The Book Drop: Reading Challenge – Read a Love Story

Happy Valentine’s Day. In this episode of The Book Drop, Amy and Maggie are joined by Grace Trembath, recently selected as Assistant Branch Manager for the Central Library team, for a conversation on love stories!

This episode is your companion for the Reading Challenge theme to read a love story. OPL’s Reading Challenge is an annual program designed to push outside of your reading comfort zone.

The Book Drop: Reading Challenge - Read a Love Story

Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the original intent of the conversation. It is provided to improve accessibility and may not be a strictly verbatim record of the audio.

Transcript

Maggie: Fun, fun, fun fact for you. Did you ever see scamper doing the Apple dance on our Tiktok channel?

Grace: I think I did.

Maggie: That's me.

Grace: Of course it is.

Maggie: And it was my idea. I went up to Margie our social media manager and was like, if I can do the Apple dance in the costume and

Amy: You and scamper are BFFs.

Maggie: Well, and what cracked me up with the costume was like,

Grace: It's not a costume. It's truly Scamper.

Maggie: Yeah, it's a second skin.

[Music and Introduction]

Amy: And we're so excited because we have a guest.

Maggie: We have a guest, and you guys are bullying me by wearing sweatshirts, and I am not wearing one today. And I feel a little bad about it.

Amy: And I really, actually want the color of this sweatshirt.

Maggie: I do too. Yeah, my husband got that one. Hey. Hey, uh, special guest. Do you want to introduce yourself? Who are you? How did you get in here?

Grace: Hi. Um, I came in through the door. Um, I don't know why they let me in. My name is Grace Trembath, and I'm an assistant branch manager. And I will be at the new central library.

Group: Yay! Yay!

Amy: Oh, my gosh, it's so exciting.

Gracie: It's so close. I'm very excited.

Amy: We're getting ready to pack up our building and move over.

Maggie: Well, I was gonna say for Grace coming on here. This is a long and winding road. Because we wanted you to come on last year, and the the scheduling didn't work out. And so when we approached you about this episode, uh, which, spoiler alert, this episode is dedicated to the reading challenge. If you forgot, Amy and I are reading the challenges out of order this year because we're putting in the reading challenge where we think they make the most sense.

Amy: That's true. We're podcast bosses.

Maggie: And we just kind of do what we want. And no one's told us, stop doing that yet.

Amy: We’re feral.

Grace: We did talk about you biting people earlier.

Amy: It's true, Grace. Yes.

Maggie: Amy possibly bit a teacher when she was a child.

Amy: I think I did. I tore up some books. And look where I'm at now. They love me in this library.

Maggie: Well, anyway, last year we wanted to do a Bridgerton episode. Grace jumped immediately. It was like, yes, yes, yes, please let me come on. And then we couldn't get, like, when we needed to record. We couldn't get like the timing for schedules worked out and we're like, oh God, we'll come back around. Well, this year, Grace, you submitted for this reading challenge, which was a love story. And what did what did you think to yourself, though, when our producer reached out to you about being on?

Grace: I thought, oh my God, they want me on the podcast. Do they want me to talk about Do Space? Oh, wait, it's about a love story. I wonder if they remember that I put my name in for that Bridgerton episode like a year or two ago. Oh wait, I submitted that reading challenge prompt, was very confused and then looked at it and went, okay, now I do remember that.

Amy: So was it two years ago that you submitted the prompt?

Grace: Oh no. It should have been in the past year. Oh, okay. I went I opened up the spreadsheet. It was May of last year. Okay. So it's been basically two years ago

Amy: In our lifetime that was two years ago, for sure.

Grace: With all the change we've been having, I think just two years.

Maggie: I just love this, though, that we're two for two then for our reading challenge guests when they find out that we want them on, they go, ‘did I do that?’

Amy: I know it's kind of it's hilarious,

Maggie: But I love every time. Did I do that? I mean, it sounds like me, but.

Amy: Well, I'm glad it's not completely off for them when they're like, no, that wasn't me.

