The gang gets together to talk about what they read this summer while putting off reading The Odyssey for the big end of summer Book Club episode.

Mentioned in this episode:

Reader's Advisory Theme

Reader's Advisory Theme by Kelley Marcano

Hey, Robin, remember when we were on, when we did work on the reference dust?

Oh, my God, Incredible Friday afternoon time.

You would scare me a lot.

You would sneak up and come up the stairs.

Oh, yeah, that was kind of messed up.

Yeah, but like, also really fun.

It was.

Yeah.

Fun for you.

Hey, guess what?

Yeah, I do that to Laura now.

That's good.

Oh, that's not very nice.

She loves it.

I have a lot of white hair because that.

It's not because I'm 44.

It's because of jump scares inflicted upon me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

That's why you're friends with younger people.

I feel like that's why you're friends with most of your friends, though, because they're a little scary.

Yeah, yeah.

I like scary people.

I like scary things.

See, when you started talking about Robin scaring you, I thought it was going to be about the conversations you're having because Rachel scared me a lot when we were working our Monday nights together.

These are lies, primarily just because of her intensity.

She's obsessed with me.

Hard to keep up with that.

She can't keep away.

I believe that.

I mean, that's.

She's captivating.

I don't know what.

You're psychically bonded.

Like, we're obsessed with each other in a way that's normal and healthy and people shouldn't question it's a healthy co worker relationship.

But now you work, like, counties away from each other.

Right?

We actually work.

We work in the same county one town away.

Oh, oh, getting closer, getting closer, getting closer.

I was begging her to apply when the same position came up in my town.

I was like, please, we could have lunch together.

Magically.

We all worked in the same library together.

Now I'm happy with that.

If we all worked in the same library together, nothing would get done.

Nothing would get done.

Rachel, I don't believe that you're the most productive person I've ever met in my life.

See, that's actually so funny because Rachel and I used to work together at the same library.

And one time I turned to her and I was like, rachel, like, am I.

Am I loud?

Like, am I annoying?

Like, am I loud?

And then she turned to me and she said, rachel, when you're in the library, everyone knows.

Damn.

All right, well, that's the most gentle way to say that.

I struggle with.

Like, if I'm working the desk with a loud librarian, I'm always like, yeah,.

Being the loud librarian equation.

Usually.

Yeah.

Well, anyway, we're, as you can tell, we.

What do we have to talk about here.

We're talking about summer.

Okay.

It's summer.

Yeah.

We're librarians.

What are we doing in the summer?

Reading.

We're pieced out.

We're reading our summer reads.

Well, obviously we're dealing with crazy summer reading.

We haven't read the Odyssey yet.

Right.

I'm, I haven't.

I'm three books in and I got through the 100 page introduction.

I'm a little ways into the introduction.

The introduction is very, the introduction's so good, you guys.

Yeah, it's good.

When smart people tell me how to think about things, I say, I would not have come up with that by myself.

Do you know what I think is great about.

So we're doing the, specifically the Emily Wilson translation of the Odyssey at Rachel's request, which I think was a fantastic request.

And I'm just a little bit into the intro, but let me tell you, this is my smart person saying complicated things in a simple way, which is awesome.

And that's how the actual translation is like.

She talks about how she wanted the language to be readable.

And it is.

Yeah, yeah.

I, I, I only got through it because my dad had gotten it in a used bookstore and it was.

Someone had given it to a student who had annotated it as they traveled around the Greek isles.

So he had made notes as he was traveling about the actual places that he was visiting when they're mentioned in the Odyssey.

So that was really cool.

And I read that in a very anthropological way.

Do you still have that book?

My, it's at my parents house.

My, it's my dad's book.

I can only steal so many of their cool artifacts.

Borrow it for the next episode, which is when we will be talking about.

The Odyssey and we can compare, like the translations side by side.

Emily Wilson is so readable.

I love her.

Who is Emily Wilson?

She's a genius.

She's that girl.

She's a miss that girl.

Oh, wow.

That was three different.

All excellent answers.

Yeah, fucking Flo too.

She's just, it's truly.

You know, sometimes you open a book and you're like, thank you for my life.

Oh, yeah, that's fantastic.

Okay, speaking of though, what books are we reading this summer that feel like thank you for my life and also get out of my life.

You want to know what I think should get out of my life?

Yeah, go ahead.

The Iliad.

Ooh, hot take.

Also By Homer.

Yeah.

Also the Emily Wilson translation.

Oh, I read 600.

I. I signed up to do.

I don't know why the hell I said yesterday this.

I was like, let's read 970 pages.

Almost a thousand pages of Greek poetry.

None of the rest of us said we laughed.

For the record, Rachel did a volunteer.

I did volunteer to do read the Iliad by myself.

I was like, guys, I feel like, like, because, like, someone said it was like kind of like a prequel.

And I was like, well, I can't read the Odyssey if I haven't heard the Iliad.

You definitely can, by the way.

You can.

And I learned that the hard way by reading only the Iliad.

And I was like, boring as hell.

I texted one of my friends about it and I was like, this book sucks.

Like, it's so boring.

I feel like I'm reading the Bible, like, the worst parts.

And I texted them and they were like, wow.

You know, like Homer, we would have been like a great poet, like, if he was good at epic poetry, but he isn't.

One of the things that I thought was very interesting in the introduction of the Emily Wilson is because she was talking about the providence of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and they're likely not by the same authors.

Yeah.

Which I think is very fun.

And I will be getting deep, deep into that in our Odyssey episode because I don't actually have that much to say about the Odyssey, but I do have a lot to say about the ways that people have used the Odyssey.

Yes.

I think that's going to be a very interesting conversation, for sure.

I am insufferable.

I assume we'll all have seen the movie by then as well.

Yeah, hopefully.

Oh, I can't wait.

I do have tickets to go see it at Tinseltown.

I love Zendaya.

I was supposed to see it a few days ago, but our theater flooded in flash flooding, which felt actually quite fitting.

Which theater it is?

Appleson one, Pittsford Plus.

Oh, that flooded.

Really?

Only some of the theaters, but the one specifically that they were showing the Odyssey in was the one.

Yeah.

Nice.

Okay, so what else are we reading aside from the Iliad?

I've been on a weird girl kick.

So when are you not, though?

Yeah, when are you not?

Actually?

You always read interesting.

Is it a kick or is it your personality?

She's stammering.

See, if she's like.

She's like, I don't know.

Sometimes I'm on non fiction kicks.

Sometimes.

Yeah.

You're kind of a nonfiction reader, my friend.

I. I've been doing more fiction this year.

Freak.

Weirdo.

And I was like, whoa, who is she?

Yeah, I don't know her.

Haven't met her.

But my most recent weird girl reads were Sky Daddy, which I really liked up until the end.

I did specifically choose to read it while I was on vacation so I could read it on the plane.

Were you laying the plane?

What's the premise of Sky Daddy?

It's a woman who's erotically obsessed with planes.

I didn't know that either.

You don't know about that?

Well, like a Cessna or like a.

No, she's probably Airbus.

No, she's very much into the 730.

747'S too big.

All right.

But the 737, the Goldilocks plane.

Whoa.

Too big.

Which way?

Like, I don't know which way.

She know which way?

Okay.

That wingspan.

She specifically, she believes that it is her fate to marry a plane by dying in a plane crash.

Is this a serious piece of fiction or is this, like, silly art?

I don't know what you mean.

Goofy.

It's very funny.

Who's the author?

Oh, God.

It's okay.

I would have to pull up.

We can look up Sky Daddy.

Yeah, I'll look it up.

It's an.

It's quite a title.

Sounds like a Chuck Tingle book.

It's fun.

It's very fun.

I didn't like the ending.

I'm gonna say that.

Hot take.

Who?

Kate Folk.

Did not like the ending.

Great fun.

It's got a suggestive cover.

Yeah.

Yeah, it does.

I also read.

Was that a big five publication?

Was that a big five?

Yes.

Penguin.

Penguin Random House.

No freaking way.

Penguin.

Good for Kate.

High quality.

Weird girl lit.

I also read Milk Fed, which was fun.

Fun.

What's that one about?

It is so my girlfriend, the therapist, also read it and was like, this is not how eating disorder treatment works.

It's about a woman with an eating disorder who falls in love with a Froyo woman.

And it's kind of an examination of, like, eating disorder, sexuality and religion.

Because the Froyo woman is a orthodox Jew.

I guarantee you've seen the COVID Yeah.

It's very.

Nipple.

I was gonna say.

I do remember that.

That title.

Nipple Centric.

Yeah, I guess is the way to put it.

It's something.

Yeah.

Of something.

Yeah.

Don't know what.

That one was pretty fun.

Not a great examination of eating disorders, but, you know, pretty fun, but interesting.

Weird.

Yeah, we like that.

Enjoyed that one.

And there was one other weird girl One.

And then I was like, I need to get off of this kick.

But I don't remember what it was, so it didn't make that much of an impact on me.

Nice.

I've been doing a great deal of feminist literature this summer.

Nerd alert.

What reading so I loved was obsessed with I who have Never Known Men.

That's on my backside table.

Isn't it so good?

It's actually so good.

But it's like, fine.

Well, I would love to know your off.

Off mic, what your thoughts are.

We're gonna debrief on that one, guys.

But if you guys are really want to read, like a good women's fiction thing, not like Yesterday, which sucked.

Yeah.

I strongly recommend I who have Never Known Men.

So good.

Jacqueline Hartman.

Yes.

It sounds like it's not.

It's literally 170 pages.

It's so short, but it draws you right in like that.

It's so incredible.

It's translated fiction.

It's from the.

It was written in the 90s.

Oh, really?

And it was only recently translated into English.

Yeah.

It's fantastic.

And she was like a woman who, like, escaped World War II with her family.

It's like.

It's like very spare writing.

The characters are fantastic and, like, actually genuinely pretty well flushed out.

Even though it's like, so short.

Yeah.

Was it just translated, like, is it getting push now or.

Yeah, maybe two years ago.

I would say it really got a big push and I think more people are starting to find it.

Why do I want to say she was, like, from Belgium?

I think the.

Yeah, she's either French or Belgian.

Belgian.

1995 Novel.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's in.

Is it in French?

Yeah, it is.

So, I mean, the name of the book is Mo park, so.

Yes, very French.

Nice.

Aggressively French.

Highly recommend.

Highly recommend.

That was a five star for me.

Five star.

I don't use Goodreads, but that's.

That would have added five.

Yeah, it's very good.

I think.

I think Stacy would also be super into it.

That's my.

My wife.

Yes, yes.

Who we are all obsessed with.

Yes.

She's fabulous.

Yeah.

I also then yester year, but then I started reading the Change by Kirsten Miller, which is a couple of years old as well, which is about the magical superpowers that women get after they go through menopause.

Ooh.

Looking forward to it.

Recommended by several of my co workers who are all fantastic readers.

And I'm obsessed with it.

And Unfortunately, I got 23% of the way through.

And then Libby took It away from me.

So Rip.

I'm waiting for that to come back.

I read similarly the Power by Naomi Alderman, which.

Oh, that's a great book.

I had mixed feelings about it.

They made a show.

They did.

Yeah.

I. I'm.

I read it several years ago, so I wouldn't be able to discuss them in any.

I haven't.

I haven't read it.

Depth.

But it was.

She has a new book out, too.

I forget the name.

It was about women getting powers where, like, they can zap people.

Well, this is like.

This is like in.

In the change.

It is.

They are able to help, I think, the way they're setting it up.

Of course, I'm only 25 of the way through it at this point, but I think the way that they're setting it up is that these three women who are all, like, going into the menopause sort of time of their life, or like, just past the time when they're no longer valued for their attractiveness, are going to start helping to find women who have been murdered, which is, like, a very interesting take on it.

Like, they have some sort of like.

Like, power that allows them to either exact revenge on the people that have.

Have murdered or to find their bodies or to, like, finish whatever work they had on Earth, that sort of thing.

So it's very interesting so far.

Who's that?

Is that Naomi Alderman?

Alderman, yeah.

So, yeah, two more there.

Nice.

Nice.

For feminist lit.

I just read Red Clocks.

Have you read that one?

No.

Speak on it.

It is.

Well, it was written before Roe v. Wade was overturned, but it is about a speculative future where abortion is illegal in America and it's.

That's depressing.

What's the name again?

Red Clocks.

Oh, Red Clocks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Luckily, we have nothing to know about that.

No, we don't have any.

It's fine.

We don't have to worry about that.

Both Red Clocks and the Power have similar covers.

That's all I got to add.

Yeah, I remember.

But there were big books in the last five years or so.

Red Clock's wildly depressing to read.

Just so, like, I had to push myself through it.

I was.

Well, that's not what you want.

Well.

Well, okay.

Jim.

Jim, what are you reading?

Yeah, So I didn't.

I.

Desperately.

So I want a vacation to the Outer Banks and Must be Nice.

Who Must Be Nice does not work over the summer.

Yeah.

What are you talking about?

I am Working over the summer.

I have a summer job that's.

I actually have five jobs.

A choice, you mean?

Yeah, just like reading the Iliad.

An economical one.

Reading the Iliad.

Well, I didn't want to go on.

I did not want read.

