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🌍10 Books That Make You Feel Like You're on a European Vacation · Friday Night Readers: Gilmore Girls Inspired Book Club

0:05
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Friday Night Readers.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Jules, a real-life Rory Gilmore.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: Built by coffee,
0:12
SPEAKER_01: I help you read, live, and write like a Gilmore in our little corner of the world.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: Step into a virtual stars hollow in a world of books just like Rory.
0:22
SPEAKER_01: Before we dive in,
0:23
SPEAKER_01: don't forget to subscribe
0:24
SPEAKER_01: to our Friday Night Readers newsletter community also staff.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: You'll get instant access to a pre-printable list of the 475-plus books
0:33
SPEAKER_01: on Gilmore Girls,
0:34
SPEAKER_01: plus even more Gilmore Girls-inspired content,
0:37
SPEAKER_01: like our Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, which we've been doing together since 2021.
0:42
SPEAKER_01: Paid members get exclusive extras,
0:44
SPEAKER_01: like the list of books from the show Whip Episodes,
0:47
SPEAKER_01: which I've personally varied by over several years of rewatches and wrote about
0:52
SPEAKER_01: in my book, The Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: Come hang out where the real Gilmore magic happens, fridaynightreaders.substack.com.
1:03
SPEAKER_02: Hello, Friday Night Readers.
1:04
SPEAKER_02: It is August,
1:05
SPEAKER_02: and this month in our Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge,
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SPEAKER_02: we are reading books set in Europe,
1:09
SPEAKER_02: and I've got a great guest to talk about that with you today.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Her name is Elle, and she is from the Substack, Elle Reads Library Books.
1:16
SPEAKER_02: You're going to absolutely love her as much as I do.
1:19
SPEAKER_02: She's become a great friend over the past few months and she is
1:22
SPEAKER_02: a very voracious reader just like Rory Gilmore.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: So let's get into my live episode that I recorded with her earlier this week.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Hello, everyone.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys for joining.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm super happy to have you here.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm Elle.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: I write over at Elle Reads Library Books and I've just turned on paid.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: So I'm having a sale for people who are on this chat.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: We're extending it out just for you guys.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: So it's 60% off.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: It's $20 for one year.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: You get access to the archive, paid posts, printables.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be starting in September a paid only challenge, which should be super fun.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting to you guys.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Check it out.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: And congratulations because you just became a bestseller over the weekend.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Thank you to all you guys too.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Couldn't have done it without you.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that was really exciting news.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: The timing is really remarkable.
2:10
SPEAKER_02: I said this to you privately.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: It's so impressive what you've done in such a short time.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: I think people have really taken to your work and your name,
2:19
SPEAKER_02: Elle Reads Library Books, that says it all.
2:21
SPEAKER_02: People really take to that.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: And then on top of it,
2:23
SPEAKER_02: you're such a voracious reader that it's just so easy to love what you're doing.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: So the way I wrote my introduction is that you are
2:31
SPEAKER_02: a high achieving millennial like Rory Gilmour.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: You're a voracious reader of 3000 books.
2:37
SPEAKER_02: And for Gilmore Girls fans,
2:39
SPEAKER_02: you'll understand when I say that is practically the whole Harvard library.
2:43
SPEAKER_02: I know you haven't watched the show yet, but I know it's on your list.
2:46
SPEAKER_02: And I want to hear from you when you see the moment I'm not sure
2:49
SPEAKER_02: because we don't have Goodreads from back then,
2:51
SPEAKER_02: but I'm like, I know about how many I read every year.
2:53
SPEAKER_02: And so I added it up.
2:53
SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty confident in that number.
2:55
SPEAKER_02: But yes, I need to watch the show.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: You really turned me on to it.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: I've just been waiting for fall because everyone says that's the perfect moment to dive into it.
3:16
SPEAKER_02: It's absolutely the perfect moment.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: And I do think you're going to love the way the books pair with the show
3:21
SPEAKER_02: because I got into the challenge in the pandemic and it was the same thing.
3:25
SPEAKER_02: It was fall.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: I wanted a comfort show.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I want to read more older books.
3:29
SPEAKER_02: I want to read all those books that I missed in high school.
3:31
SPEAKER_02: Or when I was in college and was too busy with my studies to read.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: And it really gave me a purpose for my reading and to me it makes it easier
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SPEAKER_02: and more fun to read the classics.
3:41
SPEAKER_02: The other thing I want to note about you before we move on is that I learned
3:46
SPEAKER_02: that you had a fake library card.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes, not a fake ID.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: I had a fake library card.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: So my mom is the cutest mom ever.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: And she made me a writer's license because I really wanted to have
3:59
SPEAKER_00: a driver's license, but I was way too young at four years old for that.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: And then she also made me She made me a fake library card because my library had a rule.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember how old you had to be.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I think you had to be like 10 or 11.
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SPEAKER_00: So she made me a little fake library card so I could take it to the library
4:13
SPEAKER_00: and feel all important.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: It was really
4:15
SPEAKER_02: sweet.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: So we are talking about Bookset in Europe today.
4:19
SPEAKER_02: And the reason I picked that is
4:20
SPEAKER_02: because it's our Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge prompt for this month is
4:24
SPEAKER_02: to read Bookset in Europe.
4:25
SPEAKER_02: And the reason I picked it, we've never done Bookset in Europe.
4:27
SPEAKER_02: This is our, I think, sixth full year doing the challenge.
4:31
SPEAKER_02: And the way I do it is every month I pick a prompt and
4:34
SPEAKER_02: then people can pick what they want from that prompt from Gilmore Girls to read.
4:37
SPEAKER_02: And the reason we like this list is it's like a great mix of classic and modern books.
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SPEAKER_02: And I picked you because we had talked on many occasions.
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SPEAKER_02: So I studied abroad in Europe.
4:47
SPEAKER_02: I studied in Sweden.
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SPEAKER_02: So my family origins are there and always had wanted to be.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: And to spend some more time there, thought about maybe, oh, maybe I'll get a passport and stay.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: Winters are, even growing up in Colorado, the winters are not for me.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: It's too dark.
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SPEAKER_00: So that idea went out the window and then had the opportunity
5:13
SPEAKER_00: while I was studying abroad to travel around a bunch.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And then over the years with my husband,
5:18
SPEAKER_00: visiting here and there, going to different places together.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't know exactly
5:23
SPEAKER_00: how many countries in Europe,
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SPEAKER_00: but there's still a few on our list that we haven't been to.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: And I know you've also just done,
5:29
SPEAKER_02: which I linked in the notes,
5:31
SPEAKER_02: a really good Greece post, which works really well with the Odyssey.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was,
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SPEAKER_00: I was seeing everyone traveling to Greece this year because of the Odyssey
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SPEAKER_00: and feeling left out.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: So we went to Greece in 2016 and I wanted to go back because actually
5:45
SPEAKER_00: when we were there, there were some riots and so we couldn't get a ferry.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: They actually were We're having riots at the ports.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: So we ended up having to completely change our trip.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: It was still a really nice trip,
5:54
SPEAKER_00: but didn't get to go to all the islands and go to all the Athens places
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SPEAKER_00: that I wanted to go.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: So it's definitely on my list of places to go back to.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: But I feel like in literature too, there's just so much to explore.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: You've got thousands and thousands of years of books to read.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: So I thought with the Odyssey,
6:11
SPEAKER_00: if you don't want to read the Odyssey,
6:12
SPEAKER_00: there's still a lot of ways to explore the country.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: Greek food is my favorite.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: So that's definitely one that is on my list.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: Before we get into the books that you picked from Europe,
6:23
SPEAKER_02: I do want to talk about what we do is every month I pick a featured book
6:27
SPEAKER_02: so people can read whatever they want.
6:28
SPEAKER_02: Everyone's read different classics in their lifetime and I want people
6:31
SPEAKER_02: to have their own reading choices.
6:32
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to make choices for them.
6:34
SPEAKER_02: That's why I picked the reading prompt,
6:35
SPEAKER_02: but I do pick I have one book to feature every month and then I write some sort
6:39
SPEAKER_02: of essay or guide on it.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: And the one I picked for this month,
6:42
SPEAKER_02: I feel like we've got to do Anna Karenina because it's Rory Gilmore's favorite book
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SPEAKER_02: and we have yet to do it.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: Have you read Anna Karenina yet?
6:51
SPEAKER_00: It's one of those books that everyone is like, oh, it's such a hard book to read.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: And so I get intimidated by it.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: But somebody commented on my audiobooks post a while back and said that
7:00
SPEAKER_00: the audiobook is a really good way to do that one.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: So I have put my name on the library list.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as that comes in, I'm going to do the Anna Karenina audiobook.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
7:11
SPEAKER_02: So I love that you said that because that's exactly the way I'm going
7:14
SPEAKER_02: to take this post this month is a reading guide
7:17
SPEAKER_02: because I too had always felt super intimidated by it.
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SPEAKER_02: And I really learned so much in the process of reading it that can make
7:24
SPEAKER_02: that much more accessible.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: That's a good idea.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because if you think just 10 pages a day, that's really approachable.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: I've got some big books on the bookshelf, so I know I can do it.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: It's just, I think Russian literature just feels, I've never really dived into that.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: It just feels so intimidating.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
8:02
SPEAKER_02: And it's not as intimidating as it seems.
8:04
SPEAKER_02: So I can't wait to talk about that later this But now we're going to get into,
8:08
SPEAKER_02: you picked five books from the list.
8:10
SPEAKER_02: There's 475 plus books on Gilmore Girls that I've painstakingly tracked
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SPEAKER_02: over several years to the point that I would like pause the screen
8:18
SPEAKER_02: and be Google searching like Woman with Pearls Victorian cover to find the biggest
8:24
SPEAKER_02: and best list.
8:25
SPEAKER_02: So we're going to get into your five picks now.
8:27
SPEAKER_02: Your first pick, I'm thrilled that you picked.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: It's Barefoot in Paris by Ina Gardin.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
8:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you got it.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got it.
8:35
SPEAKER_02: I love her.
8:36
SPEAKER_02: So the reason that I am so glad you picked this one is because this was
8:40
SPEAKER_02: the number
8:41
SPEAKER_01: one book I've been looking for.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: I go to library sales.
8:45
SPEAKER_02: I go to used bookstores.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: And this is the one I really wanted to find.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: And it's just because it's just a joyful experience for me.
8:51
SPEAKER_02: So this is a nonfiction.
8:53
SPEAKER_02: I called it a travel cookbook.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: And where you'll find it on Gilmore Girls is it's on Sookie's coffee table
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SPEAKER_02: in season five, episode 19.
9:02
SPEAKER_02: So of course, this one does take place in France.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: Have you been to France?
9:06
SPEAKER_00: I have.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: First of all,
9:07
SPEAKER_00: I just have to say when you said that this was on someone's coffee table,
9:10
SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, she is on the next level preparing this list for people.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I was, oh, it must be books that she reads, but no, it's books on the coffee table.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: It's books in the background.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: I was super impressed.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: So I have been to France.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: My husband and I love to go to Paris.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Love the restaurants there.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: He's going to be there in September.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be there.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: But I absolutely love just going and exploring the food culture.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: And so this cookbook I've had for years,
9:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm not surprised that you couldn't find it at library sales or used bookstores
9:40
SPEAKER_00: because it's so good.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: It's so good.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's it is that people just aren't giving it up.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: I think so,
9:46
SPEAKER_00: because it's For people who haven't read it,
9:48
SPEAKER_00: of course,
9:49
SPEAKER_00: it's a cookbook with typical approachable recipes and gorgeous photography.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: But she also gives little tips about like how to live a more Parisian life.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: So how they think about preparing a meal and how they think
10:01
SPEAKER_00: about floral arrangements and things like that.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: And so it's short.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: It's not like cookbooks where they're going on for pages.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: It's little short texts and little kind of tidbits about her life in Paris.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: So charming.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I actually brought it.
10:13
SPEAKER_02: We were out to the suburbs twice this weekend, kind of like a 45 minute drive.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: And I brought it in the car and I was able to literally read the whole thing in the car.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: And I also liked that it has in the back a travel guide, all of her favorite places to stop by.
10:27
SPEAKER_02: I love when that is in a book.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's so nice, too, because then you can just add, okay, I need my next trip.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: I need to go here.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: I need to go here.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: I need to go here.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: I haven't gone to all the places on her list,
10:38
SPEAKER_00: but definitely many of them I have gone to because of her recommendations.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: And I find her recipes to be so approachable.
10:46
SPEAKER_02: Everything is just simple, great ingredients.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Yes, if you haven't read her memoir,
10:52
SPEAKER_00: it's a really good one to read because she talks
10:54
SPEAKER_00: about like how she developed this approach and how she developed her approach
10:57
SPEAKER_00: to hosting.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: And then when you go back and read her cookbooks, you can totally see that shining through.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love it.
