296: Books that Live Up to the Hype

Have you ever hesitated to pick up a buzzy book because you weren’t sure it would live up to the hype? In Episode 296, Jen and Ashley kick off Season Nine with a chat about the books that absolutely do.

We start with our Bookish Check-in: Jen’s reading Suleika Jaouad’s The Book of Alchemy, and I share thoughts on Elana K. Arnold’s What Girls Are Made Of. Then we each bring a hyped pick that worked for us (hello, Susan Choi’s Flashlight and Allison Espach’s The Wedding People). We wrap with a card from Book Riot's Lit Chat Game about which fictional journey we’d tag along for.

Join us, and tell us on Instagram which hyped reads delivered for you!

Bookish Check-in

Ashley - Elana K. Arnold’s What Girls Are Made Of (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Jen - Suleika Jaouad’s The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Mentioned in Episode

Ashley - Alison Espach’s The Wedding People (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Jen - Susan Choi’s Flashlight (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Lit Chat Game

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00:00:00] Ashley: Welcome to the Unabridged Podcast. I'm Ashley, and this is Jen. Join us for bookish episodes and check out our website Unabridgedpod.com, where you can find lots of new bookish content to grow your TBR.

[00:00:13] Jen: Sign up for our newsletter to find out more about online book discussions and upcoming events.

[00:00:18] Find us on Patreon for extra unabridged content. Join us on Instagram and Facebook at Unabridged Pod and message us there or see our website to get plugged into the Unabridged community. You want opinions about books? We've got 'em.

[00:00:36] Ashley: Hi, and welcome to Unabridged. This is episode 296. We are coming back after summer break, and we're here to kick off Season nine. Today, we will be discussing books that live up to the hype. Before we get started with our topic for today, we're gonna share our bookish check-in.

[00:00:54] Jen, what's something you're reading?

[00:00:56] Jen: So I just started this so I don't have tons of information, but Sika Jus the Book of Alchemy, A creative practice for an inspired life is my current read, Juad she has previously published Between Two Kingdoms, which is her memoir about being diagnosed with leukemia in her twenties, and then she does a cross country trip.

[00:01:17] I've actually not read that book. I've only read about it, though it is on my list. But I subscribed to her newsletter, the Isolation Journals, and in the Isolation Journal, she talks a lot about the value of journaling and how that has helped her through some difficult times or just some uninspired times when she feels like she can't create.

[00:01:39] And so on, The Isolation Journal, she talked about this book. So I picked it up. It is essentially, it's like an anthology. She has invited a bunch of other authors and creative people to each share their own journaling practice and then to offer a prompt for the reader. And there are 100 prompts throughout the book.

[00:02:01] And so as an English teacher, I was like, yes, please. I love the way she talks about journaling, and also that it's very low-pressure. She talks about it as something that is useful, but she doesn't come on too strong. And I love a lot of the people, like George Saunders is in there, Salman Rushdie, her husband is John Batiste.

[00:02:20] He has a prompt, Elizabeth Gilbert. So I love a lot of the people that she has included. So I just started. She has an introduction. Yeah, and then she has things divided up into sections, and she has an introduction for each section. So yeah, I'm thinking this is gonna be something very practical.

[00:02:37] I'm hoping that it will help me, but again, I'm also hoping to share some of the prompts with my students. So that is to Suleika Jaouad, The Book of Alchemy, A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life.

[00:02:49] Ashley: Oh, Jen, I love that. That sounds really cool.

[00:02:52] Jen: I think you would love her. She's amazing.

[00:02:54] Ashley: I know. I'm like, man, I need to check that out. In the master's program that I did, we had to do a lot of reflections, and alongside the work that we were doing, I found them both tedious and also super helpful. And, like the professor who led us through our capstone project, during which we did a lot of reflecting during that time, the professor said, I really hope you will just stay with those reflections because I can tell that they're very effective for you.

[00:03:22] And I was like, Hmm, that is some good insight, and another thing that I realized is like, I mean, I love to write., I don't know that I ever talked about this on here, but I taught creative writing for a long time. I love to write, and I also have all my baggage come up with my writing journey. And so I love that idea of it being

[00:03:40] low stakes. All my perfectionism stuff gets in the way real fast with writing, particularly. And so I love that, and I think whenever I do journaling, especially when I like to do it for where I'm like, I'm just gonna do this. It is not too figure out what's gonna happen with the like I have trouble with the journal, you know, I'm like, what happens with the journal afterwards?

[00:04:01] Like I'm creating this huge box full of crap that somebody's gonna have to, you know, all that. And when I let all that go, and now I've tried to digitize, which has its own problems, but when I let all those things go, and I just am like, I'm just gonna clear my head in the morning, it's super helpful. So yes, I love that idea, and I think I'd be interested because it seems like a way to kind of reframe maybe something that people might've done.

[00:04:23] Like I did a lot of journaling when I was younger and less perfection. I mean, you know, a little less of that, like. What's the point? Stuff came up, and so I feel like, yeah, I love that and I can see that'd be very freeing, and I love that for your students 'cause I think prompts make a big difference for people who aren't sure where to go or what to do with it.

[00:04:40] It can really help get the ball rolling.

[00:04:42] Jen: Well, and she even talks about in her introduction, you know, if it's a prompt that doesn't resonate with you, write about why it doesn't resonate with you. Or if there's something else that you have that's burning that you wanna talk about, talk about that instead. Which again, I think I'm like, oh yeah, I need to have those explicit conversations with my students about what to do if I provide a prompt and it doesn't speak to you, and that that's okay.

[00:05:03] So, yeah, so far and, and again, very early, but so far it seems just what I was looking for.

[00:05:10] Ashley: I love that.

[00:05:10] Jen: What are you reading?

[00:05:12] Ashley: So one of the books I'm reading, we're recording just a little bit early, and we're gonna be discussing this tomorrow, and it is our buddy read for August, and it's Alana Kay Arnold's What Girls Are Made Of. And I, Jen, was this one new to you, too?

[00:05:29] Jen: Yes. I

[00:05:29] had not read this before.

[00:05:29] Ashley: One's new to me.

[00:05:31] Okay, so this is new to m,e and I haven't read any of Arnold's work, but I have been listening on audio to this and I am just amazed by it.

[00:05:39] I think that Arnold does such an interesting job of connecting all of the art and mythology of history to this present moment. So Nina is our main character. She is 16 as the story is unfolding, and she's really working through so many things, and one of the things that she's trying to figure out is what love looks like.

[00:06:09] And she's struggling with that, with her relationship with her parents, and also in this relationship that she has with Seth, who is her boyfriend in the book. And I think. What I love is Nina's vulnerability. Her honesty about her, what she's doing well, and also her limitations, and the way that she tries to find a way to be true to herself, even though all these things are shifting around her and just think it's beautifully done. I think early on, like kind of the hinging question. The thing that keeps coming up in it is this idea of like is love conditional and the thing that she kind of can't get past or is really working her way through in the story is the fact that when she was a little bit younger, her mom had said to her that all love is conditional and that there is no unconditional love and she's trying to figure out the truth or the lie of that statement, and I just think the way that Arnold weaves all of this art and history of women in the world and the way that that has been overall of humanity to this present moment is just phenomenal. And I also love seeing Nina really try to figure out what relationships look like and what

[00:07:36] You have to give to be in a relationship, and when you're giving something that you should be taking care of yourself instead. And so, like I really think, like I don't wanna spoil anything, but you know, there's just really this pivotal moment with the boyfriend that I think so many teenage girls and honestladultslt face as well, like. You're being asked to do a thing that you know to your very core you don't want to do. And yet it seems like it's a condition. It's a condition of the relationship, and so I just think there's so much in this. That is important to talk about and explore. And the more I just finished, this one, 'cause like I said, we're gonna talk about it tomorrow, and I just finished this weekend.