Yeah, I didn't want to read the Odyssey.

Okay, we know.

Sorry.

We know.

I was like, I looked, I opened it up and I saw the introduction.

I was like, this is not happening.

It's a 90 page introduction.

So good.

You guys should have gotten.

He's holding the nice Fancy one, the 21.

I got the.

The nine dollar one.

The same translation, but I don't have 100.

Paid introduction.

It's like 15 pages.

Hey, guys.

I like to pay for the deckled edges, by the way.

Hey, guys, here's a hot tip.

Have you ever been in a library?

Got the library version.

There's a whole library cover.

There's a whole hardcover.

We can get it.

Robin.

Yeah.

Put your name on the list.

Yeah, well, I guess I could have at this point because I wasn't going to read it.

Hey, well, anyway, what I do like to read on the beach is old Cormac McCarthy.

That's your beach.

You're such a man.

I'm disappointed by you.

Jesus Christ.

What the hell is wrong with you?

That is.

Come on.

You are the oldest 44 year old.

In the entire world.

Yes.

Let me just say 15 years as.

Okay.

I have to like pull a lot of prize books from the friends room and I call them boy books and girl books because this is a boy book.

That's a boy book.

It is.

Tell us about your boy book, Jim.

I think it is a weird middle aged man book.

Yes.

Like any, if any boy loves Karmic McCarthy.

They have some severe problems.

They do need to be.

You know what?

I know some of those boys.

I love Cormac McCarthy.

Yes, you would.

He can describe a desert scrub brush.

Like, why do you want to read that though?

I have a recipe.

It's so beautiful.

He.

I want to read some quotes from you, that's why.

Okay, go ahead.

I don't want to do that, but go on.

Yeah, I'm going to read the.

She'd rather read the Iliad.

Again, it's one paragraph.

I'd literally rather read the Iliad.

Cornelius Sutri has forsaken a life of privilege with his prominent family to live in a dilapidated houseboat on the Tennessee river near Knoxville.

I could have written that.

Remaining on the margins of the outcast community there.

A brilliantly imagined collection of eccentrics.

Criminals and squatters.

Oh, there's a lot of squatters, too.

He rises above the physical and human squalor with detachment, humor, and dignity.

There's not much dignity in this book.

Yeah, it's just all, like, degenerates doing degenerate things.

And it's Cormac McCarthy.

Of course.

This is the book.

If I could write a book about just, like, people being sloppy and shitty, I.

It's.

It's beautiful.

Is this a first time you're reading this?

This is the first time.

This is one of his older books.

It's.

Did that book from the.

So it's before he popped off.

Is that.

Did that book come on vacation with you?

It did.

That's why it looks the way.

That's why it looks like that.

I bought it from the Barnes and Noble in the East View Mall.

Nice.

Perhaps when we were there.

Remember?

Yep.

Yeah, it might have been that day.

Okay, so you guys are all going to the bookstore without me?

Yeah, they didn't invite me, Rachel.

So I wasn't invited.

It was a birthday celebration for somebody else.

Yeah, that we weren't invited to.

Jim, if you're into nature descriptions in.

Your writing, don't do this.

Go on.

Recommend.

Oh, I'm blanking on the title.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey.

Okay.

It's really.

The man is kind of hilariously macho, and you read it and you're, like, insufferable.

But he sure can describe Arches national park in a way that's like that.

Let me roll around in some dirt.

No.

So Cormac here does good old buddy Cormac.

As he does, he does the description well of the landscape, but I think the dialogue is really the strong point.

And, like, there's a line in here.

I think I. I want to get a tattoo.

Let me see if I can find it.

Of course I did.

I did.

Dog ear the page.

Okay.

Hey, if you're going to get a line tattooed, you should probably get a sticky note or something so you can find it quickly.

Yeah, this thing not to judge got.

Way too much if you can't remember.

Hey, guys, just remember, he's got a Petrov on his arm.

Yeah.

Tattooed on his arm.

All right, well, I think if you're.

Into nature, you should also read We Bought a Zoo.

So, you know, it's about, you know, buying a zoo and all that stuff.

Modern classic.

And that was also.

Is that your adaptation?

Starring Matt Dillon, right?

Matt Damon.

Yes.

Matt Dillon.

He plays a de.

As he does in every movie he's ever seen.

As he often does.

Yes.

Yep.

I can't believe I lost my spot.

Oh, I found his hair is so.

All right.

What's your quote, Jim?

All right, talk while I find it again.

All right, well, I got some books to talk about.

