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Last Chance Summer Dance—End of Summer TBR Reveal! · Reality Writes

0:05
Ellie Alexander: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Writes.
0:09
Ellie Alexander: I am author Ellie Alexander.
0:11
Ellie Alexander: This is the podcast where we take you behind the scenes for all things writer-ish, bookish, and uh whatever else we're feeling.
0:17
Ellie Alexander: And I am here today with the tech guy.
0:20
Tech Guy: Hello, hello.
0:21
Tech Guy: Yeah, we were off uh for a week or so.
0:23
Tech Guy: Um, and things have gotten a little busy with some book launches coming up, which we're gonna talk about a little bit.
0:29
Tech Guy: But we decided this week we were going to make it a fun episode, and we're going to talk about the books that we are reading.
0:37
Tech Guy: What's coming up?
0:38
Tech Guy: What's in our TBR, right?
0:41
Ellie Alexander: Absolutely.
0:42
Ellie Alexander: I'm calling this episode the last chance summer dance.
0:45
Ellie Alexander: And this goes out to all of our Portland friends.
0:48
Ellie Alexander: If you grew up in Portland, Oregon in the late 80s, early 90s, they always had the last chance summer dance with the Portland Zoo.
0:57
Ellie Alexander: This was a radio station.
0:58
Ellie Alexander: And um, I kind of feel like that because now we are fully in October.
1:03
Ellie Alexander: Um, as we know, thanks to social media, even though it's August, fall is uh fully upon us.
1:10
Ellie Alexander: And I'm feeling that anyway because I have quite a few fall books coming out, which I'm excited about.
1:15
Ellie Alexander: But I wanted to share my last chance summer reading dance.
1:20
Ellie Alexander: Um, because I'm holding on to the last few weeks of summer before I fully embrace fall.
1:26
Tech Guy: Yeah, totally.
1:27
Tech Guy: And we've got some good ones.
1:30
Tech Guy: I I I took a peek at your stack.
1:32
Tech Guy: Uh there are some good ones in there.
1:34
Tech Guy: Uh, I have a few.
1:36
Tech Guy: One of them even has sprayed edges.
1:39
Ellie Alexander: Oh.
1:40
Tech Guy: Yeah.
1:42
Ellie Alexander: Leveling up, tech guy.
1:43
Ellie Alexander: I'm impressed.
1:45
Tech Guy: Definitely.
1:46
Tech Guy: Definitely.
1:47
Tech Guy: All right.
1:47
Tech Guy: So do you want to get right into it?
1:49
Ellie Alexander: Let's get right into it.
1:50
Ellie Alexander: Okay.
1:51
Ellie Alexander: Okay, I'm going to start with the last two reads, and this is sort of cheating, but I read both of these books so fast that I read each of them in a week, and I really enjoyed both of them for totally different reasons.
2:03
Ellie Alexander: Uh, so these are the last two books that I read.
2:06
Ellie Alexander: The first one is Dolly All the Time.
2:10
Ellie Alexander: And uh, what I love about this, especially with this theme of last uh chance summer dance, is this is set on the New England coastline in summer.
2:20
Ellie Alexander: It's a true romance.
2:21
Ellie Alexander: Um, so this is for any of you romance darlings out there.
2:25
Ellie Alexander: It's slightly spicy, but not very spicy, I would say.
2:28
Ellie Alexander: And um it involves sort of the trope of the islander who's lived there and worked at her dad's fish house for years, bumping into a rich, handsome, um, like basically heir of uh the fortune on the island.
2:47
Ellie Alexander: And he owns this stunning estate, and uh, she helps him change a flat tire because he has no idea, of course, how to change a flat tire.
2:55
Ellie Alexander: And they have a meat cute and it goes from there, but it has lots of nice depth.
2:59
Ellie Alexander: It was pure escapism.
3:01
Ellie Alexander: I think I read this in maybe one day.
3:05
Ellie Alexander: Um, I just breezed straight through it.
3:08
Ellie Alexander: It was so fun.
3:09
Ellie Alexander: Okay, so that was my last read.
3:10
Ellie Alexander: And then right after that, I picked up The Road to Tender Hearts, and this was a recommendation by a dear friend of mine.
3:17
Ellie Alexander: And I always think book recs from friends are the best way to read for me because usually my friends and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to reads.
3:28
Ellie Alexander: This is uh darker, this has dark humor.
3:31
Ellie Alexander: Uh, so if you're not in the mood, it's still very heartwarming.
3:35
Ellie Alexander: You see it in the title, The Road to Tender Heart.
3:37
Ellie Alexander: So it has an ultimately uplifting story about humanity and grief.
3:42
Ellie Alexander: But um, it's it's a bit denser, it's a bit heavier.
3:44
Ellie Alexander: It kind of reminds me a little bit of do you remember Little Miss Sunshine?
3:48
Ellie Alexander: We saw that movie together.
3:49
Tech Guy: Oh, yeah.
3:50
Tech Guy: That was a great movie.
3:51
Ellie Alexander: It was, yeah, it's kind of those vibes.
3:53
Ellie Alexander: It's quirky.
3:54
Ellie Alexander: Uh, like I said, it has this uh dark humor.
3:57
Ellie Alexander: But the the premise behind this one is that PJ is in his early 60s.
4:02
Ellie Alexander: He's a former lottery winner, but his oldest daughter, Kate, died in high school and he hasn't been able to get over his grief.
4:10
Ellie Alexander: And this cat pancakes stumbles into his life.
4:14
Ellie Alexander: And pancakes is a harbinger of death.
4:17
Ellie Alexander: Whoever's lap pancakes goes and sits on, that person ends up dying.
4:21
Ellie Alexander: And so there is a lot of death in this book because pancakes ends up going on a road trip with PJ and his two like semi-grandkids that he ends up um becoming responsible for.
4:34
Ellie Alexander: So it's this wacky road trip all the way to Arizona to try to get to the Tender Hearts Club.
4:40
Ellie Alexander: And I won't say anymore, but I loved this one as well.
4:44
Tech Guy: That is so funny.
4:45
Tech Guy: I I'm cracking up because I the story sounds amazing, but I had an eat shoots and leaves moment there for a second because you said his cat pancakes and it was his cat, pancakes.
5:00
Tech Guy: Because, for the darlings out there who don't know, back when Sky Guy was little, uh, he and I had this whole wrestling thing where he developed a move called the pancake.
5:11
Tech Guy: And we'd be wrestling around, and I would be on the floor, and he would suddenly leap up onto the couch and come flying off WWE style and just full-on belly flop right on me and called it the pancake.
5:28
Tech Guy: Uh, and just it was fun when he weighed like 20 pounds.
5:34
Tech Guy: When he got heavier, it started getting if he were to do it now, it would I would be in serious trouble.
5:41
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, you'd be in we'd be in the hospital.
5:43
Ellie Alexander: There would be broken bones, there would be, yeah.
5:45
Ellie Alexander: And you were so great.
5:46
Ellie Alexander: I would always be like, just say no.
5:48
Ellie Alexander: And you're like, no, it's okay.
5:50
Ellie Alexander: But he'd fly off the bed.
5:54
Tech Guy: It's his maniacal laughing.
5:56
Tech Guy: Yeah, totally.
5:57
Tech Guy: So anyway, when you said my cat pancakes, I was like, whoa, that cat is pancaking somebody because that's when the when you say pancakes, that's that's what I think of.
6:07
Ellie Alexander: So you think of it as a verb, not as a name.
6:10
Ellie Alexander: Definitely.
6:11
Tech Guy: Okay, definitely.
6:11
Ellie Alexander: Got it, got it.
6:12
Ellie Alexander: In the Road to Tender Hearts, it is a name.
6:15
Ellie Alexander: The name of the cat is Pancakes, and you actually don't want pancakes to come anywhere near you because it portends to bad things.
6:23
Tech Guy: Got it, got it.
6:24
Ellie Alexander: Okay, well so what did you read last?
6:27
Tech Guy: Well, my last my last two reads.
6:30
Tech Guy: Um, this is not going to surprise anyone, I guess, but uh was the first one was The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman.
6:42
Tech Guy: Uh this is book four, I believe, in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
6:48
Tech Guy: Um and it was great.
6:52
Tech Guy: I mean, it was great.
6:54
Tech Guy: Um the uh Carl and Princess Donut survive.
7:00
Tech Guy: So don't you know maybe I hopefully that's not a spoiler.
7:04
Tech Guy: Hopefully that's not a spoiler.
7:06
Tech Guy: Um I if you uh if you haven't heard Dungeon Crawler Carl is a great series, uh, and I'm kind of a fan.
7:15
Tech Guy: Uh so anyway, I I I enjoyed that one, but I don't have any Dungeon Crawler Carl books in my TBR right now because I have to take a break.
7:29
Tech Guy: I got to this point with the MurderBot series too, where I get worried when I know that there is, you know, uh an end to a series or potential end to a series where there's just a number of books that are out, and I don't want to run into that end, so I gotta kind of stretch it out.
7:48
Tech Guy: Um so I grabbed when we were at the library the other day, um, I I grabbed The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi.
8:00
Tech Guy: Um, this book is trippy.
8:04
Tech Guy: Uh I know.
8:05
Tech Guy: So this book I don't I don't I haven't read it.
8:08
Ellie Alexander: I just know from hearing you as you're reading in bed, like yeah.
8:13
Tech Guy: So uh as one might imagine, this book has to do with time travel.
8:17
Tech Guy: There's a husband and wife scientist team that uh invents a machine that allows you to time travel.
8:23
Tech Guy: The take on time travel in this book is a little bit different than most movies or other books that I've read, though.
8:29
Tech Guy: So it was very interesting.
8:30
Tech Guy: Um, as you can imagine, traveling through time has consequences.
8:36
Tech Guy: So um it is gut-wrenching and sad and shocking and scary.
8:46
Tech Guy: Um I I I enjoyed it and I read it pretty fast, and I'm not a super fast reader, so that was um that was that was really good.
8:56
Tech Guy: I and I should mention before we get into this, I will include the names and links to all of the books that we're talking about here in the show notes.
9:04
Tech Guy: Um, so be sure to check those out if any of these sound interesting to you.
9:09
Ellie Alexander: Oh, yeah, I'm glad you're gonna do that because I didn't even say author's names.
9:12
Ellie Alexander: I just said I'm like, oh, and then this book and then this book.
9:14
Ellie Alexander: So good.
9:15
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, let's do that.
9:16
Tech Guy: Yeah.
9:17
Ellie Alexander: Uh one thing I was gonna add is we both love a library visit too.
9:22
Ellie Alexander: So we have library cards to multiple libraries in California.
9:25
Ellie Alexander: So not only will we do indie bookstore visits, but we will also do library visits.
9:31
Ellie Alexander: And I did read back to back the two new Rhys Bowen and Her Royal Spyness because they were on a lucky day.
9:38
Ellie Alexander: So before I read those two, I also consumed my quick library books.
9:42
Ellie Alexander: Plus, we hit the library book sale.
9:44
Tech Guy: Yeah.
9:44
Tech Guy: So many.
9:45
Tech Guy: Oh, I know.
9:46
Tech Guy: Yeah.
9:47
Tech Guy: We we need a new bookcase.
9:49
Ellie Alexander: We do.
9:50
Ellie Alexander: We just need our entire house to be bookshelves, really, ultimately.
9:53
Ellie Alexander: Okay, now we're gonna move on to what we are currently reading.
9:57
Ellie Alexander: Okay.
9:57
Ellie Alexander: And I picked this one up at Beach Books, If Books Could Kill by Kate Eberly.
10:03
Ellie Alexander: And uh it was on an end cap at Beach Books when we were there a couple weeks ago.
10:09
Ellie Alexander: And what I love about an indie bookstore, and Beach Books does this so well, is they'll have little cards on the shelf and recommendations from the booksellers.
10:18
Ellie Alexander: So this one was on their recommended list, and I knew I needed it immediately because the premise is that um our protagonist is sort of forlorn.
10:30
Ellie Alexander: So this is a mystery meets a rom com.
10:32
Ellie Alexander: And uh she has this sort of like you know, the movie Big, she has this encounter with this semi-mystic person on the street, and she wishes out loud that she could be the heroine in her favorite author's new book.
10:50
Ellie Alexander: And so pixie dust is spread.
10:52
Ellie Alexander: She wakes up the next day, she has this incredible meat cute with this dashing young man who asks her out on a date.
11:01
Ellie Alexander: But then she checks her favorite author's social media and realizes that this best-selling romance author is actually writing a thriller.
11:12
Ellie Alexander: And so her meat cute wants to kill her.
11:15
Tech Guy: Oh, whoa, what a twist.
11:17
Ellie Alexander: Such a good premise, right?
11:19
Ellie Alexander: I'm only five chapters in, but I'm already loving it.
11:22
Ellie Alexander: Um, and I can tell that there's going to be another romance in addition to her actually trying to survive being tossed into a thriller.
11:30
Ellie Alexander: So I can't wait.
11:32
Tech Guy: That's great.
11:33
Tech Guy: That is awesome.
11:34
Tech Guy: Are are we going back and forth?
11:36
Tech Guy: Are we taking turns?
11:37
Tech Guy: Yeah, yeah.
11:37
Tech Guy: Yeah.
11:38
Tech Guy: Current.
11:38
Ellie Alexander: What what's your current read?
11:40
Tech Guy: Okay.
11:40
Ellie Alexander: Uh what's on your bedside table right now, sir?
11:45
Tech Guy: So I'm laughing because I said that I was taking a break from Dungeon Crawler Carl.
11:53
Tech Guy: But the at the top of my TBR stack is Operation Bounce House by none other than Matt Dinniman.
12:01
Tech Guy: Uh, so this is not part of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, but it is uh um by Matt.