Maggie: They're like, and I don't know who that person was who submitted it. Because you like, you like romance and love stories.

Grace: I do love romance and love stories for reading. I am a big historical romance story. I am a huge-so when you said Bridgerton, I said, immediately. I've read all of them. I've read a lot of different authors. I love to talk about it, and it's not something that I feel like comes up often in readers advisory conversations at branches. So I was like, if I can talk to anyone about this, I would be thrilled.

Maggie: So on that note, we have to discuss Bridgerton season four is out. Have you watched?

Grace: Yes I have, and I made my boyfriend watch all four with me. He was pretty happy. He enjoys Bridgerton. He does hold that season two was the best season.

Maggie: Yes. Cheers. Absolutely I agree. Wait. You tell me, what are your ranking for the seasons?

Grace: Okay, I do, I gotta say, I love Kate and Anthony. I do love Kate and Anthony. I would probably say okay. Two, one, three, personally. Two being the best without seeing the rest of season four. I am very much enjoying season four. Okay, I know one of the common criticisms I see of Bridgerton is that it's too much focus on all the other stories going on,

Maggie: They've started to build out a lot more.

Grace: They have built out a lot more, and it's been a little more like just drama or almost soap opera. I have been enjoying it though, and I really like the, um, the Violet, the matriarch of the bridge. Her storyline. Being like a mature love as opposed to all of her children. Has been enjoyable.

Amy: So, did you read the books before you started watching?

Grace: No. So season one came out. I watched it because I was seeing so much buzz about it, and I was like, okay, I need to go. I need to go watch this. Um, I was kind of like, I might like it might not, might not, uh, really enjoyed it. Loved. It was like, okay, I, the books are on Libby. Let me try this and see. So I actually I watched season one, which is Daphne and Simon's story, and then I went and read Kate and Anthony's story, which is a second book. And the second season, um, immediately fell in love and binged it. And I also think it was at a time in my life that was like very stressful. I was doing AmeriCorps, which is a service program. And so I was going all around the country and leading this team of like ten to twelve young people. Um, it was very chaotic. And so it was very nice to be like, okay, now I'm going to go to my little Regency England, happy world where I know there's going to be my little escape. I know there's going to be a happy ending at the end, and it's just kind of fun to think about different people, different times, that sort of thing.

So that really was my gateway. I tell my mom she loves Hallmark movies, and I always made fun of her growing up for it. And like, she pulled up the Hallmark Christmas movies. She pulled up the Hallmark Christmas, and she said, I've seen this one and this one and this one and this one and this one. And I was like, wow, this is a lot. I made fun of her all the time for growing up.

And I had the realization like a year or two ago that I went, oh, these are my Hallmark movies to a certain extent. I know there is going to be a happy ending. This is my escape.

Maggie: Nancy, you should do a nerd night about Hallmark movies.

Grace: I would love that. I would,

Amy: And should we say who Nancy is to our guests?

Maggie: How do you feel if we reveal your connection?

Grace: Absolutely

Maggie: You might remember, I'm gonna call her fan favorite because she's our fan favorite. She's Nancy. Nancy Novotny, our programming manager is Grace's mom. And they are a deadly duo here at the library. Getting work done. I love that analogy though, because, they are, I see the thread of it's like, oh yeah, this is the modern era Hallmark movie a little bit, but it is like, you know what you're getting, you know, everyone's gonna end up with a happy ending. Maybe not yet, you know, but it's like everything is guaranteed. So the other thing to remember, too, with the Bridgerton novels, if you're not familiar, there's seven, seven kids?

Grace: There's eight, eight kids. Eight kids.

Maggie: So every novel follows. One of the kids love stories. And so we're going to get one for every single one of the kids. At least eight seasons. We've got four more seasons. Okay. Well, in theory, it seems like now they've started rapidly combining because Francesca, it seems like is maybe not going to get an entirely dedicated season, that it's possibly like split between now. Or do you think she's gonna have it? She will.

Grace: I think she will. The way her love story is set up in the books, I they had to have set up

Maggie: because she really has a second act. She has a second.

Grace: She has a second love essentially. That's her kind of defining story. And so they've confirmed seasons five and six are for sure happening. So the theories are like it's going to be Eloise and Francesca. Theories like which who's gonna come first? I'm hoping for Eloise for five and then Francesca for six.

Amy: So are there still Bridgerton like events and balls and costume? Because when it first came out, there was all the rage. Is that still happening? What's the word on the street?

Maggie: I don't I don't hear about them as much. But the the new season just dropped and that could reignite a little bit of a craze. Um, there's also, uh, in the Bridgerton world, they had the offshoot of the Queen story, Queen Charlotte, but I think that's just going to be a one off. I haven't heard of them doing a second series, but I also think they tied that one up really nicely of just like you get this, this peek of their the early years of their marriage and like this is kind of all you get. Yeah.

Amy: But all right I think I might watch it I think you should.

Maggie: I do have to warn you, when I decided to start watching it and I heard it was like, oh, yeah, it's like really hot and like, hot Jane Austen. And I was like, okay, great. I have a giant window in my living room and my TV faces the window. And the first time I got the hot scene, oh, it's that kind of, oh my God. And I had to get up. And I closed my curtains real quick because I was a little worried if someone was walking by. Graphically spicy.

Grace: You will see butt cheeks.

Maggie: You will see other bits. Adult content warning. Close your curtains. If you're watching with the television facing the street,

Amy: Which I want to hear about spicy books later.

Maggie: I recommended a book to you that had some some spicy bits. Yes. Oh. I'm gonna. Well. Spoiler. I'm gonna I'm gonna cue this up, and I'll tell you when we get to the book. What? Courtney and I are marketing manager who's been out to talk about cozy. Um, what? Courtney and I rated this particular book for spice, when we talked.

Amy: Do you rate books for spice in your own head?

Grace: Very roughly. I'm not super adamant about it, though.

Maggie: I'm gonna do it if prompted. If somebody's just like, well, like, what's the spice level? Especially if there's somebody. But all of it too is also dependent on the person. Like, I think what I gave you, if it was somebody who had never done a spicy book and maybe they're a little more like, oh, that's a four. But for somebody I don't know, it's all very personal. Personality based, because then there's also somebody who would have maybe who would have called that book a oh point five, like, you know what I mean? They're all over. Yeah. It's all it's a very personal. So I'm not going to do it. I feel like my spice rating for basically any book is going to change depending on who I'm recommending it to. Everyone has different thresholds. I also have to mention we kind of talked about this off mic a little bit. Maybe our producer will just stick in that conversation because we ended up talking about it entirely because we were too excited. And it is. Wuthering Heights is nigh. We're living in a great time for love stories.

Amy: Also on Netflix. No, no, its the movies. Do you think Film Streams is gonna have it?

Maggie: Oh, I think so, because it's. It's going to be the ultimate camp experience. Have you seen any of the stills that have been released?

Grace: And the costuming has been probably what I've seen the most.

Amy: I think that's what I love about like historical. The costuming, the fashion.

Maggie: You say that, I want you to right now on your phone. I want you to look up the costumes.

Grace: I don't think historically accurate is probably what they were going for. I would not define most of it as historically accurate. So I think that's kind of the camp factor.

Maggie: Yes. And which Grace pointed out is also before that Wuthering Heights is in quotation marks, which what does that mean? We'll find out, but I am excited.

Grace: I think I saw something from the director that was like, it's inspired by Wuthering Heights. You know, it's not Withering Heights, it's inspired by it.

Maggie: And I've said, I think it's going to be a hot mess, but like, in a way that I'm, I'm here for, I'm gonna have such a good time. Margot Robbie. Beautiful Margot Robbie who has a raging case of iPhone face. But that's fine. Again, this is the whole thing of like, nope, I'm here, I'm here. Charli XCX is in it and did the music. She's in it. She is in it. Oh, oh my lord. Yeah.

Can you imagine? I mean, that the one of the songs that she made for the movie, which I can't remember, she's got somebody, she's working with her like. But she does all the music for the movie. Have you heard the “I think I'm gonna die in this house?” Have you heard that? Oh, it's so haunting and intense. That was from the movie. No, that's that's her. Like she's at one of the premieres. Here, here, let me find it.

Grace: She does have iPhone face. I didn't really think about that before. Her face is too modern.

Maggie: She’s beautiful. This face has seen an iPhone. It's interacted with an iPhone. Like, there's. There's just certain actors that it's like, No, I think, um, who's. Who's playing Heathcliff? Um. Jacob Elordi. Jacob Elordi. Borderline for me. Barry Keoghan, who was in Emerald Fennell's, who is directing Wuthering Heights. He was in Saltburn, her last, like, big movie. I don't think he has iPhone face. That face looks like that could be a Irish peasant in the 1800s. Like, there's you just. You know what, I don't…

Grace: Margot Robbie is too beautiful

Maggie: Yes, yes.

Grace: You need, I feel like more distinctive features almost for it, I feel like. It's too perfect not to be an iPhone face.

Maggie: It's a beautiful wedding dress. That is not what wedding dresses looked like back then. And here's the thing I. I'm not mad about these costume choices because I think they're going to play in. Oh, no. I also I'm wearing quote unquote touch sensitive gloves… [trying to navigate photos on a mobile device]

Grace: Knowing that she did Saltburn makes a lot of sense now, from what I have heard about Saltburn and what I have heard about Wuthering Heights. [looking at an image on a mobile device] Oh, that is like pleather.

Maggie: Look how camp. Listeners, it is a white blousy, gauzy top with a red pleather plasticky skirt. Full. There's one more that I want to pull up that I have been obsessed with. Oh, there's also some still that I saw of her. Like looking seemingly eating a strawberry the size of an apple. This still I saw where she's, like, scratching at a wall that looks like it's made of human skin.

Grace: I'm so excited. Yeah. Ever since you mentioned Charli XCX, I just think of someone doing the Apple TikTok dance in the movie.

Maggie: Oh, fun, fun, fun fact for you. Did you ever see Scamper doing the Apple Dance on her TikTok channel?

Grace: I think I did.

Maggie: That's me.

Grace: Of course it is.

Maggie: And it was my idea. I went up to Margie our social media manager and was like, if I can do the Apple dance in the costume and

Amy: You and scamper are BFFs.

Maggie: Well, and what cracked me up with the costume was like,

Grace: It's not a costume. It's truly Scamper.

Maggie: It's a second skin. Um, I, I felt like I had to do the. Because scamper is a little cumbersome. I had to be, like, really big with the motions, and it does come across. But then Margie was also like, okay, now just do a take. Just have fun. Just like, you know, just just dancing. Because she was going to put it in on another like post that we did. And I was dancing as hard as I could, like huge movements. I was sweating. And then the video that appears with that TikTok, I look like I'm just [mimicking small dancing movements] Because it's. So you have to. I'm sorry. I know I'm taking too much time with this. There's just one dress that I was like, what is this going to be? I'm here for it. I think it's going to be great. It is going to be the mess of the season, but in like a really fun way. A really enjoyable way. Pulpy, campy. You can't go wrong. The other thing I felt like we had to talk about for a Love Story episode.

Grace: Speaking of butt cheeks, Heated Rivalry.

Maggie: Oh my god, that was the best transition I've ever heard. Thank you. It was so much better than my I don't think we can legally do this episode and not mention Heated Rivalry.

Grace: That's such a solid transition. That's really good

Maggie: Speaking of butt cheeks, Heated Rivalry. Amy, do you know much about Heated Rivalry?

Amy: Um, no.

Maggie: Oh. Buckle in. All right. It is a book series. Like there's more. I don't know how many of these books there are. I have not read them. I consumed, it looked to me. I think it was actually somebody doing stand up, but she formatted it in a way of like a nerd night talk. And all she did on was Heated Rivalry. And then she just talked down, like, talked about the literal, the entire plot structure between all of the books.