Yeah, go ahead, Rach.

I also read.

I'm so happy I did this.

I read Eat, Pray, Love.

I listened to no Way.

Did you read the follow up where.

She commits crime relationship with her wife?

I didn't read that one, but I did read Eat, Pray, Love, and she's crazy.

This woman's fucking nuts.

But basically, Liz Gilbert is like, well, I'm a rich white lady and I'm going to divorce my husband and then have this toxic situationship with this man called David for, like, years.

And you're like, okay, girl, pop off queen.

And then she's like, I'm gonna take a full year off and I'm gonna go to three countries.

I'm gonna go to Italy for four months and I'm gonna go to Indonesia for four months.

And then I'm gonna go to India for four months and I'm gonna eat, I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna Love.

Literally.

It's like, literally vomit inducing.

It's so much fun.

You're just like, the way she's.

White women so hard.

Is that when it came out?

So just like.

Like, probably around them, these people in India, like, don't have anything, but they're so powerful and strong.

Like, it's just so, like, very, like, white savior.

Like.

Yeah.

I will say she is a great podcast guest.

Yeah.

On shows like Jordan, Jesse, go I.

She's nuts.

She's.

Oh, she's so funny.

She's a very, like, interesting.

She's a good writer.

I don't want to say that.

I don't want to give her that.

But she is a good writer and.

There's a reason she is a platform.

Right.

I gotta get myself to Italy.

Yeah.

Can I nerd about Neapolitan pizza for one second?

So when I.

When we went to Italy for our delayed honeymoon, I am a severe food nerd, and Neapolitan pizza is one of my special interests.

So when we went to Naples, we had probably three pizzas a day.

Dang.

Two or three a day.

My wife started complaining because, like, I can't do this anymore.

I'm like, what are you talking about?

So we went to the Eat, Pray Lunch Love pizza place.

Oh, solidly mediocre.

They were.

It was so busy that they were actually like, they're cooking the pizzas and they were burning the outsides and they were cutting the burn parts off with scissors because the demand was so high that they were just cutting corners, actually cutting corners off the pizza.

Solidly mediocre.

No, what I really want to know, honestly, is the way that other people are portrayed in her book.

I'm very curious to know what they think of the way they're being portrayed.

Please read the one where she makes her wife and then abandons her.

Wait, so what made you want to pick up that book?

Well, I had it on my shelf and I was like, you know what?

This book looks stupid as hell.

And my friends and I are always dogging on Liz Gilbert being like, that woman's such an idiot, like, being so mean about her.

And I was like, I should definitely read the book as like a bit.

And it was pretty entertaining.

I love when people read something as a bit.

She has a new book too.

It came out last year.

Right, the one that we keep talking about where she makes her wife relapse while she's got cancer and then abandons her.

Oh, and then plans her murder.

Plans her murder and then says that the ghost of her wife comes back and tells her that it was fine.

Yeah, tells her that it was fine and that she can say all of this in her book, which she does.

This is non fiction.

You're just like this lady's.

Are you sure this isn't AI Slob?

It's not, no.

She's too wacky for that.

Liz Gilbert.

Yeah, Liz Gilbert, my girl.

And then I read another one.

It was.

Are you sure you want to call her your girl?

Yeah, well, you know what?

I said it.

I stand by it.

Rachel wondered.

I support women's rights and wrongs and she took that seriously.

I read a great book called How Africa Works by Joe Studwell.

And it's all about like Asian economics.

And it was like, my friends loved it.

I got 25 of the way in because it's extremely intense and really heavy.

But he just came out with How Africa Works, which I had an interesting.

Because I had some colleges on Africa and college.

And so I, I read it and it was actually very good, Very interesting.

Obviously devastating, obviously, because you're learning about post colonial Africa and it's Not a lot of fun, but it's really, really, really cool.

Deep dive on, like, economic development.

So we were nerding out.

It was a lot of fun.

My mom has written several papers about, published and books about the economic development of Kenya.

So I'm just, like, wondering if she's in that.

Yeah, he focuses on, like.

On, like, specifically, like, Botswana, Ethiopia, and then, like, two other countries.

I don't think Kenya's included.

And it was just like such a fascinating kind of like an arc of, like, economic development with democracy.

Economic development with less democracy.

Because he also focuses on Rwanda and how they came up and how they're doing right now.

And a lot of it, it was just very, very, like, enriching.

I think for me, I really enjoyed it.

And that's for my other book club that's meeting tomorrow night.

