Our Home Libraries

Over the course of 24 hours the lives of the Rivas children will change. Nina always throws an end of the summer party with stories that have gone down in infamy, each year the party gets bigger and more wild. Nina and her brother Jay are talented surfers, their brother Hudson is a renowned photographer, and their baby sister Kit is starting to come into her own. From the outside these four seem like they have it all, a famous rock star father, wealth, and fame of their own, but each sibling is looking for something. By the time the night is over, Nina’s mansion will have gone up in flames and the Rivas siblings will have to decide how to move forward.

How does this book explore the darker realities of fame and fortune? Why do we think time and place are important for the setting? What symbolism do we see in the bookended scenes of fire burning. Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 16 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode come from Penguin Random House. → https://www.randomhousebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/malibu-rising-by-taylor-jenkins-reid-book-club-kit.pdf

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

Violet Sorrengail has been planning her whole life to follow in the footsteps of her deceased father and become a scribe, but her mother - the ruthless General Sorrengail - is forcing her to become a dragon rider. The Rider’s Quadrant is a dangerous place to be. If the parapet or dragons don’t kill her, another cadet surely will, especially those who feel animosity toward her mother. The war is getting worse and the magic that keep Navarre safe is starting to fail. And when Violet discovers that information about the war is being withheld from them in battle brief, she begins to question what else leadership is keeping from the citizens of Navarre.

Who were our favorite and least favorite characters? Is there anything we still find ourselves thinking about? Is this book worth the hype it’s receiving on social media? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 15 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode come from Libromaniacs. → https://libromaniacs.com/generic-book-club-questions/

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

Fern met Will 10 years ago and he had a big influence on her. We explore that with a series of flashbacks, but at the end of their platonic time together, they agree to meet one year from that day at her mother’s resort. Spoiler alert, he didn’t show up. Fast forward to today, and Fern’s mother recently died in a car accident, so she’s trying to decide what to do about the resort that she now owns. In comes Will, who’s this fancy marketing agent or something?? And he tells her that her mother had hired him to help with marketing for the resort, because the resort has been having some money issues. Now Fern has to decide whether to take over the resort and work with Will to get it going again or to sell the resort to a hotel chain, all while trying to forget about the feelings that Will is stirring up in her. This is a second chance romance, which seems to be Carley Fortune’s thing.

The main characters develop a close bond over a short time period. Have we ever felt a strong and fast connection with another person, whether platonic or romantic? Do we think Fern’s decision to stay on at the resort is driven by the guilt she feels around her relationship with her mother? Do our lives look like we pictured when we were younger. Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 14 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode can be found at the back of the book. Because of the novelty of this book, we couldn’t find the questions online, but as soon as they're available, they will be linked here.

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

Red, White, and Royal Blue follows the fictitious first son of the first female president of the United States, an the closest thing to a prince on this side of the Atlantic. Alex, along with his sister, June, and the Vice President’s genius granddaughter, Nora, have been cointed by the media as the White House Trio, a strategy for appealing to younger generations. This strategy goes sideways when photos of a “confrontation” with his long standing nemesis, Prince Henry, at the royal wedding are plaster all over the tabloids and threaten America-British relations. The plan of action to fix it is to fake a friendship between the First Son and the Prince, but when this fake friendship becomes a real friendship and the friendship becomes something more, the re-election campaign of President Ellen Claremont and the stuffy ideals of the (fictional) royal family require it kept secret.

Why does the relationship between Alex and Henry work so well? What’s the biggest turning point in their relationship? (We couldn’t agree on that one.) And what happens next for these characters? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 13 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode come from Lit Lovers. → https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/fiction/11701-red-white-and-royal-blue-mcquiston?start=3

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

A Long Way From Chicago gives us one week each summer from 1929 to 1935 as Joey and Mary Alice visit their grandmother in small-town Illinois. Grandma Dowdel is a larger-than-life character and definitely not your average grandma. She takes the kids on various adventures - from seeing their first corpse, to illegal fishing, to spinning tall tales - to help people in her community. The companion novel, A Year Down Yonder, is written in Mary Alice’s perspective as she spends a full year with Grandma Dowdel in the depths of the Great Depression. We get to see Grandma through every season, including her favorite, Halloween. Mary Alice is, at first, reluctant to have to live in Grandma’s sleepy town, but she’s quick to adapt and even becomes a willing accomplice in Grandma’s schemes.

Is Grandma Dowdel a bad influence or a good role model for her grandchildren? Given that she’s not a very affectionate person, how does Grandma Dowdel show her grandchildren that she loves them? What were our favorite stories from each of the books? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 12 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode come from Penguin Random House, with a few sprinkled in that Kayla came up with. → https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/286535/a-year-down-yonder-by-richard-peck/9780142300701/readers-guide/

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

We pick up in book three a few weeks after the events at the end of book two. Feyre is now acting as a spy in the Spring Court, with intentions of getting some revenge of her own by destroying Tamlin’s court from the inside.

