It’s a book preview podcast! We’re talking about the books we’re excited to read in Spring 2018 — slightly belatedly, because I had a medical incident — and reviewing Mohsin Hamid’s book Exit West, which gave us a lot to think and talk about.
You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go!
Here are the time signatures if you want to skip around.
1:44 – What we’re reading
5:26 – Polar explorer update #1
6:21 – Polar explorer update #2
8:41 – Update on our fall 2017 book preview
14:16– Spring 2018 Book Preview
26:17 – Exit West, Mohsin Hamid
41:55 – Our first Hatening read
Learn more about teenage explorer Jade Hameister here. You can watch Ernest Shackleton Loves Me at Broadway HD if you are curious!
Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very very much).
Credits
Producer: Captain Hammer
Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee
Theme song by: Jessie Barbour
Transcript is coming soon and will be available under the jump.
THEME SONG: You don’t judge a book by its cover. Page one’s not a much better view. And shortly you’re gonna discover the middle won’t mollify you. So whether whiskey’s your go-to or you’re like my gin-drinking friend, no matter what you are imbibing, you’ll be better off in the end reading the end.
WHISKEY JENNY: Hello, and welcome back to the Reading the End bookcast with the demographically similar Jennys. I’m Whiskey Jenny.
GIN JENNY: And I’m Gin Jenny.
WHISKEY JENNY: And we’re excited— again, as always— to talk about books and literary happenings. On today’s podcast, we’re going to talk about what we’re reading right now. We have a double polar explorer update that I’m excited to hear about, because one of them, the article wouldn’t work for me, so I get to hear it on air with everyone else. We’re going to do our spring 2018 book preview and talk about not all, but some of the books that we are excited about that will be coming out soon or have come out recently. For this episode we read Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. And lastly, we have the third annual edition of the Hatening coming up soon, and so we get to hear what Gin Jenny has picked up for me to hate.
GIN JENNY: And you know, I can’t be as successful as last year, but.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well, yeah, last year was really flames on the side of my face hatred. So raging success. But I think all the Hatenings have gone pretty well, I think, right?
GIN JENNY: Oh yeah, no, definitely. There’s been no Hatening that I felt unhappy about in any way.
WHISKEY JENNY: Same. So I’m excited to hear what we’re reading. But first up, what are you reading right now?
GIN JENNY: So I actually just finished having two totally opposite reading experiences. So one of my resolutions for 2018 was that I was going to reread some books that I haven’t read in many years, that I read for the first time when I was in a different life stage. So I did my first one. I re-read Eleanor Rigby, by Douglas Coupland, which blew me away when I was 22.
WHISKEY JENNY: Uh-huh?
GIN JENNY: And it was just fine. I reread it and I was like, huh. Well, this is a book.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: So what does that mean for its future on your shelves?
GIN JENNY: I’m probably going to get rid of it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Wow.
GIN JENNY: I know. Well, that was kind of the point of the exercise. I have two others of his books, and I’ll probably reread at least one of them also, to see how that one holds up. But likely scenario is I’m going to get rid of all three of them.
WHISKEY JENNY: Wow. Goodness. OK.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, the stakes are high.
WHISKEY JENNY: The stakes are high. And—it wasn’t bad, was it?
GIN JENNY: It was just fine.
WHISKEY JENNY: It was fine? Yeah, OK.
GIN JENNY: I like to keep books if I plan to reread them or consult them. And I don’t really see myself rereading this. But it’s good. I like getting rid of stuff. It’s very cleansing. So I would have been happy with either outcome.
And then I also just finished reading Turtles All the Way Down, by John Green.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, how was that?
GIN JENNY: Yeah, so, weird thing; I think over the past few years, John Green has not been releasing books. So my only exposure to him has been to the legend of John Green, white guy savior of YA.
WHISKEY JENNY: Right.
GIN JENNY: Which obviously is very annoying. And reading Turtles All the Way Down I was like, oh hey, John Green, pretty good writer.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: Pretty good. Yeah, yeah.
GIN JENNY: I enjoyed it. Paper Towns is still my favorite of his books. But no, this one was good. The dialogue was snappy, it went along really well. There was an issue about friends sharing money that Whiskey Jenny and I were pretty outraged about. But aside from that, everything was pretty good.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, was that from that book?
GIN JENNY: Yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh my goodness. John Green, what are your friends doing to you?
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: But is it was pretty good. John Green is a good writer, and I feel a little bad that I forgot that. What are you reading?
WHISKEY JENNY: I just finished something this morning, so I’m currently in between books. But previously, before finishing Exit West, I finished Wise Blood, by Flannery O’Connor.
GIN JENNY: Oh, how was it?
WHISKEY JENNY: It was good.
GIN JENNY: Yeah?
WHISKEY JENNY: It was my first novel by her.
GIN JENNY: I didn’t even know that she had written any novels.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, I think she has one other one. Not a whole lot, but I think she has one other one. Because she died so young, there’s just not a whole lot of—
GIN JENNY: Time.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. But I enjoyed it. We read it for work book club. In particular, her writing— I said at book club that I just wanted a book of her similes. Just explain things to me, Flannery O’Connor. Because she is so good at describing things in unique and unusual ways. Really big fan of her similes. She describes someone, I think it was “having the fragile look of a gun that no one knows is loaded.”
GIN JENNY: Ooooh.
WHISKEY JENNY: It was just, oh my god.
GIN JENNY: That’s really good.
WHISKEY JENNY: But it’s a comic novel about a guy who basically has a lot of faith, but is sort of in denial of the fact that he has faith. And so he tries to tell everyone that he doesn’t believe, and that they shouldn’t believe either, and the only truth is blasphemy, but that’s its own other truth. And he sort of starts to make his own church. It’s like very dreamlike and weird.
GIN JENNY: Sounds monumentally Flannery O’Connor-ish.
WHISKEY JENNY: Anyway, it was good. It was good. I now really want to go check out more of her short stories, because I also haven’t explored very many of her short stories.
GIN JENNY: I haven’t in a while, either. So that’s a good idea.
WHISKEY JENNY: Someone had not read “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and was like, what’s it about? And everyone was like, uuuuuuhhh—
GIN JENNY: Umm.
WHISKEY JENNY: Uhh— well— [LAUGHTER] Someone who is spoiler-averse, so there’s no way to describe that story without—
GIN JENNY: Yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: So we were like, maybe you should just read it.
GIN JENNY: Well, are you ready for some polar explorer updates?
WHISKEY JENNY: I am. I’m so ready. Can you give me the one that I don’t know yet first, because the link wouldn’t work for me?
GIN JENNY: Yes, that’s what I was planning to do, actually.
WHISKEY JENNY: OK, great.
GIN JENNY: I do want to thank friend of the podcast Renay for alerting me to this story. So, delighted to report, a 16-year-old Australian girl named Jade Hameister had given an internet talk about how girls should go out and have adventures. And a bunch of internet assholes told her to make them a sandwich. And she subsequently—
WHISKEY JENNY: WHAT!?
GIN JENNY: Yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well this is— all right.
GIN JENNY: It turns out OK.
WHISKEY JENNY: OK, sorry. Go on.
GIN JENNY: So she skied to the— and I really like this distinction— to the ceremonial South Pole and the geographic South Pole.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, nice.
GIN JENNY: And she took a picture of herself with a sandwich that was like, I made you a sandwich. Come get it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Hey-o! That’s great.
GIN JENNY: So I mean, way to go, kid.
WHISKEY JENNY: Seriously. Also I love sandwiches, so this just seems like the best of all kinds of worlds.
GIN JENNY: So that’s one polar explorer update. The other isn’t exactly a polar explorer update.
WHISKEY JENNY: I think it counts.
GIN JENNY: But we decided that it counts.
WHISKEY JENNY: We allow it.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. Beautiful genius Whiskey Jenny sent me the gift of a three month subscription to Broadway HD, which currently includes the musical Ernest Shackleton Loves Me.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yay!
GIN JENNY: So obviously I watched it right away, and it was amazing. The lady who wrote the show and also starred in it, Val Vigoda, is a really talented musician. And in addition to how great all the Ernest Shackleton stuff was, it was really cool to see Val Vigoda just doing her thing.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. She does a lot of live looping stuff, which is basically magic to me. [LAUGHTER]
GIN JENNY: Me too. She talks at the beginning of the show. The conceit is that she’s setting up this online dating profile. And she talks about how she creates her music, and it’s just really cool from a process standpoint, how she does it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. Let me ask you this. Did I describe it accurately? Because it’s kind of a hard show to nail down, I would say.
GIN JENNY: No, you described it exactly. It was exactly what I was expecting based on your description.
WHISKEY JENNY: Great.
GIN JENNY: And the part at the end where all the 22 men survived was—
WHISKEY JENNY: All 22!
GIN JENNY: It was amazing.
WHISKEY JENNY: [LAUGHTER] It’s so good.
GIN JENNY: It’s really good.
WHISKEY JENNY: I mean, I knew that that was coming when I was watching the show, but I was still like, this is the coolest thing of all time. [LAUGHTER] How many men?
GIN JENNY: It was so good. It was really good.
WHISKEY JENNY: It’s just really well done, with the picture in the background.
GIN JENNY: It was. The whole thing was really well-produced, and I liked it a lot. One thing you didn’t tell me that I thought was really funny— and listeners, if you’re going to get a subscription to Broadway HD, skip this part, because you may want to discover the show on your own. But I loved it when all the different explorers are contacting her on the dating app.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, yeah.
GIN JENNY: That was really funny.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yay! You can also just get, if you don’t want a subscription to a Broadway HD, you can just get a single watch of the show.
GIN JENNY: Oh, neat. I didn’t know that. That’s also cool.
WHISKEY JENNY: It’s like the rentals on Amazon or iTunes or things like that, where you have 48 hours to watch it once you start it or something.
GIN JENNY: Cool. There’s also several other things on there that I’m excited to watch. She Loves Me is on there, which is a musical that is basically You’ve Got Mail starring Laura Benanti, who I love. And there’s a concert production of Jesus Christ Superstar, my favorite musical of all time. And that play Indecent that was getting so much attention last year or the year before is on there, which I totally would have gone to see if I’d been in New York. So all in all, really great gift.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yay! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it.
GIN JENNY: I really am. So those are our polar explorer updates.
WHISKEY JENNY: Excellent. Well, let’s move on from cold polar exploring into warm spring 2018 book preview. But actually I lied. Before we do that, let’s do a fall 2017 check in with the books that we were excited about and see if they held up, or if we read them.
So do you want to just run down your fall ones first?
GIN JENNY: Yes. So I actually read all of my fall ones.
WHISKEY JENNY: Whoa! Check you out!
GIN JENNY: Thank you.
WHISKEY JENNY: Way to go.
GIN JENNY: Thank you. They were mostly YA books, so they were short. They were easy to get through. So I read Jane Unlimited by Kristin Cashore. And I loved it. It’s by the author of Bitterblue, which we both really enjoyed. And I’ve been telling everyone that it’s Rebecca by way of Diana Wynne Jones. So that one was great. That one was probably the best of my fall books. It was a really, really good. I recommend it so highly.
And then I read An Unkindness of Magicians, by Kat Howard.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh!
GIN JENNY: It was just OK.
WHISKEY JENNY: Really? Because the cover is so good.
GIN JENNY: The cover is so good. It’s about secret magicians doing awesome duels. But really, there wasn’t much conflict. Lady who comes to topple the way things are done by these magicians really doesn’t encounter any difficulty at all. She just skates on through.
WHISKEY JENNY: The whole house of cards goes falling. It was atmospheric, though. If you liked The Night Circus, I think this is a good readalike. So I think partly a function of expectations. I think if you went into it expecting something slightly Night Circusy and you knew there wasn’t going to be much conflict, then you could definitely still enjoy it.
WHISKEY JENNY: That sounds great.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. And then A Moonless, Starless Sky, by Alexis Okeowo, which was about people facing political extremism in Africa. And it was really good. She writes with a great deal of clarity and empathy for people who are facing really impossible choices, and I just thought it was really strong journalism throughout.
And then A Skinful of Shadows, by Frances Hardinge, which is the one about the girl during the English Civil War, whose family keeps her around so she can give her body to them, so that she can be possessed by the ghosts of her ancestors.
WHISKEY JENNY: Eugh.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. It was great. It was so creepy, it was so weird. Frances Hardinge’s books are all real weird, and this one was no exception. I loved it. I think it would be a good introduction to Francis Hardinge, if you haven’t read anything by her before.