11:03
SPEAKER_02: I love how it's just you don't have to do a million steps.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to have all these crazy ingredients.
11:08
SPEAKER_02: It's really about what enhances the natural flavors of what she's cooking.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like with us, too,
11:14
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the approach that we take with books and with our Substacks is
11:17
SPEAKER_00: that you don't have to go and read all
11:20
SPEAKER_00: of these really obscure translated literature.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: If you want to, that's amazing.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to read the bestseller that you can find at the airport, everyone's welcome.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: There's no right or wrong approach to it.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And I love that she takes that kind of similar approach to cooking at home.
11:34
SPEAKER_02: So I think we can move on to the next one.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: And this is one you had even mentioned to me a while back when I was talking about Shakespeare.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: It's The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, which is, of course, a play.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: It is on Gilmore Girls when Lucy,
11:47
SPEAKER_02: who is one of Rory's college friends,
11:49
SPEAKER_02: says she played Portia in season seven, episode 10.
11:53
SPEAKER_02: And of course, this is set in Italy.
11:55
SPEAKER_02: I did go to Italy on my honeymoon.
11:57
SPEAKER_02: Our first stop was Venice, and that was my first time out of the USA.
12:00
SPEAKER_02: So have you been there?
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I've been to Italy.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: It was actually my husband's first stop out of the U.S. too, which is really interesting.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to Venice in September,
12:09
SPEAKER_00: so I'm going to reread the play before I go,
12:12
SPEAKER_00: but not to Venice yet, but I have been to other parts of Italy.
12:15
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I'm going to give you a couple great recommendations.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: I don't have them off the top of my head and maybe I'll add them as a footnote
12:22
SPEAKER_02: into this post, but there are some great literary locations.
12:26
SPEAKER_02: I think one is, if I get the name right, it's Harry's Bar.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: And then there's one,
12:30
SPEAKER_02: if I'm remembering right, Cafe Florian, which is right in St. Mark's Square.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: It's a great place.
12:35
SPEAKER_02: And I think fall is the time to do it.
12:37
SPEAKER_02: We went July 3rd, we left.
12:39
SPEAKER_02: So because it being an American holiday, it was really overwhelmed with tourists at that time.
12:45
SPEAKER_02: So I think that the fall will be a good time to go and I'm definitely going
12:49
SPEAKER_02: to send you and put some recommendations in the footnotes.
12:54
SPEAKER_02: The Merchant of Venice is that Antonio borrows money from a Jewish moneylender,
12:59
SPEAKER_02: Shylock, to help his friend Bassanio court the wealthy heiress Portia.
13:04
SPEAKER_02: But when he cannot repay the loan,
13:06
SPEAKER_02: Shylock demands the agreed-upon pound of flesh,
13:09
SPEAKER_02: leading to a dramatic courtroom trial.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's so good.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: It's so good.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: We recently had a podcast where we talked about how there's a lot
13:16
SPEAKER_00: of Shakespeare classics that are like reality TV.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think this maps onto any reality TV shows,
13:22
SPEAKER_00: but I would say it has the same level of drama as a law and order or something like
13:27
SPEAKER_00: that.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: It is gripping.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that's a good comparison.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: So I read this one in high school,
13:31
SPEAKER_02: so I apologize I had to read the plot instead of speak it out loud
13:35
SPEAKER_02: because this is one that I remember reading in high school and I can picture myself
13:39
SPEAKER_02: in the seat.
13:40
SPEAKER_02: I can remember our class talking about it, but I don't remember much about it.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: I think you're right.
13:44
SPEAKER_02: This is more of a law and order type of thing.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would say it's definitely incredibly dramatic.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: And it's such an interesting, my husband and I, he's reading a history of money right now.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: And just to compare how people viewed credit and how credit worked
14:14
SPEAKER_00: and how money worked in that period.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: And how that compares to how we view it now.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: And also the social dynamics around who could and couldn't lend money and how
14:22
SPEAKER_00: that all plays out within the trial, I think is so interesting.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: And really understanding where that idea of a pound of flesh comes from,
14:29
SPEAKER_00: which I think a lot of people just drop into daily conversation.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: And then when you realize really where it comes from, it's shocking.
14:36
SPEAKER_02: Which I love about Shakespeare is there's so many lines that we still say today
14:41
SPEAKER_02: that we may not even know are Shakespearean.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: Yes, that was such a fun part of your podcast, too.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: I love that podcast episode.