[00:08:20] but the more I got into the book, the more I was amazed by just the nuance and the layering and the way that all of it fit together into a commentary on what girls carry in the face of this, like compounded history. What it means to be a woman in the world. So that is Elana K. Arnold's What Girls Are Made Of.

[00:08:44] And like I said, I'm cheating a little bit 'cause I just finished it, but oh my gosh. Like, I really thought it was phenomenal, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

[00:08:51] Jen: I love Arnold's work. Did your audiobook have her note at the end?

[00:08:56] Ashley: It did, and I thought that was really powerful also. Jen's referring to the author shares why she told the story the way that she told it, and what she thought of Nina and hoped for Nina, and like, yeah, I loved that too. And it was in there. Everybody knows if you listen to an audio, sometimes that stuff is in there, and sometimes they cut it, but fortunately, it wasn't there, and the author actually read it.

[00:09:17] So I found it really powerful.

[00:09:18] Jen: Oh, that's great. Yeah, 'cause I found that to be, of course, I waited till the end of the book to read that. But I just so appreciated her intentions in writing the novel and the way she talked about, you know, there's this idea of the unlikable character and what that means and how we talk about teenage girls.

[00:09:36] I just found so much there that resonated.

[00:09:39] Ashley: Yeah, absolutely. Well, today we are gonna be discussing books that live up to the hype. So Jen and I, as we were coming into the new season, we're like, what are some of the topics we wanna hit on? And this is something that we talk about a lot. And I know with our bookish friends, it's like, do you read a book that everybody's already talked about?

[00:09:58] Is it worth reading it? What if you go into it with too high hopes, like what happens? So anyway, we landed on this and we're both going to share one that for us did live up to the height. But this is a debate I have a lot because I'm often like behind the times on reading what's been popular, a nd so many times I'm like, do I read this?

[00:10:19] Or have I already heard so many things that I'm gonna be disappointed, but we're gonna share ones that for us totally worked. So, Jen, what did you wind up picking?

[00:10:28] Jen: So I'm going to talk about Susan Choi's flashlight. So Choi is the author of Trust Exercise, which won the National Book Award. I don't know exactly what year, a few years back. And I absolutely loved that book. I thought it was an incredible reading experience. So when Flashlight was announced, this is the next book after The Trust Exercise that she has published.

[00:10:54] People were talking about it all over the place. Podcasts I listened to had full episodes about this boo,k, and I was like, oh dear. I don't know. But one of the groups I buddy read with chose it, and I was like, okay, I'll, I'll do it. And I will say people have complicated feelings about this one.

[00:11:12] So it has been much hyped and much talked about, but it's pretty, yeah, maybe this isn't the best choice because it is talked about all the time. But some people hated it, and some people loved it. So I went in thinking, I don't know. I really liked it a lot. So, it's sort of a literary mystery.

[00:11:31] The central premise is that there is a father and daughter. Louisa is 10, and she's walking with her father, Serk, along the beach, and the next day she wakes up, face down in the sand, and her dad is nowhere to be seen. She's 10 years old. They are in Japan, and Louisa has learned to speak the language since they've been living there.

[00:11:57] Her dad is Korean, but grew up in Japan. Her mother has lived her whole life in America and does not speak the language at all, and is undergoing some physical things that have made her essentially disabled. And so she is dealing with the aftermath of this in a place where she can't speak the language, and she's having trouble getting around.

[00:12:18] And then she finds out that her daughter, you know, is in this medical crisis because she's unconscious when they first find her. And she's trying to navigate all of that. And then the book sort of unfurls and moves through time and through different characters' perspectives. So the flashlight is shining on only one character at one moment in time throughout the book.

[00:12:43] And so you get Louisa the daughter's perspective throughout her life. You find out what happens with Serk in his early childhood that leads him to become the person that he is. Her mother, Anne, again, you get her whole life. She had some early trauma that really shaped her. And then Ann does have another child, whom she doesn't get to know until he is a teenager, and you get his perspective for a while.

