The Readirect Podcast

It’s the most wonderful time of the year at the Readirect Podcast—happy Pride!!! 🏳️‍🌈

To celebrate Pride Month, we are back with our second annual Pride Book Draft! This highly competitive episode pits Emily against Abigail as we each draft our team of books by LGBTQIA+ authors and/or featuring queer characters. 

Abigail’s Picks: 

• Conversion Therapy Dropout by Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez 
• Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
• Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
• Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun

Emily’s Picks: 

• Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfeld
• Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor
• Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa
• The Prospects by KT Hoffman

Honorable Mentions 

• The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Recent Reads: 

• Paladin’s Hope by T Kingfisher 
• Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian 
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
• We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin
• The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian
• Charming Puckboy by Eden Finley, Saxon James

We take famous and not-so-famous book couples and fast-forward their relationships to 2026 to answer the question: Where are they now? 

Divorced, still together but deeply resentful, or madly in love until their dying breath? We know the answer! 

Couples: 

• Bella and Edward from the Twilight Saga 
• Scarlett Vandermeer and Lucas Blomqvist from Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
• Eric and Kyle from Common Goal by Rachel Reid 
• Hayden and Alice from Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
• Marianne and Connell from Normal People by Sally Rooney
• Kit and Theo from The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
• Ron and Hermione from [REDACTED - F*CK JKR DO NOT BUY HER BOOKS] 
• Nick and Andy from We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
• Joan and Vanessa from Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Misc. Links: 

• Queer Liberation Library
• Sarah Gallagher on TikTok

Recent Reads: 

• Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher
• We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
• After Hours at Dooryard Books by Cat Sebastian
• Girl Next Door by Rachel Meredith

Follow us on social media @readirectpodcast. Visit our website at readirectpodcast.com. See you next time we love you!!<3

Today we're deep-diving Noah Kahan's new album, The Great Divide, and discussing the books we'd pair with some of his songs. 

Mentioned Books: 

• Heated Rivalry & The Long Game
• The Everlasting
• Happy Place
• Beartown
• The Dutch House (and Ann Patchett books in general)
• Love and Other Words
• No Matter What
• East of Eden
• Malibu Rising

Recent Reads

• Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian
• You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian
• Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza

Follow us on Instagram & TikTok @readirectpodcast. Abigail is on TikTok @fabigail11 and Instagram @fabigailinsta. Emily is on all platforms @emilyrojasreads. 

Shop merch & contact us & learn more on our website, readirectpodcast.com! 

We're summoning summer reading energy to get us out of reading slumps and to balance our sorrow at the Beach Read casting news. 

Links: 

• TikTok creator mentioned @vivafalastinleen
• Margo's Got Money Troubles Official Trailer
• don't look much like a lover (doesn't mean that i won't try) by barkatthemoon - wolfstar beach read-ish au
• Paladin's Grace
• The Everlasting

Recent Reads: 

• Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
• We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
• You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

CONTENT WARNING: In this episode, we discuss themes from David's book, which include sexual abuse, parental abuse, suicidal ideation, and homophobia. Please take care when listening! 

We are joined by special guest Jubilee Dawn for today's book club, focusing on David Archuleta's memoir, Devout. 

About Jubilee:
You can find Jubilee on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok @jubileedawns. Her podcasts are Healed-ish and The Overshare Hour. 

Recent Reads: 

• The Love of My Afterlife
• The Night We Met

Today we're talking about the Project Hail Mary movie adaptation! Plus: Bridgerton season 5 announcement & All the Young Dudes being published (gross!!!) 

For today's episode, we're crawling deep into the trenches of our youth group past and revisiting the Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn. Let's discuss why we hate Todd, love/hate Bob and Marti, and question all of Christy's decisions. 

Recent Reads:

• The Complete Maus
• No Matter What

Join us for a very special book talk episode starting off with BIG NEWS!!! 

Links: 

• Readirect Podcast WEBSITE!!!
• SHOP MERCH!!!!!!

Recent Reads: 

• Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
• Ready or Not by Cara Bastone
• I Think They Love You by Julian Winters
• Old Dogs Fest on AO3
• The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
• Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa
• The Sweet Spot by Amy Poppel
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Dearest Gentle Reader, 

For this episode, we are deep-diving Julia Quinn's An Offer From a Gentleman, as well as Bridgerton Season 4 (part one). We have been THOROUGHLY charmed by Benedict and Sophie, and had just the best time discussing their season, the changes from the book, and our excitement for part 2. 

Recent Reads: 

• Lady Like by Mackenzi Lee
• One Day in December by Josie Silver
• Crash Test by Amy James

You can follow The Readirect Podcast on Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok at @readirectpodcast! 

Heavy content warning for this episode, please listen with care! While we do not go into gratuitous detail in our recap, this book does contain references to many serious subjects. Proceed with caution & definitely don't listen to this episode around children! 

Today we're revisiting Redeeming Love and...we did not like what we read! 

Skip to the recent reads: To hear our letters to our future husbands following our fraught Redeeming Love discussion, skip to 53:11. Recent reads start at 59:33. 

Recent Reads: 

• The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid
• Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things? by Pierre Novellie
• Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor