Literal Neighbors

This week, Girl and Girl read Citizen Girl, by Girl and Girl. Girl liked it more than Girl did, but admits that it's maybe better received in 2004 when it was written than it is now. Girl and Girl also catch up after a rare two week break and talk about sick (but okay!) pets, birthdays, and travels.

Why wouldn't we simply give this episode 5 stars? The Old Place by Bobby Finger has given us one of our least favorite characters in a long time, and we're at least having some fun complaining about her. We're talking about the pitfalls and pleasantries of living in a small town, how mean you're allowed to be when tragedy strikes, and also, somehow, gym habits while we dive into th...

This week, we're pretty sure we both read Andre Dubus III's House of Sand and Fog, but you'd never know it from our opinions. We're partnering our vastly different thoughts about the characters in this book with some chat about culture in 1990s California - from pre-9/11 mentality to the prevalence of police brutality. Grab your sugar cubes and tea and listen to our take on this th...

This week we checked out Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, and we'd like to know if Bobbi is available to do our makeup. This book has a lot: a variety of undiagnosed issues, hot takes on addiction cures, rock and roll, and how to properly sign off on text messages and emails. We're tackling some of that and chatting about beaches, refilleries, and some birthday fun.

Happy April Fool's Day, friends! We didn't plan to do this book, but it really spoke to us, and we thought you could listen without a heads up. Princess Penelope by Todd Mack brings up lots of opinions about what it really means to be royalty, and somehow Jenn and Anna are also discussing snakes, Hollister, and Costco, so make sure you don't miss a second of this one.

This week, we are slipping and sliding into your feed with Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q. Sutanto. This is our first repeat author (kind of accidentally), and we're having fun with the grandma lit genre. We're on the fence about whether we want this grandma in our lives, but we both agree that we're probably going to need some antacids later (but that's not the book's fa...

We're indulging our inner teenagers today with Jessica Drake's The Last True Poets of the Sea, a YA novel about shipwrecks. Somehow, we're also talking about fishbones and nearly surgical removal, but everything is okay in the end -- both with our main characters and with Anna's tonsils.

Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying has taught us a few things, but appropriate beverage sharing behavior was not one of them. This novel of a wrongfully convicted teenager on death row is set in the '40s, published in the '90s, and unfortunately, feels like it may have happened yesterday. Listen in as we discuss this banned book!

This week we finished up Lisa See's The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, and we would love to try some pu'er, even if we aren't convinced we'll love it. We'll also take some scallion pancakes, and Anna would like to try a burger from Five Guys, or something like that. For now, we'll settle for talking about how much we love some characters, hate others, and how much we're...

We are celebrating a successful book sale and cupcakes, and we read the first half (parts 1 and 2) of Lisa See's novel about a young woman in a small village in rural China. We're excited to be learning about something more than the Great Wall of China, and we're eager to see what happens as this girl grows up and experiences a much bigger world than anyone in her family ever has.

Funny Story --- or is it? We're tackling this wildly popular Emily Henry read this week, and we'll just say we aren't quite sure we're on board (is that a kayak pun?). Everything has its place, and sometimes, that place is what must be a very overcrowded apartment in Michigan. Put on your cardigan, practice your children's book reading voice, and kill some time with us while we...

Is our review of Tara Conklin's The House Girl affected by paint stripping chemicals? Maybe! Is our episode affected by paint stripping chemicals? Also maybe! We're talking about dog names, puns, dinners, and oh, yeah, we read a book. The dual timeline in this novel is connected in an interesting way and we're having fun exploring it amidst the fumes.

Bad music, old canned beans, and nasty dresses really appeal to one of us as we dive into The Girls by Emma Cline. This week, we're getting into the head of an outlier in a cult in the '70s that is absolutely not led by Charles Manson, does not involve Sharon Tate, and doesn't include a gross member of the Beach Boys (double entendre intended), and we're sort of enjoying it. So hop...

We've been doing this for a whole year(!), and we are feeling festive! We're giving these books a quick second chance review now that we've had time to think about them (or entirely forget them). We'll tell you what really stuck with us and what we could really do without, and of course talk about charcuterie along the way.

This week, we're off to Cambridge! We're pretty sure we're a little bit smarter than some of those professors, at least at judging people's character. The Maidens by Alex Michaelides is a thriller with a great setting and lots of (mostly) smart people trying to get to the bottom of a murder or two. We have some concerns about investigation tactics, so curl up with a bottle of (NOT...

This week we're admitting we're definitely really in 2025, and we're finishing up Wifedom by Anna Funder. At the end of the day, we aren't totally sure what we think of this marriage (and of how it's portrayed). We do agree on at least this much: If you have tuberculosis, maybe you shouldn't lie about it to your family and friends and everyone you meet.

We've traveled far and long, and we had the first half (or more) of Anna Funder's Wifedom to keep us company. We're discussing airplane coincidences, turtle feeding habits, and also whether or not the patriarchy is to blame for the erasure of the (so far, pretty cool) wife of George Orwell.

Happy New Year! We're kicking things off with a light Hallmark-esque pick: Melissa Wiesner's The Second Chance Year. So grab your menudo or your favorite tripe dish and listen in as we contemplate whether we'd be able to do anything useful with a do-over year.

It's a Christmas miracle! Our sound gremlins came back (gremlins are a Christmas thing, right?), but we managed to get all our thoughts out about Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel before everything went south. So head to Ikea, we'll keep you company on the way. Just watch out for 29 foot trees on the road, and be wary of making any vague wishes...

Listen, we'll hang out in the street to wait for Krampus to smack us around a bit, but don't give us used socks, okay? This week we're into Sarah Clegg's The Dead of Winter, a look at how some traditions (especially involving goat heads) are formed or were thought to be formed. Hide behind a table with us, put on your fake horse head, and settle in to learn about Belsnickel and the Christmas witch...

This week we read Landline by Rainbow Rowell, and our new cohost is quite vocal about it (we swear, he's fine). Join us as we debate the merits of this hallmark-movie-ish romcom of a Christmas story and discuss how NOT to deal with a sewage leak in a hotel.

This week we finish up Fredrik Backman's The Winners, and at least some of us have some regrets. We're wondering about the status of 1-900 numbers, discussing the importance of caffeine, and hey, we read half a book, so we'll also chat about what happens in Beartown.

This week we're starting on Fredrik Backman's The Winners, and it really seems like all Anna's are cool, right? This is a long one, so we're talking about Chapters 1-51 and really getting to know the two towns. Listen to us make guesses about what the second half will bring and discuss whose turn it is with the brain cell for this story that seems like it's all about hockey without actually being...

Don't forget your cigarettes, because we're off to read the teenage classic The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. This book has been read for literal generations and really makes us wonder about just how much running around one can do after multiple concussions. Grab a slice of breakfast cake and listen in as we talk about the enduring battle between Greasers and Socs.

For our last installment of our spooky season, we read Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic. The vibes are good and spooky, even if our first attempt at reviewing this is a bit belated. Join us as we discuss creepy old men, creepy less old men, and creepy old women, and a shocking (for us) lack of fungi puns.