14:48
SPEAKER_02: I should link that in the show notes as well.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: So let's move on to one that I really don't know much about.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: It's Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: And I put this as historical fiction timeframe.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: Travel romance.
15:00
SPEAKER_02: Lorelei refers to it in A Year in the Life Spring, which is the reboot of Gilmore Girls.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: So have you been to Scotland?
15:07
SPEAKER_00: I have.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: When I was studying abroad, a friend of mine was in St. Andrews.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: And when I had a little break, I went and visited her.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I read Outlander at that point.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: I think I read it a little bit later, if I'm not mistaken.
15:19
SPEAKER_02: So we were my husband and I were actually just talking about Scotland yesterday.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: He was saying we have to think about if we want to do a European trip next year.
15:26
SPEAKER_02: We did have Budapest this year, which was through his work.
15:29
SPEAKER_02: So that was picked for us.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: So he doesn't have an international conference next year.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: So we have to make a decision if we want to do it.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: And he was saying maybe we'll go to Ireland or England.
15:37
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, or Scotland, just to do something a little bit closer to the United States.
15:42
SPEAKER_02: And of course, there's a lot of Harry Potter stuff there.
15:44
SPEAKER_02: How was the weather when you were there?
15:46
SPEAKER_00: It was freezing, but compared to Sweden, it was better.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: I was dealing with, but I love like it's such an interesting culture.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: The cities are just absolutely beautiful.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like as well, it's such a moody country.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: The landscapes are so dramatic.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: The weather is so dramatic.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it'd be a really fun place to spend Halloween.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm going to read the plot again because this is one I'm not super familiar with.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: So in Outlander,
16:11
SPEAKER_00: the former combat nurse Claire Randall time travels from 1945 to 1743 through
16:13
SPEAKER_00: an ancient stone circle.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: She falls in love with Highland warrior Jamie Frazier while struggling
16:33
SPEAKER_02: to reconcile her new life with her old one.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: So tell me why you think we should read this one.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it's also a TV show,
16:41
SPEAKER_00: which is one of the situations where I would say that the TV show
16:45
SPEAKER_00: The first couple books are fantastic.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: They're big.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: They're huge books.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And I think there are at least seven or eight books at this point.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Shows do a really good job of kind of editing out a lot of those just random historical facts.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: But the book itself, the first couple of books are incredible.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: You get this story of this very modern woman.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: She's a doctor.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: She's just finished working in World War II.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: She's a nurse and finds herself transported to a world where she is a woman
17:19
SPEAKER_00: and period and finds this strapping young man.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: And so there is their relationship and how that starts to develop.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: And will she ever be able to come?
17:29
SPEAKER_00: Will she not?
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Does she build this new life?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Does she not?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: How does she reconcile between being this much more modern,
17:36
SPEAKER_00: educated woman with what she can say?
17:38
SPEAKER_00: And that was the kind of time where allegations
17:41
SPEAKER_00: of witchcraft were still not something that you could completely get away from.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: So it's a very interesting story.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: If you like time slip, if you like time travel, there's definitely some romance in there.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't call it a romance novel, but it has romance woven through it in a really nice way.
17:56
SPEAKER_02: You made it sound like it has some feminist themes to it.
17:58
SPEAKER_02: And I love that because a lot of the books on Gilmore Girls have feminist themes.
18:02
SPEAKER_02: So I was not expecting to hear that, but I think it's really interesting.
18:07
SPEAKER_02: That's part of the book and the show.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: I think I saw an interview with her.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: It's been several years, so I might not have this exactly right.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: But I remember she says she had this idea for the character and she wanted
18:17
SPEAKER_00: to figure out how she could have this more progressive feminist woman in
18:22
SPEAKER_00: that time period.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: And that's where the idea for So it
18:30
SPEAKER_00: is really interesting to see how she navigates
18:32
SPEAKER_00: that and some of the struggles.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: And as the series goes on,
18:35
SPEAKER_00: they go through the Jackbite Revolution,
18:37
SPEAKER_00: but then there's the French Revolution and the American Revolution and kind of all
18:41
SPEAKER_00: of these different things brewing around the same time.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: But they go through a lot of really interesting periods of history.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a really interesting point as well.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: So do you think people should read or watch first?
18:54
SPEAKER_02: I would read.
18:55
SPEAKER_02: I would say read the first three and then watch.