WHISKEY JENNY: Ooh, I have not.
GIN JENNY: And then finally I read Beasts Made of Night, by Tochi Onyebuchi, which is about the boy in a fictional fantasy Nigeria, who is a sin eater. And he consumes the sins of wealthy people. The worldbuilding was really cool. It was a debut YA novel, and you can kind of tell. There’s some parts that are a little awkward and a little clunky. But overall I really liked it, and I would definitely be on board to read a sequel or two.
WHISKEY JENNY: Cool. Really great title roundup for you, I think.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. You know, I hadn’t thought of it, but yeah. It super is. All right, what were your fall books?
WHISKEY JENNY: Let’s see. First up is Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke, which I think was also on your list. You let me say it. [LAUGHTER] So we both read that one. And I think we both really enjoyed it and had a couple of notes. But overall really enjoyed it and are excited to see what more she does, hopefully in that series.
So also on my list was The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott, which I really enjoyed. Still really love Alice McDermott as a writer. It is very Alice McDermotty, I would say. [LAUGHTER] I love her, so I love that book, so keep up the great work, Alice. [LAUGHTER]
And then I also read Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan, which I think I mentioned.
GIN JENNY: You did awesome!
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, thanks. Well, I’m doing the good ones first. Which I think I mentioned in our 2017 year in review I did not love, so I will not spend any more time on that. But the other two that I have not read yet are the Star Wars, From a Certain Point of View book of short stories. That’s the side characters in the Star Wars stories telling their story. So I got it from the library, started it, opened it up, and one of the stories had a— or maybe it was even on the front flap. Something mentioned that it was carrying on a story from Rogue One, which I had not seen yet. And then I got really worried that I was going to spoil stuff for me. So I didn’t finish it. So I have to watch Rogue One, and then probably also Last Jedi before I can read Star Wars From a Certain Point of View. But then I’m going to read it, and it’s going to be great.
GIN JENNY: I’m still really excited for you to see Last Jedi so we can talk about it.
WHISKEY JENNY: I am too! I super am. I’m excited to talk about it with the world.
GIN JENNY: All right. Just, time keeps passing, and I— you know.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: It is. Time is a river. [LAUGHTER]
GIN JENNY: That’s so true.
WHISKEY JENNY: No one can resist it.
And then lastly I had a graphic novel, Savage Town by— I don’t know who’s who, but Philip Barrett, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles. That’s the one set in Ireland with a small time crook doing small time crookery. And I could never get it from the library. It’s finally in at the library— they own it now— but I tried to go put it on hold, and they said something’s wrong with my library account and I have to go see a librarian. So I’m really anxious about that.
GIN JENNY: I’m sure it’s fine. I’m sure you just have to renew your account.
WHISKEY JENNY: But wha— why can’t I do that online?
GIN JENNY: I don’t—
WHISKEY JENNY: [LAUGHTER] Said the millennial.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: You probably have fines you have to pay.
WHISKEY JENNY: No, I paid the fines. Because I was like, oh, it’s probably the fines. And first of all, they were below the limit. And second of all, I paid them, and then it still said it.
GIN JENNY: Oh, I don’t know. I’m so sorry. That sounds really annoying.
WHISKEY JENNY: I’m really stressed out about it.
GIN JENNY: I’m sure it’s fine, Whiskey Jenny. I don’t think they’re going to be like, get out of the library. You’re done.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: We’ve been reviewing the list of the books that you checked out. [LAUGHTER] And we know that sometimes you return them before reading them.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: That’s funny.
WHISKEY JENNY: So, yeah.
GIN JENNY: Well, that’s pretty good.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, I feel like that’s a great batch of stuff for fall.
GIN JENNY: And you would have read five of them, but library foiled you, and the spoilers thing.
WHISKEY JENNY: That’s true. That’s true. Thanks. Thanks for that very generous assessment.
GIN JENNY: You’re welcome.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well, what are you excited for for spring?
GIN JENNY: Well, OK, so my first one is the one that I’m a little concerned we might have overlap, because we do not discuss these at great length.
WHISKEY JENNY: No, we did not.
GIN JENNY: So there’s a concern. It’s The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey.
WHISKEY JENNY: Love the title, but it’s not on my list. Tell me more.
GIN JENNY: Great. OK, so it’s coming out in— well, I guess it has come out in January from Soho Press. And it is a mystery starring a woman lawyer in Bombay in the 1920s.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oooh!
GIN JENNY: I know! Yeah, she’s the first female lawyer in Bombay, and I think she’s based on a real historical figure.
WHISKEY JENNY: Wow, that sounds awesome.
GIN JENNY: I know! And she’s investigating the murders of three widows of a wealthy mill owner. I love everything in the description. It’s from Soho Press, which I know you’re very high on.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, I love them.
GIN JENNY: As a mystery outlet. So I don’t know, it sounds like it will be really cool. Like, sad but good.
WHISKEY JENNY: You don’t think it’s Miss Fisher vibes? It looks sadder than that?
GIN JENNY: I think so, partly because it’s based on a real person, and my guess is life was difficult for the first female lawyer in the 1920s in Bombay.
WHISKEY JENNY: Seems like a reasonable guess, yeah.
GIN JENNY: So I don’t know, it could be more Miss Fishery than I’m anticipating. But I think it’s going to be more serious than that in tone.
WHISKEY JENNY: Cool.
GIN JENNY: And I’m hoping it’ll be the beginning of a series, and maybe she’ll form a team or something. I don’t know.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh my god. Hadn’t even occurred to me, but that sounds great.
GIN JENNY: What’s your first one?
WHISKEY JENNY: So I’m going to do the first one also that I thought maybe you might put on yours. Although all of these I don’t think you would hate. Anyway, I’m going to start with The Merry Spinster, by Mallory Ortberg.
GIN JENNY: Not on my list.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, great. This is coming out in March from Holt, and it’s Mallory Ortberg of The Toast fame doing her signature creepy retellings of fairy tales.
GIN JENNY: And I love fairy tales, so. And creepy things.
WHISKEY JENNY: And Mallory Ortberg. Basically all I saw was that Mallory Ortberg had a book coming out and I was like OK, great, it’s on my list. [LAUGHTER]
GIN JENNY: So I was as much of a fan— because she used to do those such-and-such made horrifying on The Toast, and they weren’t my favorite of The Toast posts. But I’m hoping that in book format I’ll be more into them. Oh, oh, Whiskey Jenny, do you know if it has illustrations?
WHISKEY JENNY: I do not know. I’m so sorry, I don’t know.
GIN JENNY: OK, that’s OK.
WHISKEY JENNY: They were also not my favorite format. But now there’s no new Toast stuff for me to take in, so.
GIN JENNY: That’s true. Beggars can’t be choosers, is what you’re saying.
WHISKEY JENNY: Exactly.
GIN JENNY: Next up for me is Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman. So it’s coming out in February from Random House. I keep a spreadsheet of upcoming releases, among other things, and I have a section in my spreadsheet for describing what the book is about. And in the section for Tess of the Road I just wrote WHO CARES, in all caps. Because Rachel Hartman wrote this really strange but great YA book called Serafina, about a girl who is part—
WHISKEY JENNY: I didn’t know that was her. Great.
GIN JENNY: She’s part dragon. Did you read it?
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah.
GIN JENNY: Yeah! So she’s part dragon. She has to conceal her heritage. And she kind of gets a crush on the prince of the kingdom. And the prince is engaged to this royal lady at the court, and the royal lady is also super fun and sweet and nice, so that was cool. And I was really happy with how they resolved that situation in the second book.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. And that’s the one where dragons are super good at math and science, right?
GIN JENNY: Yes.
WHISKEY JENNY: Which I thought was just such a cool detail.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, me too. And Tess of the Road is set in the same world. I don’t know if it’s going to be a one-and-done or if it’s the start of a new series, but it does sound like it will contain a lot of road tripping.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oooh. Oh, boy.
GIN JENNY: That’s good for me. So yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: Cool. My next one is The Wedding Date, by Jasmine Guillory.
GIN JENNY: Yeah!
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, have you read it already?
GIN JENNY: No, I haven’t. But I’m excited to.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, so it came out already in January, by Berkley. I think that there is a fake wedding date between a man and a woman. And then maybe they have some feelings. And it looks like a really fun rom com. Also the Fug Girls, from Go Fug Yourself, have been talking about this book a lot. And I really trust their opinion, and I love them. So I’m just really excited to read it.
GIN JENNY: And Roxane Gay, also—
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh! Yeah.
GIN JENNY: —has been talking about it.
WHISKEY JENNY: That’s a real seal of approval, to get those two. I mean, come on.
GIN JENNY: Right? I think I saw Roxanne Gay talking about it first and I was like, well, of course I’m adding this to my list. And then when the Fug girls talked about it, I was like, I’ve made a great decision.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, great! So I’m excited. I don’t think I’ve read nearly enough romance by black authors, so I’m excited to start remedying that.
GIN JENNY: Well, there is not a lot. The romance genre has a real problem with diversity. So my next one is The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh!
GIN JENNY: Is that on your list?
WHISKEY JENNY: It is.
GIN JENNY: Dammit! I’m so sorry.
WHISKEY JENNY: We should really start comparing these. Yeah, so sorry. But that’s OK. We’re both excited about it.
GIN JENNY: OK, I’m so sorry.
WHISKEY JENNY: No, I didn’t— no. Yeah. It looks great, right? sorry, go on. Tell everyone what it’s about.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, so The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang, is coming out in February from First Second. Well, Whiskey Jenny, since it’s on both of our lists, do you want to say what it’s about?
WHISKEY JENNY: No, no, you tell the people. I’ve squealed enough about it, I think. [LAUGHTER]
GIN JENNY: OK, so this is a graphic novel. It’s about a prince whose parents are looking for a wife for him, and he’s unenthusiastic about that. And at night, he goes out into Paris wearing these fantastic dresses that his best friend Frances designs and makes for him. And this is all in secret. So he’s keeping this big secret. Frances is helping him to keep the secret. But she also has dreams of her own about what her career is going to be, and she can’t really talk about the dresses she’s designing without drawing attention to the fact that this is the prince out wearing them secretly.
And when I looked at some of the art online, it looked so sweet and dear. It looks like the dearest book of all time.
WHISKEY JENNY: It’s beautiful.
GIN JENNY: What drew you to it, Whiskey Jenny?
WHISKEY JENNY: All of those things. Those things that you just said. But also, it’s set in turn of the century Paris, I think.
GIN JENNY: Ooh! I didn’t know that.
WHISKEY JENNY: I liked the setting of it, as well.
GIN JENNY: I also haven’t seen any of the actual dresses. When I’ve looked at the art online, it’s just been him and Frances wearing regular street clothes. So I’m super excited to see the different dress designs.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, I think it will be really gorgeous to behold, as well as sweet to read.
GIN JENNY: Agree. Well, since I did that one that was both of ours, do you want to do the next one that was both of ours?
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh. OK, sure, that works.
GIN JENNY: Whiskey Jenny asked me before podcast if this was on my list, and I said no, very confidently.
WHISKEY JENNY: And I was like, great. I’m going to do it. [LAUGHTER]
GIN JENNY: Yeah, I googled it, and I was like, oh no, it super is.
WHISKEY JENNY: It was a real emotional roller coaster. See we do try to confer beforehand. And I was correct in that this one was on her list. But sometimes I am not correct. But anyway, I would have put it on my list had it not already been on Gin Jenny’s list, but Gin Jenny is kindly going to let me read it. It is The House of the— Sorry, not read it. She’s going to let me read the announcement.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: She doesn’t control what I read. [LAUGHTER] Although I would trust you. I would put myself in your hands. Should I need to make that choice, I would do it.
So it’s The House of Broken Angels, by about Luis Alberto Urrea. And it’s coming from Little Brown in March. All I was reading about it is, it’s a multigenerational saga of a Mexican-American family in California. And I know that Gin Jenny was really high on Into the Beautiful North. And it just sounds really lovely. And I love a good family novel.
GIN JENNY: I actually was going to ask you, I realized I don’t— because as I was trying to pick your Hatening book, I realized I didn’t know what your position was on the genre “family reconvenes for funeral.”
WHISKEY JENNY: For a funeral? I don’t love it for a funeral. This is for someone’s birthday. So this is more exciting to me.
GIN JENNY: It’s for someone’s final birthday. So the thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book in this genre that I’ve actually enjoyed. But somehow I can’t stop trying them.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. What else is in this genre?
GIN JENNY: Oh gosh.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, I like convening for a wedding, too.
GIN JENNY: Sure, sure. Yeah, I think so. You know what? I should rename the genre to “family reconvenes for event.”
WHISKEY JENNY: For an event. Yeah, there’s many of those that I enjoy.
GIN JENNY: There’s some that I’ve enjoyed. I don’t think there’s any that I wanted to keep forever. But I think this one could be the one, because I really, really liked Into the Beautiful North. And also, the plot description reminds me of A Tangled Web, by LM Montgomery. Did you ever read that?
WHISKEY JENNY: No.
GIN JENNY: Well, it’s similar. The matriarch of the family calls her whole enormous family together for her last birthday party.
WHISKEY JENNY: How does she know it’s her last?
GIN JENNY: You know, it’s an LM Montgomery book. She’s just like, I’ve decided I will die soon.
WHISKEY JENNY: OK, cool. Yeah, one of those.
GIN JENNY: It’s not the best of the lesser LM Montgomery books, and it’s shockingly racist at the end, so I have to stop reading it early. But still, I’m quite fond of parts of it, and this kind of reminded me of that.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, no, it sounds really cool.
GIN JENNY: Well, what’s your next actual one?
WHISKEY JENNY: My next actual one— and thank you again— my next actual one is Happiness, by Aminatta Forna
GIN JENNY: Oh, yeah. That was almost on my list.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, sweet. So it comes out in March from Atlantic Monthly. It is a novel of a chance encounter— this is all— I wrote my notes, and I’m realizing that they are kind of jibberish. So this is me trying to decipher my notes. It is a story where an American fox expert in London has a chance encounter with, I think, a Ghanian doctor who’s a trauma expert. And he’s in town to do a big fancy talk, but he’s also in town to look for his missing niece. And I think they become friends, and I think that the fox expert uses her fox network of the people that she uses previously to help her find foxes to help find the niece. And the niece has emigrated to London from somewhere else. So it also talks a lot about the immigrant experience, I think.
And it just sounds really fascinating. I’ve never read anything by this writer, but in reading this description, I’m very excited about it. It reminded me also some of— did you ever read Prodigal Summer?
GIN JENNY: No.
WHISKEY JENNY: So that’s Barbara Kingsolver. I think it’s three interwoven tales. It talks a lot about nature, but one of the people is a coyote expert. So A, felt that I learned a whole bunch about coyote behavior during that book, and was super high on coyotes, and angry at everyone who thought they were vermin for a while. And it also lends itself— I think that sort of style lends itself to making comparisons between coyote behavior and human behavior. So I hope there’s also a lot of fox-human comparisons. And it just sounded really cool,
GIN JENNY: Well, that sounds really good. And it is on my list, too. I read her two previous books and I quite liked them. I’m also hoping for some really good fox information.
WHISKEY JENNY: I’m not sure that that is what she wrote this book for, but that was definitely the thing that drew me to the book. I was like, oh, cool, a fox expert.
GIN JENNY: Foxes!
WHISKEY JENNY: Foxes are the best. Definitely want to read that. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, yeah, yeah, groundbreaking novel about the human experience. Tell me more about these foxes. [LAUGHTER]
GIN JENNY: So my last one is Imposter Syndrome, by Mishell Baker, coming out in March from Saga. So I’ve talked a lot about Mishell Baker’s books. The first one was Borderline, and they’re the urban fantasy novels about movie stars and creepy fairies. And our protagonist is a filmmaker and double amputee with borderline personality disorder.
And in the last book, I don’t want to spoil it, but there’s a major schism in the last book that has some pretty enormous consequences. And I wasn’t even sure there were going to be more in the series. But I’m excited that there are, and I think in this one, Millie’s going to really be dealing with the fallout of what happened last time. So it’ll be a pretty big change. And I’m really looking forward to more building, and more creepy fairies, and more adventures.
WHISKEY JENNY: Schism, Schisms are always fun.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. Well, yeah. [LAUGHTER] What about you?
WHISKEY JENNY: My last one is Disoriental, coming out in April from Europa, one of our go-tos.
GIN JENNY: French flaps Europa.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah! French flaps. So it’s by Négar Djavadi and translated by Tina Kover. It is set in Paris about a young woman of Iranian origin.
GIN JENNY: Oh, yeah, yeah! I heard about this.
WHISKEY JENNY: And she’s sitting in a doctor’s office and kind of— not hallucinates, but starts getting waves of her family’s stories. But she can’t stop them. Like, OK cool, I don’t want to hear these stories anymore while I’m waiting in this doctor’s office. So it’s a cool storytelling conceit, I think.
And this is the first novel by Négar Djavadi, and she’s a screenwriter, though. So I feel like that kind of story lends itself— I’m excited to see a screenwriter’s take on this sort of classic Sheherazade sort of thing.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. Well, that’s a good crowd of books, I feel like.
WHISKEY JENNY: I’m pretty excited, yeah.
GIN JENNY: Well, do you want to tell the people about what we read for this podcast?
WHISKEY JENNY: I do. So we read Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid which was a love story, to begin with, of two people in a city that is unnamed, but has Middle East signifiers, I would say. And their city starts having unrest, and they eventually want to try to leave. And in this world, there are mysterious doors that just pop up and lead you to other places in the world, and they take one. And then it is the tale of how they continue to build their lives after leaving their home. Yeah, what did you think overall?
GIN JENNY: I thought it was pretty good. I thought the writing was really great. There were several quotes that I wrote down. I thought it was an interesting premise that the author dealt with in a lot of really interesting ways. But at the same time, I know this is kind of predictable, but I could envision a less literary fiction and more science fiction version of this book that I probably would have liked better.
WHISKEY JENNY: I can see that, absolutely.
GIN JENNY: What did you think?
WHISKEY JENNY: I really liked it. I really liked it a lot.
GIN JENNY: Oh, excellent.
WHISKEY JENNY: I absolutely see your point. One of my notes was that I kind of wanted it to keep going, and I wanted to know more about how the world is now, now that all these doors exist.
GIN JENNY: Have been around for a while now.
