This week, MacKenzie Green is back, and we talk about 2026 releases we are excited about!

Books MacKenzie Talked About

2026 Releases

Half His Age – Jennette McCurdy
Fear and Fury – Heather Ann Thompson
There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood – Rasheed Newson
Vigil – George Saunders
American Fantasy – Emma Straub
Lady Tremaine – Gretchen McNeil

Other Books

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Blood in the Water – Heather Ann Thompson
The Gods of New York – Jonathan Mahler
Challenger – Adam Higginbotham
Midnight in Chernobyl – Adam Higginbotham
Frostbite – Nicola Twilley
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
My Government Means to Kill Me – Rasheed Newson
Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders
Girl Dinner – Olivie Blake

Books Kate Talked About

2026 Releases

Yesteryear – Caro Claire Burke
Sublimation – Isabel J. Kim
Screen People – Megan Garber
Language as Liberation – Toni Morrison
Japanese Gothic – Kylie Lee Baker

Other Books 

Separation of Church and Hate –  John Fugelsang
The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
The Martian – Andy Weir
Scream With Me – Eleanor Johnson

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Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Yasmin Angoe is back for the fifth year in a row to talk about here new mystery-thriller Behind These Four Walls! We dive into her inspiration for the story, how she created the wealthy, villainous Corrigan family, and Isla's private investigator adjacent job.

Behind These Four Walls Synopsis

Isla Thorne had a rough start in life. Orphaned young, she spent her formative years in a group home where she met her best friend, Eden Galloway. At sixteen, they decide to run away to LA…but Eden never makes it.

It’s been ten years since Eden vanished. And Isla’s determined to find her.

She begins at the last place Eden visited: the Corrigan mansion in Virginia. Eden claimed to have unfinished business there. Posing as an aspiring journalist, Isla insinuates herself into the wealthy family’s home and begins searching for the truth.

The more she digs, the more Isla discovers Eden isn’t who she thought she was. Was she even a victim, or did Eden plan this all along? Desperate for answers and to keep her identity hidden, Isla finds an ally in one of the Corrigan sons. But as she wades deeper into this power-hungry family’s secrets and lies, she finds herself in the crosshairs of a bloodline that’s more lethal than loyal.

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Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Gare, Steph and I share our 2026 bookish goals, and January and February releases we are excited about! Steph also shares a few backlist she will be reading in January and February.

Kate’s Books

Kin by Tayari Jones

Spies and Other Gods James Wolff

Queen of Faces by Petra Lord

On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah-Yah Scholfield 

Unread: A Memoir of Learning (And Loving) to Read on TikTok  by Oliver James

Gare’s Books

A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James

Dead in the Water by John Marrs

Here Lie All the Boys Who Broke My Heart by Emma Simmerman

The Exes by Leodora Darlington

Last Seen by Christopher Castellani

Steph’s Books

Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester

The Act of Disappearing by Nathan Gower

It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashimo

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

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Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Amanda Jones, a dedicated small-town Louisiana librarian, about the challenges she faces in her fight against book banning and censorship. She discusses her passion for literature, the importance of representation in books, the defamatory posts about her that spread like wildfire, and the impact of misinformation on community perceptions. Amanda has always championed the importance of diverse literature and the role of libraries as safe spaces for all children, particularly those from marginalized communities.

Read all about Amanda's journey in her book That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America

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Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Halley and I catch up on what we've been reading and watching, and then dive into bookish plans and goals for 2026!

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Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Brittany Penner about her memoir Children Like Us, a haunting, deeply reflective exploration of identity, faith, and survival. Brittany shares what it was like growing up as an Indigenous child adopted into a Mennonite family that fostered dozens of other children, unpacking the long-term impact of the Sixties Scoop, religious indoctrination, and being taught to feel “grateful” for circumstances rooted in colonial harm.

We dive into dissociation, self-abandonment, storytelling as a tool for healing, and the complicated reality of holding love for family while confronting the systems that caused lasting damage.

We discuss grief, nuance, and reclamation, ultimately asking what it means to trust your own memory, honor your pain, and slowly learn how to walk yourself home.

Learn more about Brittany here

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Gare and I talk about what we've been watching lately, our favorite 2025 reads, and some 2026 books Gare already loves, as well as some 2026 hopefuls!

Our 2025 Faves

Kate's Books

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliot

Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Williams

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Gare's Books

Night Watcher by Daphne Woolsoncroft

This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

Boom Town by Nic Stone

Keep This For Me by Jennifer Fawcett

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

Too Old for This by Samantha Downing

2026 Books We Talked About

Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu

Helpless by Jessica Knoll

On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield

The Better Mother by Jennifer Van der Kleut

The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead

Sundown Girls by L.S. Stratton

Shows We Talked About

The Beast in Me

Dexter: Resurrection

Slow Horses

Down Cemetery Road

Stranger Things

Heated Rivalry

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Brian Recker about his book Hell Bent, which examines how fear-based teachings about hell distort Christian spirituality, replacing love, connection, and moral discernment with control, shame, and punishment avoidance. Drawing from his upbringing in fundamentalism and later work as an evangelical pastor, he shares how early indoctrination around hell fractures relationships with God, self, and others, discourages intuition and questioning, all while propping up systems of domination—from abusive religious authority to political movements rooted in fear. Rather than abandoning spirituality altogether, he reclaimed Jesus from these systems, reframing faith as a practice of love, justice, and liberation in this life instead of an anxious fixation on the afterlife.

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Halley Sutton is back, and we dive into everything we've been reading and watching - which is quite a lot! We also share a few 2026 books we are excited to read.

What We’ve Been Reading

Everyone Is Lying to You — Joe Piazza

Alchemy of Secrets — Stephanie Garber

Vantage Point — Sarah Sligar
Good Dirt — Charmaine Wilkerson

 

2026 Hopefuls

The Future Saints — Ashley Winstead

All the Little Houses — May Cobb 

The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru — Olyseia Solnikova Gilmore

Vigil — George Saunders 

The Story Eaters of Yamm — Kevin Hincker

Lady X — Molly Fader

Murder Bimbo — Rebecca Novak

The Temptation of Charlotte North — Camilla Bruce

 

Movies & TV Shows We Talked About

Pluribus

Dexter: Resurrection

The Beast in Me 

Ballard

Death By Lightning

Slow Horses

The Beast

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Wake Up Dead Man 

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with John Fram about the creative process behind his new horror-thriller The Midnight Knock, a genre-blending desert nightmare. He dives into selling the book early, wrestling with a complex multi-POV structure, and navigating the behind-the-scenes realities of publishing—from word-count limits to printing costs to foreign rights. He traces the story’s roots from a childhood moment of awe in West Texas to the unsettling idea of an endless highway, explaining how claustrophobia, cosmic horror, indigenous-informed mythology, and a terrifying owl-snake creature all converged in a motel where the guests can’t outrun their pasts—or the desert itself.

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba