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

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Mentioned on the show:

Books:

• A Psalm for The Wild Built by Becky Chambers
• The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
• I Could Live Here Forever by Hannah Halperin

Shows:

• The Summer I Turned Pretty

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 of her's. We discuss the different narrators, grandma and grandpa's relationships, Oskar's search for clues from his dad, what it would be like if our skin color really changed to show our emotions, and our favorite quotes and scenes.

At the end of the episode, we talk about the podcast Alone: A Love Story, by Michelle Paresi for CBC. This show gave us so much to think about and feel and we hope it will continue! And as always, we finish the show with talking about some of our most recent obsessions, linked below.

Episode music by Ollella: Go listen to her new album, Back Back Back!

How to support the show:

• Leave a review wherever you listen!
• Subscribe to the show on your podcast app of choice
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Mentioned on the show:

Music:

• Ollella's album Back Back Back (You can hear her songs Head In The Clouds in the intro and Test of Time in the outro!)
• Maude Latour's EP Twin Flame

Books:

• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
• The Dutch House audiobook

Podcasts:

• Andrea Gibson's interview on We Can Do Hard Things
• Dead Eyes
• Normal Gossip
• Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto
• Classy
• People Who Knew Me

Shows:

• The Silo

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 support the show:

• Leave a review wherever you listen!
• Subscribe to the show on your podcast app of choice
• Sign up for our monthly-ish email newsletter
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• Visit the podcast website (remember, we're not on social media anymore!)

Mentioned on the show, all podcasts!

Sisters

Alone: A Love Story

Everything is Alive

Intro/outro music by lesfm via pixabay

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 some things mentioned below.

How to support the show:

• Leave a review wherever you listen!
• Subscribe to the show on your podcast app of choice
• Sign up for our monthly-ish email newsletter
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• Visit the podcast website (remember, we're not on social media anymore!)

Mentioned on the show:

The most amazing hand-knit wedding dress by Kutovakika (one of Caitlin's new favorite knitters!)

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Jenna Phipps - another one of Caitlin's knitting obsessions

Intro/outro music by lesfm via pixabay

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 currently reading and recent favorites we've finished.

How to support the show:

>Leave a review wherever you listen!

>Subscribe to the show on your podcast app of choice

>Sign up for our monthly-ish email newsletter

>Make a small monthly contributon on Patreon, and get special bonuses!

>Visit the podcast website

Intro/outro music by lesfm via pixabay

Mentioned on the show:

My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem, and this author interview

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

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 Safran Foer, and we will be reading old faves of Marie and Darla too.

At the end of Season 1, we had announced Season 2 would be all about Portland and Portland creators, and this is still somthing we plan to do and really look forward to, but we are saving that for a future season. We just got too excited about rereading our first loves, so we had to do that first!

The best way to stay up to date on the show is to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and to sign up for our newsletter. For my own sanity and enjoyment of life, we are going to experiment with being entirely off, or at least mostly off, of social media this season. So don't rely on Instagram for updates - please subscribe or sign up for our newsletter!

We do this because we love it and also, it costs money to make a podcast, so if you'd like to support us you can do one of 2 things: leave a review wherever it is you listen, or sign up to make a small monthly donation on our Patreon page. Thank you for being here and we hope you enjoy Season 2!

Music by lesfm via pixabay

Podcast website

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: reputation vs folklore

My interview with Chelsea Jade

Kishi Bashi: Why We Love His Music

We had so much fun recording all 27 episodes of this season and want to give a big thank you to all the creators who joined us: Chelsea Jade, Ollella, Julia Phillips, Lucy Tan, Caitlin Linden, and Carinn and Kate of Pop Fiction Women! Thank you also to our incredible co-hosts Marie and Darla, and our guest hosts Bianca, Luke, Sophie, Shawna, Kai, and Jess, and to all the listeners who shared audio messages for the show!

We're taking a break before we share Season 2 next year, and to give you a preview of what's to come, Season 2 is going to be focused on Portland! Portland, Oregon, where I live, so we'll be talking with artists of all kinds from Portland and reading books by Portland authors! If you have any favorite books by a Portland author, please share and maybe we'll get to read it in Season 2. See you then!

Intro/outro music by lesfm.

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**Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! These mean more than you may know for supporting the show!**

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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.

Then we discuss Part Two of The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang. Lucy chose this book for us to read together because she's been a longtime admirer of Chang's writing. The Family Chao is about a Chinese American family of three boys, their family restaurant, and the aftermath of their father's suspected murder.

We talk about the big plot twist in this mystery, favorite passages, who decides what is authentic, and why it's so hard to move on.

We finish with a song from the pod's fave musician, Kishi Bashi (listen to our episode all about Kishi here!). The Ballad of Mr. Steak felt like a fitting homage to Leo Chao.

Books/authors mentioned in the show:

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

Chloe Benjamin

Intro/outro music by lesfm.

Learn more and support the show:

**Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! These mean more than you may know for supporting the show!**

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Show website

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 Chang. Lucy chose this book for us to read together because she's been a longtime admirer of Chang's writing. The Family Chao (a Barack Obama summer 2022 reading pick!) is about a Chinese American family of three boys, their family restaurant, and the aftermath of their father's suspected murder.

We talk about our impressions of the characters, who we want to get to know more, the balance of passion and presence, and the idea that there are only certain times of your life for "emergence."

We share audio messages from more readers, thank you Sloane and Grayson for sharing your love for Lucy's work!

Music by lesfm via pixabay.

Learn more and support the show:

**Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! These mean more than you may know for supporting the show!**

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Join our Patreon community

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Visit the show website

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 reactions to the ending; our favorite blogs, quotes, scenes, and more.

Thank you Leah and Meredith for reading this book with us, and thank you to Anni for sharing your lovely thoughts on the book.

Mentioned in the episode: Small Doses with Amanda Seales podcast and interview with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

About the book: Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.

Music by lesfm via pixabay

Learn more and support the show:

**Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! These mean more than you may know for supporting the show!**

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Check out the show website