WHISKEY JENNY: Like, the world has come to terms with the fact of their existence, and now you can just pop off to— they make some casual mention, I think, of popping off to Chile to see the stars in one afternoon. And I just really wanted— and I think that desire of mine is similar to yours, to have a more sci-fi telling of this story, and to really focus on the magic of the doors, and how that magic affects people’s day to day lives. So I would like another sci-fi book that’s this book retold, but I don’t want to replace this book. I just want both. I’m very greedy. I want both. But I really liked it.
GIN JENNY: So you said that you liked all the details of the magic doors. I also did, whereas everything that dealt with Nadia and Saeed’s relationship, I was less interested. What did you feel about that?
WHISKEY JENNY: I liked the beginning of their story, and their courtship, I was interested in. As they become more established and then start falling apart, I just didn’t buy it. It was like it was the most polite breakup of all time. But I was like, there’s no way that these two humans are this nice to each other as this, their one love for their entire lives, and this person they’ve gone through all of this stuff together with— there’s no way that it’s this, I don’t know—
GIN JENNY: Amicable?
WHISKEY JENNY: —casual and amicable. I just didn’t believe it. So, yeah, I agree.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. I was also annoyed throughout the book— and the book does rectify this later— but they keep talking about how Saeed and Nadia aren’t having sex because they aren’t—
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh my god, yes! Yes. I wrote that down, too, and then I had to go back and put in parentheses, “later sort of remedied.”
GIN JENNY: Yeah. So it talks a lot about how they’re not having sex, because Saeed doesn’t want to have sex until they’re married. And what they mean is that they’re not having intercourse. And it made me really annoyed, because other things are sex that they’re clearly engaged in.
WHISKEY JENNY: Like, explicitly.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. And it bugged me all throughout the book, and then at the very end of the book Nadia’s like, I mean, we were having sex. And Saeed it like, ha ha, yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: Right.
GIN JENNY: But it was too late. I had already been annoyed throughout the whole book.
WHISKEY JENNY: And I would have been like, OK, fine, had you been saying “oh, but we’re not having sex” from the perspective of Saeed that whole time. But it’s the third person narrator who’s like, but they stopped just short of sex. And it’s like, well, no, the omniscient book can’t be calling it not sex and then be like, ha ha at the end. So no, I would have forgiven it had it been from the character’s perspective, but it wasn’t.
GIN JENNY: You’re right. That’s true. That’s a good point.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, that was really annoying. I was surprised at the depth of my feeling to be like, come on. It’s sex.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, that’s a real pet peeve of mine. That really, really, really, really bugs me. But everything with the ramifications of the magic doors, I was so into. And I loved the details of all the different places where Nadia and Saeed end up, because they end up going to several different homes over the course of the book.
So first they go to this Greek island. And I loved how it talked about the refugee camps that get set up and the systems of barter that work there, and how rumors are always flying that these doors are opening to wealthy places. I loved all that stuff, all that world building.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. My favorite little detail of that was— first of all, I think in general the book had for me a very fairy tale, fable feeling to it, which I loved. And then they end up in London, basically it seemed like a palace, essentially. This enormous house in the middle of London that’s super nice and has fancy bathtubs, and just this super, super opulent house with multiple rooms, and different families claimed different rooms. And just the fact that basically there is a palace in this story, I was like, OK cool, so it’s still a fairy tale.
That house, a council is formed. And when London is particularly hostile and they can’t get food, the council distributes rations to everyone, gathers everyone’s food and then rations it back out. Just the workings of that council, I thought, were fascinating.
GIN JENNY: Me too. And especially because you get to see how Nadia and Saeed deal very differently with the community that’s set up there. I loved that detail. To me, it didn’t actually feel super fairytaley. Because I was thinking of it like, there’s all these unoccupied houses in Kensington and Chelsea where super wealthy people just buy them and maintain them as assets but don’t live there. So I was imagining it like those houses.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yes. I think there is a very valid real world explanation. Everything in this book feels very real to me, except for the doors, you know?
GIN JENNY: Right.
WHISKEY JENNY: It’s just like, in the telling of it, there was also this giant, palatial home. I felt it really fit in the way that this book straddles the fairytale and the real.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. That’s a great way of putting it. And I just thought that the author had put his finger on something really interesting. Because reading that, what they were describing felt a lot more like London than just empty houses— you know what I mean? —in a posh neighborhood. And so I just thought it was an interesting— he was saying something really interesting about the way we conceptualize spaces, and who owns them, and who belongs in them.
Especially because, in the area where Nadia and Saeed are, it ends up being— they talk about that a lot of Nigerians end up there. And Nadia makes friends with everyone, and Saeed is more like, well, I want to hang out with people from our country instead. And Nadiya’s like, who cares? It was just really interesting, the way they form community or decline to form community, I thought, was so cool.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, I really enjoyed seeing both of their different— particularly at that point, but just throughout the entire book— their different approaches to what kind of life they want to build now that everything is destroyed. How do they rebuild, what do they want to hold on to? And they both have pretty radically different approaches to that, I would say. And yeah, I thought that was really well handled. I wouldn’t say that the book condemns either one of their approaches. I think it allows them both to do what they want.
GIN JENNY: Yes, exactly. One of my notes is that I think Mohsin Hamid steers away from moral judgment throughout the book. He’s just basically saying, this is what these people did, and this is what these people did. And at times I might have liked him to take more of a stand.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah.
GIN JENNY: But I think there’s something good and interesting about the way that he does handle it. And particularly what really struck me, there’s a point in the book where the migrants in London are considering armed defense against the native military and police forces. And one faction says they should be nonviolent, because they have no hope of winning. So their only hope is to not provoke them, basically. And one faction says, we have to defend ourselves, because if we don’t, we’ll be eliminated. And Nadia is hearing both of these arguments, and she’s not sure. And I liked it that the author left that space for her not to be sure. Because I’m also not sure.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. It’s a terrible choice to have to make.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. It’s a terrible choice, and it feels like there’s no good or right choice.
WHISKEY JENNY: I think, to your point that sometimes I wish there was some moral judgment— he would just sum up in one sentence, something like a beheading, or the fire assassination of 200 children or something. And I would wish that sometimes his detachment came off more as callousness.
GIN JENNY: Yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: But then I started thinking, but really aren’t we all callous when we read the news? Perhaps he’s saying something about whose lives we value and whose lives we don’t. So maybe it was on purpose.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, but I agree. I mean, at times it did feel a little bit cold.
WHISKEY JENNY: What did you think about— so mostly we follow Saeed and Nadia. But there’s a couple cut scenes— I don’t know, flashes of other people in other places and their experiences with the doors. And we never hear anything more from them. It’s just these one little scenes once in a while. What did you think of those?
GIN JENNY: I didn’t really get why they were in there. But I tended to enjoy them, and they tended to have interesting details about how the world is working for the rest of the people. And plus, I thought there were just some really lovely lines in those sections. What did you think?
WHISKEY JENNY: Same. I wasn’t mad at them, but I kind of either wanted more from them, or them to not be there at all. Because I think it’s a very hard line to straddle the very personal stories that we’re getting of Saeed and Nadia versus the very universal, general experience that I think this book is trying to also capture.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, and I think it does capture it pretty well in a lot of ways.
WHISKEY JENNY: So to me, that was just another way it was trying to be like, but don’t forget, even though we’re following Nadia and Saeed, this is happening millions and millions and millions of times over and over again throughout the world. So I guess in that way it was successful.
GIN JENNY: As you’re talking about it, you’re kind of talking me into them. Listening to you, I kind of like them as scene setting and as reminding the reader that there’s more than just these two people.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. Particularly, there’s some where I was like, but wait, I really like those two people! No, don’t take me away! Like the two old men that fall love. I was so charmed by them.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, and I think it’s the last one in the book, where it’s an old woman who’s lived in the same place her whole life, just I thought was a really lovely little vignette. And our outro quote— spoilers— our outro quote is going to be from that section.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, I totally know it. I was just about to be like, if you don’t mention it— but OK, I totally know what it is. It’s the greatest quote. It’s a really good one.
GIN JENNY: It’s pretty good. Did you write down a bunch of quotes? Did you like the writing as much as I did?
WHISKEY JENNY: I did. I really liked the writing. I wrote down a whole bunch of quotes. Well actually, I didn’t write them down. I was taking photos of the page. Because I didn’t feel like stopping my flow, and so I was just taking photos of the page. But my phone was slightly far away to begin with. And I would be like, oh OK, and I would get up and then leave the phone far away, and then the next page I would be like, ugh, there’s another one. [LAUGHTER] So eventually I kept my phone close to me.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, you learned a lesson.
WHISKEY JENNY: I sure did.
GIN JENNY: I will say, as much as I did enjoy the writing, I was glad the book was the length that it was. It’s a relatively short book. Because there are things about the way that Hamid writes that I think would have felt mannered if it had been longer. His sentences are very run-on at times.
WHISKEY JENNY: That’s true. Did it drive you crazy?
GIN JENNY: No, no, no, it didn’t. I just noticed it, and I think if there had been more of the book, it would have started bugging me.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. But I thought always followable.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, definitely. Did not sacrifice coherence at all.
WHISKEY JENNY: [LAUGHTER] Which sounds like a very negative thing to say about a book. Wow, it was coherent. But we really liked it, actually. That’s a compliment.
GIN JENNY: Damn it with faint praise.
WHISKEY JENNY: It is a book that made grammatical sense.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: The subject-verb agreement was just fine.
WHISKEY JENNY: What did you think about the fact that their place of origin is unnamed?
GIN JENNY: I liked it. I think it contributed to what you were talking about, the fairytale feeling of the book. And I think also, if they had named the country they had come from, I would have gotten hung up on details and thinking about what I know about that country. I think it was a good move. I’m in favor. What did you think?
WHISKEY JENNY: I thought it was good, too. I thought it was interesting that all the other places in the world are real places. Like, they go to Greece, they go to London, they go to California. I thought that was just a really interesting choice that made me think about why you decided to do that as a writer, which is a line of inquiry that I always really enjoy. I agree.
I think it also has Middle East signifiers, but then it also makes you question, why do I think that this place is the Middle East? And that was a very interesting conversation, I felt, that the book was having.
GIN JENNY: OK, so I had one tiny gripe.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. Gripe away.
GIN JENNY: It’s just a small one, about the migrant native categories thing that he does, which I in general really like. The last place that Nadia and Saeed wash up together is in California. And Hamid makes reference to American Indians, and he says this. “In Marin—” which is where they are in California— “in Marin there were almost no natives, these people having died out or been exterminated long ago. At the trading posts, the elder among them seemed not infrequently to be possessed of a limitless patience that was matched by a limitless sorrow. Tales were told at these places that people from all over now gathered to hear.” And, gosh. I appreciate Hamid correctly identifying Indians as the natives of America. And at the same time, I felt like this passage stumbled into some cliches about indigenous Americans that are not great.
WHISKEY JENNY: Absolutely.
GIN JENNY: Like the idea that there’s almost none left, and the kind of mysticisization that’s on display here is cliche. And since we don’t meet any other indigenous American characters at all, this feels perfunctory.
WHISKEY JENNY: No, definitely. I have no argument against that. Is that the same sentence that mentions what they’re selling?
GIN JENNY: Yes, probably. I have an ellipsis in the middle because I was trying to highlight the specific parts that bugged me the most.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, yeah, sure. Sure. I think that whole sentence in general is problematic. And you’re absolutely right. It really plays into the strong but silent Native American stereotype.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. And I get that the author is not from America, and so maybe hasn’t encountered it as much. But still, it was kind of a bummer to read. I would say that the sex thing were my two big gripes, and those are pretty small gripes.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well, yeah. I don’t know. They’re medium-sized gripes.
GIN JENNY: Well, I guess the space they occupy is relatively small.
WHISKEY JENNY: Sure. I see. I think your gripe of sci-fi is not a gripe, but is also a very valid criticism.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. And I think that I would give this book to someone who wants to get into sci-fi.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, really?
GIN JENNY: I think if I were making a list of literary sci-fi-ish books, I would put this on it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Sure, yeah. It’s like the gateway. It’s the door!
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: Oh, man. If I were there, I would give you a high five right now.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: Thank you. Thank you so much. What did you think about the cover?
GIN JENNY: Oh, I completely forgot what the cover looked like.
WHISKEY JENNY: It’s blue with more blue writing and little silver sparkles.
GIN JENNY: I would’ve liked the cover— maybe this is too on the nose, but I would have liked the cover to have a door.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. Yeah, same.
