Don't Talk To Me Unless It's About This

Caitlin and Marie read and discuss the second half of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, from p. 186 in the paperback (“Happiness, Happiness”) to the end. We talk about grandma and grandpa’s relationship, the mystery of the key, Oskar and mom, our favorite parts, and more. Intro/outro music by lesfm via pixabay How to support the show: Leave a review wherever you listen!...

Caitlin and Marie read and discuss the first half of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, AND discuss their shared love for the podcast Alone: A Love Story . We first talk about ELAIC, which we read up to page 186 in the paperback, to right before the chapter, "Happiness, Happiness." We talk about Marie's first impressions, and Caitlin's experience rereading this favorite o...

Caitlin and Darla read and discuss one of Darla's childhood favorites, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. We talk about the genre and format of the book, the introductions in both the 10th and 25th anniversary editions, stylistic choices we noticed, our favorite chapters, and more. We wrap up with sharing our recent obsessions, and there are links to some things mentioned below. How to...

Caitlin and Marie read and discuss one of Marie's childhood favorites, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. We talk about themes we noticed and how those affect readers of all ages, our favorite parts of the book and the world L'Engle created, our thoughts on if this book has some religious elements to it or not, and more. We wrap up with sharing our recent obsessions, and there are links to so...

Caitlin and Marie read and discuss a shared first-love-book, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. We talk about how reading this book in our 30s and 40s compares to reading it at age 10, the techniques we noticed that made the book memorable, what aged well and didn't age well with time, and why we think this remains a beautiful story for children today. We wrap up with sharing books we are...

Welcome to Season 2! This season, we are re-visiting our first loves! We'll be re-reading the first books we remember really loving, going all the way back to our elementary school days with books like Bridge to Terabithia and A Wrinkle in Time, and on into our teenage years and beyond. A biiig favorite of mine that I’m looking forward to reading is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan...

We have finished season 1 of the show, and oh how much fun we’ve had! Thank you to all of you who are listening! Our most popular episodes about books were Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Part 1 and Part 2 Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney: Part 1 and Part 2 The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin: Part 1 and Part 2 Our most popular episdoes about music were Taylor Swift's Best Album:...

Caitlin is back to talk with one of her favorite authors, Lucy Tan , for part 2 of last week's conversation. Lucy is the author of What We Were Promised , a story about a wealthy Chinese family, before and after they were wealthy, and the life of their housekeeper, all set in Shanghai. We talk about the people and lessons Lucy wrote about in her Acknowledgements, and what she's like as a reader. T...

Caitlin talks with one of her favorite authors, Lucy Tan ! Lucy is the author of What We Were Promised , a story about a wealthy Chinese family, before and after they were wealthy, and the life of their housekeeper, all set in Shanghai. We talk about Lucy's writing, her MFA experience, and the seeds of inspiration for her first novel. Then we discuss Part One of The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Cha...

Caitlin and Marie are back with Leah Watson and Meredith Lockwood of the Unified Sisters Co/Op to discuss the second half of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Parts 4 to the end). (Content warning: This part of the book discusses suicide) We talk about Ifemelu's growth and challenges; the layers of class, race, and gender we see in the book; the lessons we learned about judgment; our reactio...

Caitlin is joined by Julia Phillips for another creator book club! Julia Phillips is the author of Disappearing Earth (a NY Times Top 10 Book of the Year in 2019 and a National Book Award Finalist) and the founder of LitMixer , an event series for authors, readers, and aspiring writers. We talk all about Julia's past and current work and discuss the book she chose for us to read together: Middlema...

Caitlin and Darla are talking about the second half (Part 3 to the end), of The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin . We talk about questions like: Is there really a difference between being emotional or rational? What is the power of the stories we tell? Do we need enemies? We share our favorite sentences again, because Chloe herself collects her favorite sentences ! And we share a few songs that repr...

Caitlin and Marie are joined by Leah Watson and Meredith Lockwood of the Unified Sisters Co/Op to discuss the first half of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Parts 1, 2, and 3). We start by learning about Unified Sisters, which is a collective of diverse women committed to advancing an antiracist society through community, education, and conversation. We hear from members about their greates...