And it was hilarious because she talks like they're here. He, for the first time, uses his real first name and doesn't call him by his last name in book five. This has been a year and a half. There's something about like how she tracked it that I was like, that's hilarious. I didn't realize that was the time structure. So Heated Rivalry is about two hockey players on opposing teams. They have a Heated Rivalry. They also end up in a little bit of a heated side piece quest. Oh, yeah. Because it's not like lock it down official. This is all very like undercover. They they don't want people to know both. Both because they are afraid of kind of coming out, but also of, uh, the fact that they are enemies and they're supposed to hate each other.

Grace: HBO Max, HBO Max. It was originally some Canadian company.

Maggie: Oh, yes. It reads very Canadian. I have the the parts I have watched read incredibly Canadian in a good way. But I watched that and I'm like, this is this is Canadian. Um, so one of them is Russian, one of them is Canadian, and it is a multi book series. Um, it's another one that it's like very graphic love love story. Incredibly spicy. It is everywhere. Um, before I got off TikTok, I'm off TikTok, I deleted it. Um, which huge. I know it's opened up so much for me. Um, but before I get off, uh, there were a large amount of TikToks being made of, uh, the variety of people now who are attending hockey games for just for fun.. That people who had not considered hockey before now are attending. And then the the joke and the funniness of them bringing scenes of when do they kiss? Like they have signs that they hang up and they're like, I'm only here for the kissing. It's a good time for romance. We've got lots of stuff out.

The other thing I did mention this happened just before this, this week while we're prepping. This episode was the last thing I'm going to talk about as far as, like, these little, little things happening right now. Um, the Time Traveler's Wife, did either of you read it?

Grace: I have not.

Amy: I think I did years ago.

Maggie: I've had a horrifying moment. Uh, the last couple of weeks where I'm talking to someone and they're like, oh, they're telling me where they went to high school. I go, oh my God, I graduated from there. And they go like, oh, my mom did. And I'm like, oh, when did your mom graduate? Thinking maybe my mom knew them. And then they say the year and I go, oh, what was your mom's name. And they tell me and I go, yeah, I knew her. Okay. And you're an adult. You voted before? Okay, great. Okay, cool. All right, I'm gonna go. I gotta go, so it's fine. It's fine.

Oh. On this note, as I'm getting the kids in the car today, my kid told me, his teacher said, you and my teacher, he's a name. Did you know you guys are, like, almost the same age? And I said, I get what you're saying. His teacher just turned 50 this past year and I just turned 40, so it's like, I get it because he's also learning, you know, like because breakdown of the numbers. So for him, like 40 and 50 are neighbors. So that makes him close. And I get it. It's like I wasn't offended, but I was also like oh yeah. I'm like, yep, you're right. Because she is fifty. And how old is mommy goes 41 and I go, I'm 40. What do you mean how dare you? All of this is neither here nor there.

In 2005, I read The Time Traveler's Wife, which, if you have not read, um, I want to read it again because I think the first time I read it, I don't know if I was in the right mindset. I think I'm a little bit more sentimental now than I was then, and I do think an element of sentimentality and nostalgia runs deep in the veins of this book, and it's beautiful.

But in The Time Traveler's Wife, it is about a man who has a genetic disorder, basically, that causes him to randomly time travel. He doesn't have the ability to choose it. It's almost like when you think of somebody who has epilepsy, that it's like they could just but they could also all of a sudden be like, oh, like, I feel something's happening. It's going to happen. And that's how he experiences time travel and he'll end up at various periods in his own life. Um, there's some beautiful storylines like throughout, but most of it focuses on the relationship with his wife that he's here and he's not. He's, you know, it's like. They made a movie, and then they made an HBO miniseries about it a few years ago.