12:09
Tech Guy: And um because I have not started reading it yet, I'm gonna read you the backcover copy.
12:15
Ellie Alexander: Okay, perfect.
12:15
Ellie Alexander: As a series writer, I and someone who has always written multiple series since I started my career.
12:21
Ellie Alexander: I love it that if you have an author who you enjoy their writing, it makes sense to try something else that they've written too.
12:28
Ellie Alexander: Oh, definitely.
12:28
Ellie Alexander: Um, oh, is this world as immersive?
12:31
Ellie Alexander: Is his voice the same?
12:32
Ellie Alexander: Like all those things.
12:33
Ellie Alexander: So I'll be eager to hear what you think about this one.
12:35
Ellie Alexander: But yeah, give us, hit us up with the back cover copy.
12:38
Tech Guy: Yeah.
12:39
Tech Guy: So um one thing you should know about Matt, uh he doesn't stray too far from the dungeon.
12:47
Tech Guy: Um, so he liked the dungeon.
12:49
Tech Guy: The the gaming slash dungeon thing.
12:52
Tech Guy: So what happens when you become your planet's final boss?
12:56
Tech Guy: Uh all colonist Oliver Lewis ever wanted to do was run the family ranch with his sister, maybe play a gig or two with his band, and keep his family's aging fleet of intelligent agricultural bots ticking as long as possible.
13:12
Tech Guy: He figures it will be a good thing when the transfer gate finally opens all the way and restores instant travel and full communication between Earth and his planet, new Sonora.
13:23
Tech Guy: But there's a complication.
13:24
Tech Guy: Even though the settlers were promised they'd be left in peace, Earth's government now has other plans.
13:31
Tech Guy: The colossal Apex Industries is hired to commence an eviction action.
13:37
Tech Guy: Yeah.
13:38
Ellie Alexander: Sounds familiar.
13:39
Ellie Alexander: Huh?
13:39
Tech Guy: It's always a big corporations, man.
13:41
Tech Guy: I tell you.
13:42
Tech Guy: Yeah, yeah.
13:43
Tech Guy: Um, but maximizing profits will always be Apex's number one priority.
13:49
Tech Guy: Why spend money printing and deploying AI soldiers when they can turn it into a game?
13:54
Tech Guy: Why not charge bored earthers for the opportunity to design to design their own war machines and remotely pilot them from the comfort of their homes?
14:03
Tech Guy: This is probably not very far off, honestly.
14:06
Ellie Alexander: I know, that's what I was gonna say.
14:07
Ellie Alexander: This one feels I don't know if I could read this.
14:09
Ellie Alexander: It feels way too close to home right now.
14:12
Tech Guy: The game is called Operation Bounce House.
14:14
Tech Guy: Oliver and his friends soon find themselves fighting for their lives against machines piloted by gamers who've paid a premium for the privilege with the help of an old book from his grandfather and a bucket of rusty parts.
14:25
Tech Guy: Oliver is determined to defend the only home he's ever known.
14:30
Ellie Alexander: Ooh, I mean that sounds great, but it does seem very of the moment, shall we say?
14:37
Tech Guy: Totally.
14:37
Tech Guy: Yeah, yeah.
14:39
Tech Guy: I'm excited for that one.
14:40
Tech Guy: That that should be fun and a little frightening, which is my sweet spot.
14:45
Ellie Alexander: Right.
14:46
Ellie Alexander: Oh, I was gonna say for all the darlings listening too, in true Matt fashion, this one is hefty.
14:51
Tech Guy: Uh it's not it's not that bad.
14:53
Ellie Alexander: That's I'd say, yeah, it's I'm gonna say a minimum of three and a half inches, maybe four.
14:59
Tech Guy: It's four four thirty-seven.
15:02
Ellie Alexander: Okay.
15:02
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
15:03
Tech Guy: It's not bad.
15:04
Tech Guy: For the darlings out there who don't know, I am not the fastest reader in the world.
15:08
Tech Guy: Uh, so this may take a while.
15:12
Tech Guy: I don't know.
15:14
Tech Guy: It might not.
15:15
Tech Guy: Who knows?
15:16
Tech Guy: Who knows?
15:18
Ellie Alexander: We were uh at book club last night, my mysteries and mocktails here in Sunnyvale at my local indie store Leigh's Books, and a couple readers were talking about how they do audio at like 1.9 speed.
15:28
Ellie Alexander: Where I was like, I think I'd just be like, so maybe you should do that.
15:33
Tech Guy: Well, I know I know a lot of people do that, but I I always wonder it it changes the the tone and pitch of a voice so much that that would be that'd be really weird to me.
15:44
Tech Guy: No, but hey, whatever works for people as long as you're consuming books, go for it.
15:50
Tech Guy: Right.
15:50
Tech Guy: Write it on.
15:51
Ellie Alexander: No, and the book that we read last night was YA from a teen's perspective.
15:54
Ellie Alexander: So we were all saying, oh, if there's any book to do that with, that feels spot on for teenage energy.
16:00
Ellie Alexander: What is left on our last chance summer dance reading stack?
16:06
Ellie Alexander: I'll do my next one first.
16:07
Ellie Alexander: And for me, this is a nostalgia read.
16:11
Ellie Alexander: I have been craving some Kinsey Millhone in my life.
16:16
Ellie Alexander: So I'm gonna reread A Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton, one of my favorite all-time series, darlings.
16:23
Ellie Alexander: I know many of you are familiar with this.
16:25
Ellie Alexander: If you aren't, I cannot recommend it enough.
16:28
Ellie Alexander: Sue was brilliant, and then she set this series in the 80s and left it there.
16:33
Ellie Alexander: So Kinsey's a private eye.
16:35
Ellie Alexander: These are cozy adjacent.
16:36
Ellie Alexander: I would say they're more like a traditional mystery.
16:38
Ellie Alexander: They're a little bit grittier because she is a PI, but I don't know how you couldn't love her.
16:43
Ellie Alexander: I just I love everything about this series.
16:46
Ellie Alexander: And one of the reasons that I am doing a reread and I went and scored a new physical copy is because I am making sure that I'm rebuilding my library of books that I have loved.
17:00
Ellie Alexander: Um, because I tend to lend books out and I will often say to people, like, no, just keep it or pass it on.
17:05
Ellie Alexander: Um, but I'm not doing that so much anymore, especially if it's an author like this that I adore.
17:11
Ellie Alexander: I'm I'm gonna rebuild my entire collection of Miss Sue Grafton, who sadly died before she got to the last letter of the alphabet.
17:20
Tech Guy: Yeah.
17:21
Ellie Alexander: Um back to But I haven't read these for like 10 years, so I can't wait to just be back in that world again.
17:27
Tech Guy: And I just bought a Blu-ray DVD player for the very same reason.
17:31
Tech Guy: Because I got the I got the okay to rebuild our physical media collection.
17:37
Ellie Alexander: Oh no, damn it.
17:38
Ellie Alexander: We had so many back in the day.
17:41
Ellie Alexander: It'll be fun, it'll be a fun project.
17:44
Tech Guy: Where's Columbia House when I need them?
17:46
Ellie Alexander: Right.
17:48
Tech Guy: The Holderness family knows what I'm talking about.
17:51
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
17:51
Tech Guy: Um okay.
17:52
Tech Guy: Next up on my stack.
17:54
Tech Guy: Well, first we were a few weeks back, we were in Seaside, Oregon, and we stopped by Beach Books.
18:00
Tech Guy: And Alexa there, of course, immediately grabs me and is like, here, and pointed to like three books that I needed to get, which I absolutely love, and and then stuck in a couple more when they shipped them to us because we were flying back.
18:18
Tech Guy: This is not gonna surprise everybody, but uh this is this is not Dungeon Crawler Carl, but it is a dungeon book, and it's called The Only Way Out Is Up uh by Django Wexler.
18:37
Tech Guy: Again, I have not read this, but so I'm gonna read the back cover copy.
18:41
Tech Guy: Um it sounds very cool.
18:44
Tech Guy: A small time scrapper and his pet robot will fight their way out of the junk heap in a tournament that will either make them richer than gods or rip them apart in the first book of Django Wexler's brand new tower climbing robot fighting progression fantasy adventure.
19:01
Ellie Alexander: That's a mouthful.
19:02
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
19:02
Tech Guy: For fans of Cradle and Dungeon Crawler Carl.
19:07
Tech Guy: Uh Taj lives in a junk heap, scavenging scrap to keep his family fed and dodging the monsters who live among the wreckage.
19:15
Tech Guy: His only edge is a smart ass construct named Star he built himself.
19:20
Tech Guy: Taj dreams of winning big with Star in the construct fighting circuits, but victory always seems just beyond his reach, and the debt collectors are at the door.
19:31
Tech Guy: His world changes forever when someone there makes him an offer that seems too good to be true, a chance to fight in the ascent, the ultimate fighting tournament for a prize beyond its wildest fantasies.
19:43
Tech Guy: But things that seem too good to be true usually are, and Taj finds his new benefactor comes with plenty of new enemies.
19:51
Tech Guy: As he ventures beyond the only world he's ever known, his discover he discovers it's not just his money on the line in the ascent, it's his life.
20:02
Ellie Alexander: That sounds good too.
20:04
Tech Guy: Yeah.