18:58
SPEAKER_02: So we're going to take your word for it.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: So we're going to move on to one of my favorite thrillers.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: And this is a very obscure reference in Gilmore Girls.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: In season one,
19:10
SPEAKER_02: episode 11,
19:11
SPEAKER_02: Max, who is Rory's teacher and her mom's boyfriend, nicknames Rory Rebecca.
19:18
SPEAKER_02: The way the scene plays out,
19:19
SPEAKER_02: this is another one where you wouldn't necessarily know when he just says,
19:22
SPEAKER_02: oh, I'm going to call you Rebecca.
19:23
SPEAKER_02: You don't necessarily know that's a literary reference,
19:26
SPEAKER_02: but there's other things that happen in the scene.
19:28
SPEAKER_02: I can't think of what it is off the top of my head,
19:30
SPEAKER_02: but when you put those little pieces together, you know.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: I know that this is a reference to Rebecca and I love that.
19:35
SPEAKER_02: I love finding these super obscure things.
19:37
SPEAKER_02: So this one takes place in England.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: I'm guessing you have been to England.
19:41
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I have.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: I want to take several trips to England.
19:44
SPEAKER_02: I have so many things on my radar that I want to see.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: What do you recommend?
19:49
SPEAKER_00: So I've only been to London.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: I really love art.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: And so I wanted to go to all the museums and I was there as a college student as well.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't enjoy any of the restaurants or things like that because I was on an extreme budget.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: So I would also like to go back.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And genealogy is also one of my big hobbies.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a lot of places that I'd like to go visit that kind of map
20:09
SPEAKER_00: onto my family history as well.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: So I definitely don't think I have great tips because it was extreme budget trip
20:15
SPEAKER_00: to London, but the art is just absolutely fantastic.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: And the museums are mostly free there.
20:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: Obviously there's no shortage of things to do in London.
20:23
SPEAKER_02: I definitely want to go to Bath because of Jane Austen.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Downton Abbey, I believe is somewhere within a half hour, an hour outside of London, I think.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: I know Harry Potter is also the original sets are I think about 45 minutes outside.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: So I think there's no shortage of things to do that you can make yourself busy on
20:41
SPEAKER_02: a couple trips there.
20:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, for sure.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: So in Rebecca,
20:45
SPEAKER_02: there is a lower class woman and she marries this man named Max and he is
20:49
SPEAKER_02: a wealthy widow.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: And she moves into his grand estate, which is called Manderley.
20:54
SPEAKER_02: And of course, the book starts with the famous line, Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley.
20:59
SPEAKER_02: And there it's interesting because his wife has died.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: And I just find it so interesting the way this plays out.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: She's not a ghost, but her presence almost feels ghostly in the book.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: It's like everyone, everyone in the staff is just talking about Rebecca.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: And of course, there's more to the story.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: So why do you think readers should pick this one up?
21:20
SPEAKER_00: It first was calling her Rebecca.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if that's a compliment.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Having read this book,
21:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if a teacher called me Rebecca,
21:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if I would be thrilled about that.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Not that she's a bad character,
21:31
SPEAKER_00: but also I don't know about that, but it's so fascinating and it's so twisty.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a really easy book to read.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to, you could read it in a weekend.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's such a good example of where people say, oh, classics are boring.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: They're so dry.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: This is not dry at all.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: It's so captivating.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: It's so twisty.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: The ending is really surprising.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: So it's a good read that will definitely make you think.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree with everything that you just said.
22:16
SPEAKER_02: I think people who like literary thrillers like The Secret History will probably like this one.
22:22
SPEAKER_02: Like you said, it's a totally approachable classic.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: It reads just like a modern thriller today,
22:28
SPEAKER_02: yet you get all that nice little literary stuff as well.
22:31
SPEAKER_02: Have you watched the Netflix adaptation for this one?
22:34
SPEAKER_00: I have.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: I think I actually watched that
22:36
SPEAKER_02: before I knew it was a book.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, wait a minute.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: So I liked it.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: I would need to watch it again, having read the book to say how accurate it is.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: But I remember liking it.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: Have you watched it?
22:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I liked it too.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: I read the book first.
22:46
SPEAKER_02: And if I remember right, the adaptation was like mixed reviews.
22:50
SPEAKER_02: For the most part, I liked it.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a good watch.
22:53
SPEAKER_02: All right.
22:54
SPEAKER_02: So we do recommend that one as well, the book and the movie.
22:57
SPEAKER_02: And we have one more book that is set in England that you brought for us today.