Caitlin and Marie talk about the second half of The Mothers by Brit Bennett (Chapter 9 to the end). We talk about themes of redemption and forgiveness, healing, a small vs. a big life, and the power of intergenerational connections. In what ways do the characters heal and grow by the end of the story? Would any of them be better off in a different situation? And what does this incredible final par...

Caitlin and Darla are talking about the first half (to the end of Part 2), of The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin . We talk about questions like: Is life all destiny, or all choice? What emotions were driving Simon and Klara in their lives? What is reality and what is illusion? And we debate: Was Eddie O'Donaghue a bad guy who didn't mean much to the story, or was he in fact a pivotal character ful...

Caitlin and Marie talk about the first half (to the end of Chapter 8) of The Mothers by Brit Bennett . We talk about the tension between living a big and small life, the balance of compromise and caring for one another in a relationship, the role of "The Mothers" as the narrator, the growth (or lack thereof) of each character so far, and the Taylor Swift song that best represents this first half (...

Caitlin and Darla discuss the second half (p. 152 to the end) of The Locust and the Bird by Hanan al-Shaykh. In the book, Hanan re-creates the dramatic life and times of her mother, Kamila. Married at a young age against her will, Kamila soon fell head-over-heels in love with another man—and was thus forced to choose between her children and her lover. As the narrative unfolds through the years—fr...

This is part two of our magical mixture of book and musical love! Caitlin and musical artist Ollella talk about Ollella's music and the second half of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (aka Japanese Breakfast ). Ollella is the musical creation of Ellie Barber, where she blends live-looping, the cello, folk sounds, and her original lyrics into beautiful songs. She was recently chosen (by Michelle...

Caitlin and Darla discuss the first half (to p. 151) of The Locust and the Bird by Hanan al-Shaykh . In the book, Hanan re-creates the dramatic life and times of her mother, Kamila. Married at a young age against her will, Kamila soon fell head-over-heels in love with another man—and was thus forced to choose between her children and her lover. As the narrative unfolds through the years—from the b...

This episode is a magical mixture of book and musical love! Caitlin and musical artist Ollella talk about Ollella's music and the first half of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Ollella is the musical creation of Ellie Barber. Her music blends live-looping, the cello, folk sounds, and her original lyrics, and her song Lava was recently chosen (by Michelle Zauner no less!) as a top pick in NPR's...

Marie and Caitlin discuss the second half (Part 2) of Sally Rooney's debut novel Conversations with Friends . In keeping with Sally Rooney's thought that she doesn't really believe in the idea of the individual and everything is relational, we talk about the book in terms of all the character dynamics: Frances and Nick, Frances and Bobbi, Melissa and Nick, the four of them as a whole, and more. We...

Darla and Caitlin discuss the second half, Parts 2 and 3, of Daisy Johnson 's novel Sisters : a haunting story about two sisters caught in a powerful emotional web and wrestling to understand where one ends and the other begins. We get to the bottom of our theory about July and September from Part 1, talk more about the house and their mom Sheila, and we have a listener audio at the end - thank yo...

We are talking all about the first half (Part 1) of Sally Rooney's debut novel Conversations with Friends . In keeping with Sally Rooney's thought that she doesn't really believe in the idea of the individual and everything is relational, we talk about the book in terms of all the character dynamics: Frances and Nick, Frances and Bobbi, Melissa and Nick, the four of them as a whole, and more. We s...

Carinn and Kate are the hosts of the Pop Fiction Women podcast, a show that dives deep into the complicated women of books, movies, and TV shows, along with the female creators who bring them to life. I love their show and they were my inspiration to start a podcast, and today I get to share with you our conversation about their lives beyond the podcast, their creative endeavors, our shared love o...

Our book club conversation on Part 1 of Daisy Johnson 's novel Sisters : a haunting story about two sisters caught in a powerful emotional web and wrestling to understand where one ends and the other begins. Darla introduces an intriguing theory that totally changes the way Caitlin sees the story and the relationship between the sisters July and September. We can't wait to hear what you think of t...