20:04
Ellie Alexander: That sounds um very adjacent to Carl.
20:08
Tech Guy: So yeah.
20:09
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, I like it.
20:12
Tech Guy: And this one is it's only it comes in at 359.
20:17
Ellie Alexander: Oh, you'll do that in a day.
20:19
Tech Guy: No problem.
20:19
Tech Guy: No problem.
20:20
Ellie Alexander: No problem.
20:20
Ellie Alexander: No problem.
20:22
Ellie Alexander: Okay, next up on my stack is an auto buy author for me.
20:27
Ellie Alexander: This is The Examiner by Janice Hallett.
20:30
Ellie Alexander: I love everything she writes.
20:32
Ellie Alexander: She tends to write epistolary novels.
20:35
Ellie Alexander: Um, so letters, emails.
20:37
Ellie Alexander: Uh, they're usually set in quaint English villages, and it's a lot of drama and mystery and murder over, you know, a local play.
20:45
Ellie Alexander: Um, I have not read this one yet because it just came out in paperback a while ago.
20:51
Ellie Alexander: So I too will redo the back cover.
20:53
Ellie Alexander: It says, Can you pass the test?
20:55
Ellie Alexander: University professor Gayla Nathanson must make her new master's program, Multimedia Art, succeed.
21:03
Ellie Alexander: If it doesn't, then Royal Hastings University will cut her funding and she'll be out of a job.
21:08
Ellie Alexander: Unfortunately, the six students she selects aren't making it easy.
21:13
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, I bet they aren't.
21:14
Ellie Alexander: The students include a talented young sculptor who's determined to graduate with top grades, a former gallery owner with limited artistic skills.
21:23
Ellie Alexander: I love that, a single mother more interested in a paycheck than homework, a people pleaser who struggles with technology.
21:30
Ellie Alexander: That could be me.
21:32
Ellie Alexander: Uh, a marketing executive suffering from I mean, right?
21:35
Ellie Alexander: It could be me.
21:36
Ellie Alexander: I don't know.
21:37
Ellie Alexander: A marketing executive suffering from burnout, that could be you.
21:41
Ellie Alexander: And I mean, this might be a book written about us, I'm feeling it.
21:45
Ellie Alexander: And a successful artist who seems rather overqualified for the program.
21:50
Ellie Alexander: Not to mention, when the examiner arrives to grade the student's final project, he becomes convinced that in that class he becomes.
21:59
Ellie Alexander: Convinced that someone in that class is in mortal danger or already dead.
22:05
Ellie Alexander: Seriously.
22:08
Ellie Alexander: Okay, the examiner.
22:10
Ellie Alexander: I can't wait.
22:10
Ellie Alexander: Um, I also know that I will breeze through this just because of the way you can't see this if you're only listening, darlings.
22:17
Ellie Alexander: Um, but all of her books are formatted.
22:19
Ellie Alexander: So if it's an email, it looks like an email message or text bubbles.
22:23
Ellie Alexander: Um, so I read them in just a couple hours because A, she's such a good writer that you're just addicted to the story.
22:30
Ellie Alexander: And B, the formatting makes it that much easier.
22:33
Tech Guy: Narrow margins.
22:34
Ellie Alexander: Narrow margins.
22:35
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
22:36
Tech Guy: Yeah.
22:36
Tech Guy: All right.
22:38
Tech Guy: Um, I forgot at the beginning to set up a joke.
22:43
Tech Guy: So it's kind of wasted now.
22:45
Tech Guy: But I so I as I've mentioned here on Reality Writes , I joined a book club through work.
22:51
Tech Guy: My the my former team, who I still sit with in in the office, um, when anybody's actually there, uh we started a book club.
22:59
Tech Guy: And so I was gonna say, like, this is my TVR.
23:03
Tech Guy: Guess which book is for my book club versus the ones I've chosen.
23:07
Tech Guy: So without further ado, the next book in my list is uh see if I get my camera there we go.
23:14
Tech Guy: Rock, paper, scissors by Alice Feeney.
23:17
Tech Guy: And I know Alice Feeney is a favorite of yours.
23:20
Tech Guy: I love her, which is interesting because we don't always read the same books.
23:25
Tech Guy: I mean, there is some crossover, but our Venn diagram is like a little, little like sliver of a moon in the in the middle between the circles there.
23:33
Tech Guy: So, but this one, this one does sound interesting.
23:36
Tech Guy: Think you know the person you married?
23:38
Tech Guy: Think again.
23:39
Tech Guy: Trust me, darling.
23:40
Tech Guy: I I think again all the time.
23:43
Ellie Alexander: Think about that every day.
23:44
Tech Guy: Yeah, things have been wrong with Mr.