23:01
SPEAKER_02: And speaking of feminist titles, this is A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: It's a nonfiction essay.
23:06
SPEAKER_02: Again, super approachable.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: You can read it And Rory famously reads this one on the bus in season one, episode five.
23:15
SPEAKER_02: And if I'm remembering right, this is when Dean comes onto the bus.
23:18
SPEAKER_02: This was her first high school boyfriend and she's sitting there enthralled
23:22
SPEAKER_02: in her book and she just She's just nervous around him at that point
23:26
SPEAKER_02: because it's very early into the show.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: And of course, A Room of One's Own is set in England.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: And it's an essay that argues that women need a room of their own to write in
23:37
SPEAKER_02: and financial support.
23:39
SPEAKER_02: And the way she does this is by talking about Shakespeare and if he had
23:45
SPEAKER_02: an equally gifted sister.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: It's a great essay.
23:47
SPEAKER_02: Readers in our book club pick this one up a lot.
23:50
SPEAKER_02: So why do you think people should read it?
23:52
SPEAKER_00: It's just as relevant now as it was then.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: If you really think about it,
23:55
SPEAKER_00: if you want to be an artist,
23:57
SPEAKER_00: it would be lovely to just be able to sit around and do your art,
24:00
SPEAKER_00: but the bill will come whether or not you're creative.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: So I think any artist especially needs to think about having I think
24:07
SPEAKER_00: of having your own room as also having a protected space, right?
24:09
SPEAKER_00: So having a place where you can close the
24:23
SPEAKER_00: And so there's things about childcare and taking care of the home
24:31
SPEAKER_00: and dividing responsibilities that a lot of times a lot of these wonderful authors
24:37
SPEAKER_00: whose work we enjoy had a wife taking care of all of that for them.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: And if they didn't, would they have been able to do that?
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's much more than thinking about a physical space.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: It's also thinking about access and what that physical space represents in terms
24:50
SPEAKER_00: of protected time.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you said that perfectly.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: In some ways it's different today and in some ways it's exactly the same.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: So if you wanted to sit down and write a novel that you had to take care
25:00
SPEAKER_00: of your kids and you had all these kind of things to do
25:03
SPEAKER_00: and you could only find five minutes to write,
25:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you'd be able to do it.
25:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I definitely recommend people pick this one up.
25:09
SPEAKER_02: I think I did that one on audio and again, You can do this in a weekend, in an afternoon.
25:13
SPEAKER_02: You can take it outside just for a summer afternoon.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: And those five were to inspire you to take some armchair travel to Europe.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: So we do have a speed round left because we're going to read books set in Europe this month.
25:26
SPEAKER_02: So I wanted to pick some books that are still on both of our lists.
25:30
SPEAKER_02: The ones that I'm going to read for our challenge this month and a few that are on your list.
25:33
SPEAKER_02: When you look at this list of books set in Europe,
25:36
SPEAKER_02: what is one that you really hope to pick up sometime soon?
25:39
SPEAKER_00: So I have Tender is the Night on my Kindle and I've had it on my Kindle for a while.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: And when I was pulling my subscribers, but what should I put on my Beach Reads list?
25:49
SPEAKER_00: This title kept coming up.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: People said it's so good.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: It's got such a great summer vibe.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: And so that is one that I really want to read.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: That's probably the next one I'm going to pick up.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
25:59
SPEAKER_02: I love to hear that.
26:00
SPEAKER_02: I believe it's set in the French Riviera.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: I do have it on my shelf as well and it has been on my list forever
26:05
SPEAKER_02: because I love F. Scott Fitzgerald.
26:07
SPEAKER_02: I recall picking this one up a really long time ago,
26:10
SPEAKER_02: probably when I was in law school and I used to go to the library and So I brought
26:13
SPEAKER_02: to the table Daisy Miller by Henry James, which my understanding is that
26:28
SPEAKER_02: That is set in Switzerland in Italy.
26:30
SPEAKER_02: And the reason I picked it is because it just aligns so well with Gilmore Girls.
26:36
SPEAKER_02: There's this whole scene where Rory does something,
26:40
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to spoil it, but she does something that's bad.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: And she gets into an argument with her mother and things are bad at home and in her love life.
26:48
SPEAKER_02: And she takes this Daisy Miller type,
26:50
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I should call it an exile to Europe with her grandmother for
26:53
SPEAKER_02: the summer.
26:54
SPEAKER_02: But it just made me interested to understand that reference in the show.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: So that's why I picked that one.
27:00
SPEAKER_02: So what is the next one on your list that you hope to read soon?
27:04
SPEAKER_00: So when I was putting together the Greece Post,
27:06
SPEAKER_00: there were some that I'd read and some that I hadn't read yet.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: And Zorba the Greek came up.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's a term that you hear all the time and that there's
27:15
SPEAKER_00: so many Greek restaurants with that name.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: And it's one of the most important books in their modern literature.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: And so it's something that for me would be really interesting to dive into,
27:24
SPEAKER_00: understand more about the Greek The Greek literary history.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: And also it's apparently about a man who has very outsized appetites.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Right.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: So this idea of the mind and the body and how they're at war with each other
27:36
SPEAKER_00: and pleasure versus control,
27:38
SPEAKER_00: which sounds just like a very interesting contrast as well.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: That is really interesting.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: And I think you made the perfect point because,
27:44
SPEAKER_02: of course,
27:45
SPEAKER_02: I've heard Zorba the Greek the same way we hear those,
27:47
SPEAKER_02: you know,
27:47
SPEAKER_02: Shakespearean lines like a pound of flesh,
27:50
SPEAKER_02: like you said, in restaurants and all kinds of things.
27:52
SPEAKER_02: And this is what I love about the Gilmore Girls Challenge is this is why I do I love
27:56
SPEAKER_02: that you picked this one.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: I haven't seen anyone pick this one yet in our challenge, so I love that.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: My second pick, which I'm going to try to do this month,
28:11
SPEAKER_02: Gigi by Colette.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: And this is another one.
28:13
SPEAKER_02: I love Emily Gilmore.
28:15
SPEAKER_02: She's the grandmother on Gilmore Girls.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: And she refers to Gigi in a different episode.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: And I also love that it's written by Colette because there's this Colette,
28:24
SPEAKER_02: I believe it's a biography,
28:26
SPEAKER_02: not So I just think that's another one where it'd be interesting to understand
28:34
SPEAKER_02: that reference and what it means in the show and how it all plays together.
28:37
SPEAKER_02: My understanding is both of those are really short.
28:39
SPEAKER_02: So I also love to find a few short books that I can knock out on our challenge.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: So that's why I picked that one.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I haven't heard of that book yet.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: I saw that you'd mentioned it and I was like, oh, I need to look that up.
28:51
SPEAKER_02: We did talk about 10 books.
28:52
SPEAKER_02: August is travel for many people.
28:54
SPEAKER_02: I haven't done my summer vacation yet.
28:56
SPEAKER_02: And if you are traveling or if you're not, it's still a good time to do armchair travel.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: I haven't done my trip yet either.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: My mom is turning 60 this year.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: We're taking her, actually my mother-in-law too.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: So we're taking them both to
29:08
SPEAKER_01: Europe to travel.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: And so they can't get PTO until September.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: So that's when we're going.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: But maybe that will be a better time to go.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: I think so.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: It's just, it seems like it's been so hot this year.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: And so just having it cool down a little bit, hopefully it's not quite as full.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: So I think it'll be a good time to go.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: Always good to go.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: We were really lucky because we went to Budapest in early June and it was really lovely.
29:31
SPEAKER_02: It was, I'd say probably 80.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's perfect.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: Mostly cool, but slightly hot.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: Before we go, you made a special sale for people who joined us today.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: Can you just repeat what that sale is for everyone?
29:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: So it is 60% off of subscriptions.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: So if you sign up for the annual membership,
29:48
SPEAKER_00: that's $20 a year, less than a price of a hardcover, less than $2 a month.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: It gets you access to paid posts.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: We had one come out yesterday matching
30:03
SPEAKER_00: We're also starting
30:06
SPEAKER_00: a paid only subscriber challenge for the fall.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: So lots of access to little bonuses like that.
30:12
SPEAKER_02: And I highly recommend your content.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: You've been an absolute joy to get to know over the past few months on
30:17
SPEAKER_02: the Substack platform.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: You too.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: We have so much fun chatting.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: We do.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: And whether you're traveling to Europe this summer or armchair traveling, happy travels.
30:27
SPEAKER_02: Happy travels indeed.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Take care.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Bye.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Bye.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for listening to Friday Night Readers.
30:35
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30:39
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30:41
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30:45
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31:22
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31:28
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