[00:13:12] So it's this really intricate unveiling around this central mystery. And you don't really know, and I'm not going to tell you whether you find out the answer to what happened to Serk, but of course, something like that is sort of the center of someone's life, and so it does feel like the center of the spiral, and everything comes out from that.

[00:13:33] I think that Choi is a brilliant writer, and the more I think about it, the more I appreciate this book. It's one of those that just pops into my mind at random times, and I'll just start thinking about it again, which I think is the sign of a great book. So I would say it does live up to the hype, even though the hype was not unreliable positive, but I felt like people either really, really loved it, or there were some people who just hated it.

[00:14:02] And yeah, I thought it was really brilliant. So that is Susan Choi's flashlight.

[00:14:07] Ashley: Oh, Jen, geez, that sounds really good. And holy moly, that is quite an introductory scene.

[00:14:14] Jen: Yeah. Yeah, it's really interesting, the way Choi deals with the complicated culture of Serk and his family, who, some of them have gone back to Korea, some of them have stayed in Japan. He has moved to the United States for a large part of his career, and that's where he meets Louise's mom and It is not at all like Pachinko, but I had watched that adaptation several years after reading the book.

[00:14:44] And that complex relationship that Koreans who live in Japan have is explored in a really interesting way. So there were echoes of Pachinko in the book, though. It's very different. But yeah, so fans of Pachinko might find that part interesting as well.

[00:14:58] Ashley: Yeah. You know, I was thinking about that. That's one of my favorites.

[00:15:01] Jen: Oh my gosh. Did you watch the adaptation? It is so good. I think you would love it.

[00:15:07] Ashley: I gotta do it.

[00:15:07] Jen: Yeah, all right, so which hyped book do you wanna talk about? Ashley.

[00:15:11] Ashley: The one I wanted to share is one that I had seen all over Instagram, and I just, I really didn't even know that much about it. I was very familiar with the cover and the fact that it had been like one of those books that everybody was like, you should read it, you know? And so I didn't know about the plot, but anyway, this one is Allison Espach, The Wedding People.

[00:15:36] Jen, have you read this?

[00:15:37] Jen: Yes, I read it for the Tournament of Books.

[00:15:40] Ashley: Okay, so I had it on Libro FM. Thank you as an ALC, thank you to Libro fm, and so I just finished my master's. I had very much lost motivation and traction on my reading life, which I thought was a reasonable thing.

[00:15:54] But anyway, as I'm finishing up and looking toward the next season, I've been like, I just wanna follow what sparks my interest. That is what I'm looking for, and that's been kind of fun, and so I've been reading print books for the first time in a long time and been like, oh, I do. I'm enjoying this.

[00:16:10] I'm enjoying taking it places and reading the print. And I also have been involved with things like our ALC program, where I have access to a lot of books. I'm just like going back through and. If they feel kind of sparky, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna do that. So that's how I wound up listening to this one; it was on an ALC list.

[00:16:25] I had seen that cover a bunch of times. I actually had worried it was going to be, I think, why I didn't read it sooner is that I had the impression it was really sad, and I wasn't sure about that. I just had that kind of general feeling. So that was why I had put it off. And then lately I've been like, I just wanna read things that are really impactful, and I feel a little more ready to read.

[00:16:45] things that are sad. So I think that's how I got here anyway. When it starts, you meet Phoebe, and she is decked out in this really elaborate dress, and she's going to this very fancy hotel, and she's gonna be on the penthouse floor. And you quickly discover, this is not a spoiler .er

[00:17:04] 'cause it happens immediately. You discover that she is there to kill herself, and so she has a plan that she has decided that she wants to end her life, and she thinks, okay, I want to do all of these things this way, like, you know, have this luxurious situation and then have this plan to leave the world.

[00:17:27] And when she gets there, it's clear there's a wedding happening, and there are people everywhere, and they have all these gift bags. And somebody shoves this gift bag to her, and the gift bag has these like full bottles of all these very nice, like liquors and stuff.

[00:17:41] And so she gets this like very cushy luxury bag and

[00:17:46] sSoshe gets into the elevator, and in the elevator she meets Lila, who is the bride, and Lila is like. I don't know you basically, and Phoebe's like, okay, it's a hotel, so that happens, and Lela's like, no, no, no.

[00:18:03] I rented out the entire hotel. I have to know you. Like, there's no way that someone would be here that either Gary, myfiancée, or I, you know, that they're not a family member or friend. And Phoebe's like, well, I'm here. And so all of a sudden, both of them are finding that their like perfect plan has been disrupted, and it's really hilarious.

[00:18:30] And of course, with Phoebe, it's tragic, but it's funny. I mean, I think like part of what I loved about Espach's story is just there is a lot of stuff that is just so heavy as is true of life, and at the same time, like laugh out loud funny. And so anyway, they get to know each other a little bit in the elevator and

[00:18:51] Phoebe very calmly lets Lila know her intentions for why she is there. And Lila's like, absolutely not like you cannot do that. No, no, no, that is not going to disrupt my perfect plan for my wedding week. It's like a whole, you know, week of stuff happening. And so you meet this, you know, you get to see very quickly Phoebe, whose life very much is falling apart, who feels that she has no way to

[00:19:16] repair kind of the path that she's been on and is in a moment of extreme desperation, obviously, hence the premise. And then you meet Lila, who is, I mean, ridiculously wealthy. Extremely wealthy, she is used to having exactly what she wants at her beck and call, and you see the juxtaposition of those two lives, but also the ways in which, at that moment, they're both trying to figure out how to be like their real selves.

[00:19:44] And I think, so I don't wanna spoil, there are so many things I loved about this book, but I think what really resonated for me as someone in my forties was just that all of a sudden, at what Phoebe perceives to be the end of her life, she is finally authentically and beautifully herself. And I think that was the part that, like, just, I will think about this book for a long time, but I think that what you see happening is her becoming this beautiful version that she should have always felt free to be. And that is the thing that I was like, yes, like something very interesting is happening in this book. And I think that when we see her starting to. Be that true self. We see all these things shift around him, and like that, it's all really beautiful too. And so, oh my gosh, I just absolutely loved it. It's one of those also, like, I don't wanna give too many details, but I just wanna say that the host of secondary characters in this is

[00:20:53] phenomenal. Like, I just feel like I would read a lot more by Espach. I think that what she does so well in this one is just create these really robust, really complicated people, and that even these relatively small secondary parts are so well drawn, and it's just amazing. So yeah, so this one totally lived up to hype for me.

[00:21:17] I definitely shed some tears. I definitely laughed out loud. I was like, oh, I can see why this is so appealing to people, because there's just a truth at the core about finding a way to be who you really are. That I think is really interesting. So again, that is Alison Espach's The Wedding People.

[00:21:36] Jen: I love that one so much, too. That was one, I was listening to it as well. Thank you, Libro FM, and I kept finding excuses to do things so that I could continue reading or listening, and I was like, that is the sign of an amazing b,  book because I would be like, ooh, yeah, I need to clean this thing that I haven't cleaned in five years because

[00:21:54] Ashley: For me too, Jen, that's so funny. That's so true. I think I finished it in like two or three days, which lately. Yeah, like I said, I'm trying to follow the spark. It is like, you know, I listen a lot for my job. I mean, I am very much into podcast production, I spend a lot of time with my headphones on and listening, and so

[00:22:11] Even though I do love audiobooks, that has been harder and harder for me to do in my free time, basically. And so that's what I've learned is I need to just immediately stop one, so I don't feel compelled to find things to do to leave my headphones on and then really follow those ones that, I mean, the audio narration is fantastic.

[00:22:32] And I was the same. I mean, I was like, what else around the house? Like, shall I take the dog for an extra walk, maybe? Yes, you know, and so that was really nice to be like, I gotta know what's gonna happen. So, so good.

[00:22:44] Jen: Yay, I'm so glad you read that one.

[00:22:46] Ashley: Well, we want to end today's episode with our Lit Chat game. This is Book Riot's game; it's a series of cards. If you've been with us a long time, you know that we just randomly draw a card and try to answer it. So that's what we're gonna do.

[00:23:05] Jen: All right. Well, this one may be a challenge if you could accompany any fictional character on their journey, quest, voyage, or adventure. Who would you choose?

[00:23:16] Ashley: Oh, geez.

[00:23:17] Jen: All right, I need to think for a minute here.

[00:23:19] Ashley: Yeah, me too. Gosh, who would I choose?

[00:23:22] Jen: Well, I feel like so many fictional journeys are

[00:23:26] Ashley: It's like terrible grueling. Horrible things happen. The first one I was thinking of was the memoir I read about Mount Everest. Go to Mount Everest? Not really.

[00:23:37] Jen: No. Yeah, I mean, I feel like the nonfiction ones are always tragic. The first fictional one that popped into my head is The Hobbit, and I like, all these bad things happen, although,

[00:23:52] Okay, do you wanna go first or do you want?

[00:23:57] Ashley: Okay, I had to think about that. Jen and I were talking about how in most fictional situations, when they go on a journey, it's bad news for kind of everyone involved. So, alas, I rarely these days want to willingly put myself through unnecessary things.

[00:24:12] But I'm gonna go with Matt Hagues, the Life Impossible. And in that one it is the main character is an elderly woman who, from a very distant connection, inherits. Grace is her name. She inherits a house in Ibiza, and she had been grief-stricken for a long period of time, had become more and more and more isolated.

[00:24:40] And then she finally decides to go and see this house. And it is quite an adventure. But I also would love to go to Ibiza. I've not been, and I think that as journeys of fictional characters go, hers was an interesting one. So what about you,

[00:24:57] Jen?

[00:24:58] Jen: The one I thought of that is not horribly tragic. Jessica Joyce' You With A View is a romance, and it is about Noelle Shepherd, who finds out that her grandmother had a committed romantic relationship before she married her grandfather, and she goes on a trip that mirrors what her grandmother and this first man

[00:25:23] that they took together. And I was like, Oh, I would love to see the things that my grandmother saw. So yeah, I think that would be a lot of fun. I don't know exactly where they are, but she and my grandfather did travel. Now it was not cross-country. It was fairly localized. But yeah, I think that would be a lot of fun.

[00:25:38] So you with a view, not a tragic journey.

[00:25:42] Ashley: Sweet. Very fun, well, we would love to hear what books you feel live up to the hype. In fact, if you recommend them, I may well be following any recommendations, 'cause like I said, that is what I'm doing right now, is reading books that keep me reading, and we are excited to be back with you. Thank you to all the people who've been with us.

[00:26:03] All these seasons, and welcome to new listeners, and we will see you at the end of the month with our book club. I should also say, if you are new, that we are on Instagram primarily at Unabridged Pod, and you can always see our buddy reads, which when I talked about What Girls Are Made Of. That was our buddy read pick, which we read those and don't necessarily discuss them on the podcast, but we read with a group, and you can always chat with us about and read along with us. Those are always young adult or for younger readers. And we do our book club except for the summer. We do take off book club time.

[00:26:40] So September will be our first one, and we are reading Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, and that is a graphic memoir. We'll be reading that in September and again, later this month. You can join us for that discussion on Instagram at Unabridged Pod.

[00:26:54] Thanks so much for listening.

[00:26:55] Jen: Do you have comments or opinions about what you heard today? We'd love to hear them. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at unabridged pod or on the web @unabridgedpod.com for ways to support us to get more involved. You can sign up for our newsletter. Join a Buddy Reed or become an ambassador.

[00:27:15] Thanks for listening to Unabridged.

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