23:46
Tech Guy: and Mrs.
23:47
Tech Guy: Wright, W-R-I-G-H-T.
23:50
Tech Guy: Ha ha for a long time.
23:52
Tech Guy: Every anniversary there, the couple exchange traditional gifts, and Adam's wife writes him a letter she never lets him read until now.
24:01
Tech Guy: Self-confessed workaholic Adam Wright has face blindness.
24:07
Tech Guy: He can't even recognize his own wife, and Amelia is sick of feeling unseen.
24:12
Tech Guy: When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs.
24:18
Tech Guy: This weekend may make or break their marriage, but they didn't randomly win this trip.
24:23
Tech Guy: One of them is lying, and someone doesn't want them to live happily ever after.
24:30
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
24:31
Ellie Alexander: Let's go.
24:32
Ellie Alexander: Uh, you're gonna love it.
24:33
Ellie Alexander: I haven't read this one.
24:34
Ellie Alexander: I've read so much of her stuff, but she is the queen of thrillers and just the twist that you don't see coming, and you're gonna stay up, I guarantee, all night needing to read because you'll just be like, wait, what?
24:46
Ellie Alexander: And then yeah.
24:47
Tech Guy: No, so there's no dungeon involved in this one.
24:50
Tech Guy: No, um, but it sounds good.
24:51
Tech Guy: But somebody is competing in a comp or like won a prize, so I guess there's like there's that, but it does sound good.
24:59
Tech Guy: Sounds really good.
25:01
Ellie Alexander: Your own brand right now.
25:02
Ellie Alexander: I feel I feel solid about all of these.
25:04
Ellie Alexander: Okay, last up in my TBR stack for my last chance, sum a dance, is a book called Behind Every Face by Charlie Donlea.
25:15
Ellie Alexander: I haven't read Charlie, and you mentioned the fact that indie bookstores like Beach Books will often tuck in little bonus surprises.
25:22
Ellie Alexander: So this is um an advanced reader copy that they sent me.
25:26
Ellie Alexander: And I can't wait because this sounds very spy thriller-ish, which is kind of the vibe that I've been in.
25:32
Ellie Alexander: The back cover looks like an FBI like redacted file, and there's an actual photo of a driver's license.
25:39
Ellie Alexander: Okay, so I'll read you this one.
25:41
Ellie Alexander: There's no such thing as a safe place for a woman with a secret powerful enough to destroy the world's most untouchable figures.
25:49
Ellie Alexander: I feel like this could be where our Venn diagram meets too.
25:53
Ellie Alexander: We might have to share this one.
25:54
Ellie Alexander: Emergency witness secure program, WITSEC referral, approved identity reassignment, assignment packet, and then it lists the client's full name, their current address, and then a section two, which is you are required to relocate within 72 hours of receiving this packet.
26:16
Ellie Alexander: You are prohibited from returning to your former state of residence.
26:20
Ellie Alexander: All prior financial records, digital profiles, and personal records are to be abandoned immediately.
26:26
Ellie Alexander: And that's all we know.
26:28
Tech Guy: Wow.
26:29
Ellie Alexander: Right?
26:30
Ellie Alexander: I am so curious to dive into this one.
26:34
Ellie Alexander: So I will report back and I might be sharing it with you.
26:37
Tech Guy: Nice.
26:37
Tech Guy: Yeah, no, that sounds very interesting.
26:40
Tech Guy: Okay.
26:41
Tech Guy: Are you ready?
26:43
Ellie Alexander: Ready.
26:43
Ellie Alexander: Last but not least.
26:45
Tech Guy: Okay, so this was another Alexa recommendation from Beach Books, and I had to get it.
26:51
Tech Guy: It's book one in a series.
26:53
Tech Guy: Okay.
26:54
Tech Guy: And it is called He Who Fights with Monsters by Travis Deverell.
27:00
Tech Guy: Uh, and this is exciting, hilarious, irreverent, and action-packed, according to Matt Dinniman.
27:10
Ellie Alexander: Oh my god, I never would have seen this coming.
27:12
Ellie Alexander: What a plot twist, darlings.
27:14
Ellie Alexander: What a plot twist.
27:15
Ellie Alexander: Can I also just interject what I find fascinating about all of these like sci-fi gamey fantasy books that are your jam and are so popular right now, is it does remind me of the cozy.
27:28
Ellie Alexander: Like all of these covers, you can you know exactly what that is based on the cover design, which is fabulous.
27:34
Tech Guy: Yeah, it's it is this this one is right up my alley.
27:38
Tech Guy: Um, so this one, Jason wakes up in a mysterious world of magic and monsters.
27:44
Tech Guy: It's not easy making the career jump from office supplies store, middle manager, to heroic interdimensional adventurer.