And they want us to also read the Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

And I'm in the introduction, and I'm.

Like, oh, God, this is what you're doing tomorrow.

How's this gonna be for you?

He's so pretentious.

Yeah, it's just like, very much like a man wrote that and what not.

Like Liz Gilbert.

That's a contrast.

That's just too.

I like that you're academic.

You're dogging on me for reading non fiction.

And then you give those.

And then I'm reading a lot of nonfiction.

I don't know what happened.

And then I'm, like, reading Greek poetry.

Oh, I'm also reading Pride of Prejudice again, which I'm reading with my family, my parents.

My dad has never read it.

How many times have you read it?

I don't know.

How many?

Too many.

Not enough.

Not enough.

I'm reading it again, and we got all the way to chapter 34, which, for those of us who don't know, that's.

That's the.

When Darcy first proposes to Elizabeth, and I had my parents, like, stop at that chapter to get catch up to me.

And, like, I had to pause the audiobook, and I was, like, weeding in my garden.

I was like, oh, my God, I can't stop listening.

Like, I need to know what she thinks, what she's gonna say.

Because it was just so intense and dramatic, and I was just, like, so drawn in.

I was like, oh, my God, Wait,.

I've never interacted with this story before.

I forgot.

She's like, really?

Like Jane Austen.

What's she gonna say?

What's gonna happen?

Oh, my God, Is she gonna say yes?

I don't.

What I Thought was so funny, though, is that I then had my.

My little book club meeting with my parents, and Im.

Any opinion they had where I was like, actually, Lizzie's totally right in this situation, and she's right always, and Darcy's wrong, and he's an idiot.

Can you bring your whole family in for a book for an episode sometime?

Rachel, do you talk over people sometimes?

What?

That's crazy.

I've never done that, ever.

I don't know what you're saying.

Fun fact about the last two books that you mentioned, other than Pride and Prejudice, Richard Dawkins was born in Nairobi.

Oh.

Oh, that's perfect.

That's where my mom.

Shout out to colonialism.

Yeah, Shout out to colonialism.

We had a meme.

Ooh, rough, rough.

Unfortunately, my friends are, like, extremely smart and, like, esoteric, and I'm not quite there yet.

So I do think a lot of the time when I'm reading those kinds of books, I'm very much like, this is going over my head, and my friends are smarter than me.

Oh, that's how I feel.

Every time Rachel texts us during our little.

She'll send some, like, long text about some academic paper, and I'm like, I know.

I'm like, yeah, sounds cool.

Yo, let's talk about it.

I think we know who's gonna be carrying the conversation at the Odyssey.

See?

I'm so excited.

Deliver a soliloquy.

It's gonna be so good.

I do want everyone to know that my mom makes fun of me for the exact same things that they made fun of me.

Feel better.

She has a PhD and a master's.

What you're saying is she's smarter than your mom.

To Berkeley, Swarthmore, and mit.

And she calls me an intellectual in the most disgusted tone.

Nice.

Like she has the credentials to be disgusted by that.

But she did go for Economics, so.

She is.

She's a nerd.

She's a math person.

Yeah, she should.

I'm, like, making a note for later.

When you and Jess started working at our old library, I would talk to you both, and you.

You'd both start going on about stuff,.

And I'd be like, sheesh, these kids are smart.

Smile and nod.

Smile and nodded.

Yes.

I also know what you're saying.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

See?

I feel so stupid all the time.

Well, you should.

Sorry.

Thank you.

I do.

Stupid partner.

I do feel that is the mark of a smart person when you've got a healthy.

So what does that mean for me?

Feeling that you are smart.

Wait a minute.

Rachel, I hesitate to tell you you are also very smart.

Play back the Wuthering heights of the.

I love that hesitate part.

I don't want what it'll do to your ego.

Just take this and run with.

That's too bad.

Hey, have you.

Have you read that entire book in the interim and figured out where's that quote?

Yeah, I got the quote.

Yeah.

What's your quote?

Throw us that tattoo.

Go on.

So they're passing around this, like, kind of moonshiney shit.

Like it's a nasty whiskey kind of situation.

Yeah.

This is where your tattoos are.

And they.

They named it Early Times.

They're like.

So everyone says, hey, what are you drinking?

Early Times.

Jim says, it is.

And then someone goes.

Someone just goes, Early Tombs is more like it.

So I want Early Tombs is more like it to me that.

I know.

I kind of like that.

That makes no sense to anyone, but, like, the context.

They're gonna play a sound effect on that.

Oh, there we go.

I knew the sound effect was coming.

But Early Tombs is more like it.

It struck me, I laughed aloud on the beach.

Early Tombs is more like it.

Early Tombs is more like it.

That.

That, to me, that gives Vonnegut a little bit.

Yeah.

Which I like.

Yeah.

It's just.

And it's just these, like, sloppy, messed up people having a good time.

And I can relate to that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I nearly got an autumn tattoo when I turned 18.

I was gonna do about suffering.

The old masters were never wrong or however it goes.

I love Auden, so I like the different ways in which we approach literary tattoos.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I. Yeah.

Mine's like some throwaway line.

And I'm just so glad I didn't have access to, like, tattooing stuff when I was a teenager.

Seriously.

We all would have.

Dumbass.

Like, you know the stupid thing where it was like the Hungarians and Divergent and Percy.

Jack.

Yeah.

And Harry Potter.

And it's the.

You know, you're just like, what if you killed yourself?

I'm like, that's so goddamn annoying.

I'm like, I would have had the worst decisions made.

I'm like, thank God we don't give teenagers that power because, like, a cover up tattoo.

So I have a friend who's desperately trying to get a tattoo covered up because she is like, I really liked this when I was 18.

Yeah.

And I spent a lot of money on it when I was 18.

And now I'm.

And now I am not 18.

And I.

And she's having a lot of trouble finding an Artist that'll cover it up because it's so big.

I know a guy that got a lot of Juggalo tattoos.

Juggalo tattoos?

Like sideburn Juggalo.

No.

Yeah.

But then he went like, hardcore vegan, so he like, covered him up with vegan stuff.

He's like.

That works.

It's a story for offline.

But.

But anything else?

We got a couple more minutes.

What else?

You've been enjoying the summer movies?

Anything?

Oh, hey, I'm a couple.

Couple years behind the ball, but I AM watching Station 11 right now.

Station?

Oh, that was a show.

Oh, yeah.

I like the book.

Pretty good.

The lead in that adaptation is fantastic, I think.

Yes, I agree.

I don't remember her name either.

I'm only like three episodes in, but Gail Garcia Barnal is in it.

Yeah.

Obsessed with him.

Yeah.

I've been watching the season three of Interview with the Vampire, the vampireless star.

Oh my God, we're on a vampire kick.

Because I'm watching for the first time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

No way.

I've never seen it.

So I was like, oh, let me watch it.

It's.

It's so 90s.

It is.

I had the biggest crush on Sarah Michelle Geller.

Well, of course you should.

That was my 90s.

Not given.

Right.

One.

My favorite thing is like, how the school looks like a normal, like, kind of normal.

Ish.

A little bit fancy high school in California.

And then their school library, weirdly, extremely.

It's giving boarding school, it's giving Hogwarts, it's giving prep school.

Like, it's like ornate and like covered in old dark wood.

And you're like, what the hell is this school library doing?

And like the.

Is completely average, like normal classrooms and then fancy library.

And then of course, Giles, they're like mentor figure is a school librarian.

And so I'm very judgmental.

Right.

What he does and doesn't do because he's got like, oh, let me peruse through the.

The malle smell of a.

And I'm like, why the hell do you high school library in your school library?

That's crazy.

That's a great show to be like going through during the summer, though.

Yeah, it's been fun.

Speaking of Steven King, call on me.

Yeah, yeah.

What do you got?

Fantastic.

So they just picked this one high school and they're like, this is the one, guys.

Well, I do have to say, don't you know that they Put all the money into the library in most schools.

Oh, yeah, guys.

They definitely do.

My library flooded this year.

Oh.

From all the money.

Not every school library has a water feature.

But my school library had a water.

Yours was just flooded with money, Right?

We had a waterfall.

No.

Our pipe burst and it flooded.

No.

And then we didn't get ceiling tiles to replace it for, like, three months.

That's really cool.

It was really giving.

Airport hangar industrial.

That's giving.

Like, at the Rochester airport with a little situation.

But it's okay because I begged our superintendent, and he did replace them the next day.

I was like, boom.

I was like, okay, you got some sway.

That means I've got some sway.

Yeah.

Pretty convincing.

Has anyone watched Widow's Bay?

No.

So good.

Highly recommend.

I've heard it's really good.

If you're watching.

We watched it.

Yeah.

It's, I guess, technically horror, but, like, it's not that scary.

But every episode is kind of a different genre of horror, which is a lot of fun.

It's very Stephen King esque, I would say, on the whole.

