that
is in charge of the security systemthat got stabbed. So if the murder
isn't solved with in ninety two hours, I'm not sure what this has to
do. Because if the scientist isdead, then he's dead, right,
So they have to solve this murderor else the fog was mother the island

(01:06:30):
and everyone on it. Now you'rekind of starting to get a sense of
like stuard Urn thinks of, Okay, okay, what is the most extreme
scenario you can think of where peoplecan isolate themselves? So naturally, it's
got to be some like you know, like you know, the end of
times Bunker right, it's got tobe something like that, and then it's
got to have like a mystery,like someone's got to die mysteriously and nobody

(01:06:56):
knows why, nobody knows how,nobody knows, you know, like when
everything and who did it? Andyeah, and there's always a technical book
exactly. I can see it.It's like if the entire human race is
hinged on this one hundred and twentyfive people really, yeah, yeah,

(01:07:19):
and you know, like you know, people still want to kill each other.
Actually, you know, you knowwhat if you if we managed to
talk to Stewart turn again, thequestion I really want to ask him is
were you inspired by the story ofthe two scientists in Antarctica and one killing
the other one because he kept spoilingthe books that he was reading. Oh

(01:07:41):
okay, next story. Yeah,let's write to him. Let's see what
the because he did promise us whenwe were interviewing for his second book that
he will come back because he's like, because I told him that we did,
Everly Hodcastle right, as as thebook that for me was was the
one when we kind of came intoour own and you why didn't you interviewed
me for that one? And I'mlike, I don't know you at that
point, we didn't know that youwould you would you would say yes,

(01:08:05):
yeah, exactly. So maybe wecan ask him whether he might want to
come back. I mean, althoughnow you know, like it's no longer
a pandemic, so he can probablydo book tours. But know, yeah,
come come fly here and see me, you know, come to come
to the UK and you know,sit in front of me. But no,

(01:08:27):
maybe he's doing like a world tour. Anyway, I think I think
we can end the show it is. It is a little bit more than
thirty minutes. Yes, no,that's all right. I mean we're not
doing we're doing an anticipated reads,so we're allowed to go. And it's
been a while since we had anatter. Who it's been a while since
we talked to Dayna, right,So I mean, I mean I like

(01:08:48):
that there's actually a great variety ofbooks out there. But oh yeah,
I hope one of this really jogsme out of my book reading slump,
which is well, I mean,we hope like our listeners would also sort
of like find something on this list, yeah, to suit your taste,
you know, because yeah, Imean, like it's February we have not

(01:09:11):
put up a challenge this year.We have not got a winner for last
year. I mean, let Dianahave her New Years. Let her have
a Chinese New Year. I tellyou what, guys, the brain fog
is real. It is absolutely real. I mean, like I haven't been
able to read much. I haven'tbeen able to I'm kind of like I'm

(01:09:32):
a little bit hungover because like sobasically, my son finally got employed,
and it's kind of like it's kindof like making me dead along with him
because he comes in those are weirdhours, and and I'm like, it's
completely whacked up my sleep schedule.And I at my age, you know,

(01:09:55):
you need all sleeping and get andI'm not getting much. So it's
just, yeah, don't worry.We're still We're still. We're still edit
guys. And we're hoping to interviewyoung Z too as well, because that's
the other book coming out in February. The Fox Wife is coming out in
February. Young Z's latest book,a third book. I think I enjoyed

(01:10:15):
it tremendously, so I'm really lookingforward to interviewing her. So don't worry.
We do have interviews line up.We do have some kind of big
plan. But thank you, thankyou for still listening to us, right,
Dinah, I mean I am internallygrateful for it. I don't I
don't know how many of you justread just listen just because you know,
you know it's better than white noiseanyway. But what now? We give

(01:10:42):
very very very useful information and we'revery entertaining people to listen to anyway.
Follow us on our Facebook and dubonustalking Tibet books, on i G where
we are mostly artist days, andon Twitter we're at Tivy at pots.
You can also eat us at bookletstockat gino dot com. And at some

(01:11:02):
point one of us would actually answer, we are your friendly neighborhood book nets.
I'm honey, I'm I'm Diana Young. Thank you so much for listening
everyone, all right. This showis researched by Dinah, edited by myself

(01:11:24):
and our producer Stephanie See Yeah byefor now