27:51
Tech Guy: At least Jason tries to be heroic, but it's hard to be good when all your powers are evil.
27:58
Tech Guy: He'll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters, and that's just on the first day.
28:05
Tech Guy: He's going to need courage, he's going to need wit, and he's going to need some magic powers of his own.
28:12
Tech Guy: But first, he's going to need pants.
28:17
Ellie Alexander: Nice.
28:18
Ellie Alexander: And uh this this one has sprayed edges, right?
28:22
Tech Guy: This one has sprayed edges, they're all yellow, so it's just they're just yellow, uh, which kind of goes, which it goes with the the title of the book.
28:31
Tech Guy: Um, but uh this one, just like a Matt Dinniman Dungeon Crawler Carl entry, it weighs in at a hefty 755 pages.
28:44
Ellie Alexander: Damn.
28:45
Tech Guy: So this one's this one's gonna take a while, I think.
28:47
Tech Guy: I don't know, it could be really good.
28:48
Tech Guy: So maybe I'll breeze through it.
28:50
Tech Guy: I don't, I don't think I'd ever breeze through a 755-page book of anything, honestly.
28:55
Tech Guy: I mean, even Star Wars.
28:57
Tech Guy: So, but I'm excited.
28:59
Tech Guy: It's it comes highly recommended.
29:01
Tech Guy: And I mean, if Matt Dinniman says it's good, that's good enough for me.
29:05
Ellie Alexander: It's gotta be good.
29:06
Tech Guy: Yeah.
29:07
Ellie Alexander: All right, darlings.
29:08
Ellie Alexander: Well, we want to hear from you.
29:09
Ellie Alexander: Have you read any of these on our stack?
29:11
Ellie Alexander: What is on your last chance summer dance stack?
29:15
Ellie Alexander: Or are you already fully into fall?
29:18
Tech Guy: Yeah, that's right.
29:18
Tech Guy: Happy October.
29:21
Ellie Alexander: Happy October.
29:22
Ellie Alexander: And let me end before we say goodbye with two fall reads to tempt you that are coming out.
29:29
Ellie Alexander: First, we have a fall to remember by what?
29:33
Ellie Alexander: Who is this?
29:34
Ellie Alexander: Ellie Alexander.
29:35
Ellie Alexander: And check out those sprayed edges.
29:38
Ellie Alexander: This is a first for me.
29:39
Ellie Alexander: It's my first book that has ever had sprayed edges and they're beautiful fall leaves.
29:44
Ellie Alexander: This is my cozy fall rom-com.
29:46
Ellie Alexander: It's written from four different points of view and has interwoven stories.
29:52
Ellie Alexander: It's kind of like, I don't know, a modern when Harry met Sally kind of vibe.
29:57
Ellie Alexander: It's not spicy and no murder.
30:00
Ellie Alexander: Okay.
30:01
Ellie Alexander: No murder.
30:03
Ellie Alexander: Don't come at me.
30:05
Ellie Alexander: It's a rom-com.
30:06
Ellie Alexander: It's a rom-com.
30:07
Ellie Alexander: Don't kill me because there's no body.
30:09
Ellie Alexander: But if you want a body, then stay tuned for the Pumpkin Vice Cafe, also by Ellie Alexander.
30:16
Ellie Alexander: This is book 23 in the Bake Shop Mysteries, and this comes out at the end of September.
30:22
Ellie Alexander: And um, it's all the fall-autumn vibes.
30:25
Ellie Alexander: There's a lot of baking going on, there's a lot of pumpkins, um, and there's a big change in store for Juliet.
30:33
Ellie Alexander: That's what I will say.
30:34
Ellie Alexander: And yes, there's a body.
30:37
Tech Guy: Yes, there is a body.
30:38
Tech Guy: And speaking of baking, if you haven't been following along, be sure to check out Ellie's social media channels because she's been doing a bake-along with one recipe from every book in the Bake Shop Mystery Series, all the way up to book 23 when it releases at the end of September.
30:58
Ellie Alexander: So much baking and so many sweets in our house.
31:02
Ellie Alexander: We're ready to be done with that project.
31:06
Tech Guy: All right.
31:06
Tech Guy: So without further ado, I think we'll wrap it up.
31:10
Tech Guy: But yes, darlings, definitely let us know what you're reading, what you have read.
31:13
Tech Guy: If you've read any of the books that we're about to read in our TBR stack, let us know what you thought and use that send us a message link in the show notes.
31:20
Tech Guy: Be sure to check out the show notes for all the names, authors, and links to the books that we talked about today on Reality Writes.
31:27
Tech Guy: Until next time.
31:28
Ellie Alexander: Till next time.