Do we view Feyre’s actions in the beginning as a departure from her true character? How did we feel about some of the deaths that resulted from the war with Hybern? What is our reaction to the conclusion of this initial trilogy in this world? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 11 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode were developed from the talking points found on Bookstacked. → https://bookstacked.com/features/court-of-wings-and-ruin-spoilers-fan-discussion/

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

Harriet finally has some time off from her medical residency to go on her yearly trip with her best friends. It turns out that her ex, Wyn, was also invited, largely because they neglected to tell anyone that they broke up six months ago. So now they’re sharing the master bedroom for a week and they can’t come clean to their friends because the cottage, Harriet’s happy place, is being put up for sale. And not only is this trip like a last hurrah for the cottage, two of the friends announce their engagement the first night. They can’t put a damper on the mood by telling everyone they aren’t together anymore! They’ve gotta fake it till they make it and try not to notice the feelings that are bubbling up between them. We’ve got the forced proximity, the second chance, and I guess a little bit of fake dating.

A lot of Harriet’s journey is about deciding whether to let go of a dream that no longer excites her, despite the time and energy she’s already invested into it. Have we ever had to make a decision like this? If we had a second life to live, what would we want to do with it? Do we have a “happy place”? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 10 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode come from the publisher, Penguin Random House. → https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/704944/happy-place-by-emily-henry/9780593441275/reading-guide

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

We pick up in book two three months after the events of Under the Mountain, and Feyre is really struggling with what she had to do to free everyone from Amarantha’s curse. She’s having nightmares every night, waking up vomiting, and having some other PTSD symptoms, like certain colors triggering memories. Tamlin isn’t really helping much. He seems to be more concerned with their marriage ceremony and protecting Feyre from the potentially bad things he’s dealing with in his territory. It also doesn’t help that there’s this priestess hanging around and seemingly encouraging Tamlin not to involve Feyre in court business. Their wedding day comes around and Feyre realizes that she can’t be with Tamlin and his overprotective nature…she’s in her head begging someone to save her…and guess who shows up? My man Rhysand coming to make good on the bargain they made Under the Mountain and whisk her away to spend time with him for a week.

How does Sarah J. Maas continue to build on the world we were introduced to in A Court of Thorns and Roses? Who were our favorite new characters? What are our feelings about fated mates as a romance trope? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 9 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode come from Just Leafing → https://justleafing.com/a-court-of-mist-and-fury-book-club-questions/

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: Happy Place by Emily Henry

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

Feyre is a 19-year-old human who is thrust into the faery world when she kills a wolf that was actually a fae sentry sent out into the mortal world by the High Lord of the Spring Court of Prythian. Said High Lord, Tamlin, retrieves her, citing a provision of the treaty between mortals and faeries that apparently says that he can claim her life in exchange for the life she took. Feyre has to live in Prythian for the rest of her life to fulfill this life debt. Of course, feelings get involved, but something is wrong in faerie lands, something ancient, and that something could seep into the mortal world, destroying everything and everyone Feyre loves. Apparently this one mortal girl is the only one who can stop it.

What were our first impressions of Feyre’s family? How do Feyre’s perceptions of Tamlin change throughout that book? Are we Team Rhysand or Team Tamlin? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 8 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: The questions discussed in this episode come from Just Leafing → https://justleafing.com/a-court-of-thorns-and-roses-book-club-questions/

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341

Melora, better known as Lore, is that last of the Perseides, an ancient family descended from the great Greek hero Perseus, known for beheading Medusa. She was raised in a culture that participates in the Agon, a god hunt that occurs for seven days every seven years. Back in the day, our boy Zeus banished nine of the gods for crimes against humanity, punishing them by making them mortal during the Agon. Anyone who kills a god, inherits their power and becomes a new god, though there are rules and limitations. At the beginning of the Agon that is this book, the only old gods left are Athena, Artemis, and Hermes. A lot happens in this book, so it’s really difficult to summarize in a concise way. Basically, Wrath, the new Ares, is the bad guy and he is searching for Lore for some unknown reason. He’s just killing everyone and doesn’t care about it. Athena wants to kill all the new gods and teams up with Lore to kill Wrath because Lore thinks Wrath is responsible for her family’s death, so she has a motive. It’s a quid pro quo… Lore gets her revenge; Athena gets to kill the imposter new gods.

How did we feel about the portrayals of the gods that we encountered in this book? How did we feel about the two major twists in the story? How did we feel about the conclusion of the main conflict. Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 7 of our spoiler-filled podcast.

Questions: Karey came up with these questions.

Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.

Coming up next: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Interested in starting your own podcast? Sign up with Buzzsprout using our referral code and we'll both get a $20 amazon gift card! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1894341