GIN JENNY: It’s a nice cover. I mean, it’s an attractive cover, but I don’t know how much it gets into what the book is about.
WHISKEY JENNY: And as you recall when we were talking about, on last podcast, reading this, I had a really hard time summarizing the book. [LAUGHTER]
GIN JENNY: You sure did.
WHISKEY JENNY: It was pretty unclear to me what this book was about, and I think part of that is the cover. Have you read anything else by Mohsen Hamid?
GIN JENNY: I didn’t, and I was actually going to ask you if you, having liked this so much, if you are planning to read more by him. I am certainly planning on investigating more by him. I don’t know anything else about any of the other books. And I really liked a lot of things that I think might be specific to this book, but might not. Like the fairy tale, fable feel, and the presence of the magic. I’m interested in seeing, if those things are not present in his other books, do I still like him as a writer? So we will see.
GIN JENNY: I would actually like to read at least one of his other books. The one that I was familiar with, or had heard of, was The Reluctant Fundamentalist. And that’s not really a type of book that I’m super interested in— why men do very violent things is not my genre.
WHISKEY JENNY: I think I’d also heard of How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia.
GIN JENNY: I don’t know anything about it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, me neither.
GIN JENNY: His marketing team needs to work better.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: It’s probably on me and not his making team.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: Who can say? It’s someone’s fault! I do like the title, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, Exit West is also a really good title, I think.
GIN JENNY: It is. And he has a book of essays called Discontent and Its Civilizations, and I’m 100% gonna read that. That is an amazing title. So I’m definitely going to read that. I may or may not read more of his existing fiction.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well, let me know.
GIN JENNY: I will.
WHISKEY JENNY: I will also be looking into what else of his I want to read.
GIN JENNY: Cool. Well, a great success. A great start to 2018, Whiskey Jenny.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yay! Yeah, hooray. I’m glad it was such a success.
GIN JENNY: It was. So turning from success to—
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: —to a different kind of success.
GIN JENNY: To a joy to hate.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: So we’re beginning the third annual Hatening, which is very exciting. But I have to tell you something about the Hatening. I was trying to pick a Hatening book for you, and I was talking to my friend Claire Rousseau, who podcasts at Radio Free Fandom and listens to our podcast. And she said that she found the Hatening slightly befuddling, because she said that it seems like something two people as nice as us wouldn’t be excited to do.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: Oh. That is an interesting take, yes.
GIN JENNY: So I wanted to take your temperature, make sure you’re still into the Hatening.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, I am. I am.
GIN JENNY: OK, cool. Because I love the Hatening.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah.
GIN JENNY: I don’t really know why. I just really enjoy it.
WHISKEY JENNY: I enjoy it as well. I think in most things, I don’t hate watch or hate read a lot of times.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, same.
WHISKEY JENNY: This is the one time of the year where I relish in that, I suppose. And sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised.
GIN JENNY: And I like stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit.
WHISKEY JENNY: Exactly, yeah. And I think that the restrictions we have put upon it are very interesting. Like, we have to think that we will like it and the other person won’t, I think, is a very interesting thing always to discover. And then our specific triggers that we have eliminated, so it’s not cruelly things that we would hate.
GIN JENNY: Right, yes.
WHISKEY JENNY: And also, we agree a lot. So it’s sometimes fun to feel like we are injecting the slightest bit of very polite conflict into this podcast. [LAUGHTER] Conflict that we have to each check beforehand to be like, do you still want to—? [LAUGHTER] So yeah. Do you still want to do it?
GIN JENNY: Yes, no, I love the Hatening.
WHISKEY JENNY: Great.
GIN JENNY: OK. So for this year’s first round of polite discord, [LAUGHTER] I have selected A Kind of Intimacy, by Jenn Ashworth.
WHISKEY JENNY: I’ve never heard of this. What is this?
GIN JENNY: So my lovely friend Proper Jenny, who blogs at Shelf Love, recommended it a while ago, and I added it to my list straightaway, because it sounds very fun for me. Not for you. It is about a woman named Annie, who moves into an apartment. And she immediately meets her neighbor, Neil, and tells him she has a husband and daughter, but we never see them. And she becomes convinced that Neil’s super into her, even though he has a girlfriend. And she starts like getting more and more involved in his life. And she is a very unreliable narrator.
WHISKEY JENNY: No!
GIN JENNY: Maybe a sociopath. And I don’t know if they’re actually in the suburbs, but it sounds like a pretty suburby setup.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: Well, I think you’ve done it again.
GIN JENNY: I mean, it can’t be as bad as The Easter Parade. I’m so confident.
WHISKEY JENNY: No, I think that is definitely Hall of Fame, hating-wise.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: It’s really hard to choose for you, so I hope I’ve done an OK job.
WHISKEY JENNY: I’m not excited to read this, so I think that’s the signifier that yes, you have.
GIN JENNY: Hooray!
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh boy. She’s going to lie her little butt off to me, isn’t she?
GIN JENNY: She is, yes. Yes, very much.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: I guess stalking is a kind of intimacy.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: Oh, man. Your palpable disapproval.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: Well, here we go again. Third annual.
GIN JENNY: We’ll see how it goes.
WHISKEY JENNY: Looking forward. I genuinely am looking forward to talking about it with you.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, me too. I’m really looking forward to it. Well, this has been the Reading the End bookcast with the demographically similar Jennys. You can visit the blog at readingtheend.com. You can follow me on Twitter at readingtheend. We are both on Goodreads as Whiskey Jenny and Gin Jenny. And you can email us— please do— at readingtheend@gmail.com. And if you’re listening to us on iTunes, please leave us a review and help someone else find our podcast.
Until next time, a quote from Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid. “When she went out, it seemed to her that she, too, had migrated, that everyone migrates, even if we stay in the same houses our whole lives. Because we can’t help it. We are all migrants through time.”
WHISKEY JENNY: [DELIGHTED] We are all migrants through time. [LAUGHTER] Clink!
[CLINK]THEME SONG: You don’t judge a book by its cover. Page one’s not a much better view. And shortly you’re gonna discover the middle won’t mollify you. So whether whiskey’s your go-to, or you’re like my gin-drinking friend, no matter what you are imbibing, you’ll be better off in the end reading the end.