And if you like things that are set in the Northeast on, like, coastal towns like the.

Think Maine or Cape Cod or Montauk, things like that.

You know, wood, shingles, stuff like that, you're gonna love it.

So, like, that's.

That's the best.

It's got a great ensemble cast.

Highly recommend.

That's on Apple.

Whatever it is.

Plus tv.

What's it called?

Yeah, whatever.

Yeah.

Nice.

Well, okay.

Well, I'm gonna say that I'm enjoying the Vampire Lestat enough that I am considering reading the Vampire Chronicles, primarily because my girlfriend will speak to me about how insane Anne Rice is for approximately 40 minutes a day, almost every day that she can.

And I'm like, I do.

I do kind of want to know.

I've read several quotes from her about her writing process where she goes insane and locked herself in her room and wailed a lot.

And I'm like, I might need.

I might.

And rice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I can have a guess.

Tell you.

You know, you come to another party at my house, you don't have to.

Just say, lena, tell me about Anne Rice.

Any interest, and you will hear about Anne Rice.

Parties at your house are always a trip.

I feel like, yeah, there's rabbits running around.

Yeah.

Rachel's there.

You know, you're like, who is this person?

Like, there's.

It's.

It's fantastic.

Yeah.

I.

My last party, I specifically set up a playlist that was meant to be giving Haunting of Hill House.

The house is haunted, and it loves you and it wants you to stay forever and ever.

I was des that to one of my friends, and he looks at me very seriously, and he goes, that's scary.

You know that, right?

I'm like, yes.

On purpose.

On purpose.

It's scary.

This is a scary party.

This is a Halloween party.

Yes.

So you're going to have another Halloween party.

Yeah, obviously.

All right, good.

Fab.

You know, it's on a Saturday this year.

Halloween.

It's a big deal.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Fabulous.

But, like, I just.

I do think that I need to know more about these crazy vampires.

And I don't easily read things that are primarily about men.

I don't easily watch things that are primarily about men.

So I've been really taken in by.

This is.

This is big of you.

Yeah, you told me.

I remember New Year's resolution one year was to listen to zero music made by men.

And I've never quite accomplished that.

But she's tried.

I've tried.

Sometimes they do get me, though.

Sometimes they do have bops.

I was like, what about.

Yeah, Michael Bolton.

You know, like Michael Bolton.

That's what you're offering me?

A more random man out of the house?

Oh, that's all I could think of.

It was the glass animals that got me that year.

Yeah, the glass animals.

You did have a big glass.

I saw them at Darien.

Darien Lake.

Right.

They were fabulous.

Darien Lake.

What a venue.

Have you been to semac this summer?

Anyone?

No.

I've been a couple of times.

Must be nice.

And on that note.

Well, yeah, I guess that's that.

All right.

Well.

Well, we'll be back the next episode with our discussion of the Odyssey.

Hell, yeah.

Finally, the episode may or may not include me.

Hopefully it will if, you know, we're.

All staring at him because he's trying to weasel his way out.

He's the one who pitched this.

I did not pitch the Odyssey.

It was my pitch.

Never mind.

Sorry.

I forget.

Jim, not from 14.

You're saying this to hurt me.

I did.

I am.

It's like he's never read anything about ancient Greeks.

We never.

Yeah, we didn't.

This episode was supposed to be about English major trauma, and we didn't get there.

So maybe we'll say that we'll save that for another time.

Yeah.

But.

Yeah, so catch up.

Go see the movie.

Read the book.

Is it a book?

Is it a poem?

I don't know.

What is it?

Dude, get the Emily Wilson translation.

Follow along.

The one that the book, the movie is based on.

Yeah.

Is it really?

Yeah.

There we go.

Cool.

We're going to have a lot of fun.

Racial.

One of the.

Rachel's gonna be talking extensively in the next episode.

Hopefully both about it.

Hopefully both.

We'll see.

Yeah.

I need you guys to be prepared.

I'm not gonna be talking about the content of the Odyssey.

I'm gonna be talking about the translations of the Odyssey.

Oh.

I'm gonna be talking about the content.

So we'll try to overwhelm him.

Overwhelm her with our.

You know, we'll.

We'll get away from that.

But follow us on @rock readers advisory.

You know, check out what we're doing.

We'll be back more and more.

We got more stuff planned for the fall.

We're gonna have a lot of books to discuss.

And.

Yeah, that's about it.

See you all later.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchadore Podcast Network.

I know for sure that she will never give up.

An unproblematic favorite man, Weird Al Yankovic.