Amy: I feel like I'm pretty sure I did read the book, and I'm fairly sure I saw the movie. Yeah, because all of that

Maggie: They were huge. It was a huge book. Um, there is now a sequel, though, that just got announced this week that focuses on the daughter in the book. He and his wife have one child who is also born with the same genetic issue. So it's about her navigating the time. So I don't want to spoil too much from the first book if people haven't read it, but I feel like I do this all the time too. I'm like, spoiler alert for a book that's over 20 years old. But I think there's too much in there that I don't want to, like, give away.

Amy: So would you time travel if you could?

Maggie: Oh, if I could control it. But I think for how his life works. Oh, it's tragic and horrible. Like, he ends up missing out on so many points of his life because he can't control when the time travel happens or when he comes back. Um, there's also just moments that he comes back and it's obvious that it's like something has happened while he's gone. And then everybody is like, oh my God, oh my God, you're here. Like, how long are you going to be here? And he has no idea. And so it's a horribly like disjointed way to live your life is to like, come back and realize what you've missed and all that time.

Grace: Not in that way, no. Maybe if I could control it.

Maggie: Absolutely. You know, they do that whole thing of, like, if you went back in time and stepped on a butterfly. What would happen? I want to go back and kill so many butterflies. I just want to see. I just want to see what would happen here, folks. Like what? One butterfly does this. How many? How many? What happens if I step on all the butterflies? What if I go on a killing spree in the past? I don't know. I'll let you know if it happens. Maybe it already has. Maybe that explains why we've had such a weird few years. So many butterflies.

Grace: Butterfly mass murder.

Maggie: Oh, yeah. The last decade even just feels so disorienting. It's true. All right, maybe me and

Amy: The monarch, um, population has gone down less.

Maggie: Sorry. I didn't know the thought I put into my future me head and just decided was gonna go. Time traveling menace

Grace: We're not letting you in the butterfly house at the zoo anymore.

Maggie: I know, it's too dangerous. Every time I go in there with my husband, one lands on him every single time he's entered. He gives off some kind of pheromone or vibe? I think it's the same thing with every baby in our family, because basically every baby will go through a phase where they're like, no, only my mom. Don't even look at me. Only my mom. It's like it happens with every single baby. Yeah. And every baby in our family also does that. Except they be like, no, only my mom. Or Uncle Kyle, like. And I think it's because he's like, it's not that he doesn't want to hold them. He's just indifferent about it. Like he's not going to seek them out. I think the rest of us bring too much energy.

Amy: Like cats, going to the always, uh, aligning with the the one person who doesn't like cats.

Maggie: Yeah, yeah. Why? I think it's do they know butterflies? I think they do. I think you want it too much and they're too cool. It's the same thing with babies. And the same thing with butterflies is he's like, I don't care if a butterfly lands on me. And I'm like, I care so much if a butterfly would land on me and that's why I would love it. Absolutely.

Grace: Butterflies are the cats of the insect world. I think that's our takeaway.

Maggie: I was gonna say that's the title of the episode. Butterflies are the insect world... You heard it here first. Tell me a little bit more about you getting into romance. Was Bridgerton kind of your first romance?

Grace: Bridgerton really was the first romance I got into. And then I read the historical, you know, I read Julia Quinn's series and really fell in love. Um, and just started binge the entire series and then started exploring other authors. I've read most of them on Libby. Honestly. Through OPL’s Libby collection.

Maggie: Who were the other authors you kind of got into other stories?

Grace's Recommendations for the Reading Challenge

Grace: Yeah. So I mean, speaking of love, that isn't necessarily romantic love. My first title is The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. It was published last year and I actually also sneak peak nominated it for Top Shelf. And there is a little bit of romantic love in there, but really it's about sisterly love. And I would describe it actually as a fairy tale. So it's shorter. It's a novella, and it's about sisters Esther and Isabel. Their family has been charged with caring for magical willow trees at the edge of the human world and faerie. AIt’s like two hundred pages. So it's a pretty quick read. Um, until a rejected suitor tears them apart. It's a tender, lyrical fairy tale about language and the bonds of love.

Amy: I also love that there's, like, willow trees because, Um, I grew up in West Virginia. There were a lot of willow trees, and it was my favorite tree until I moved to Nebraska. Um, until I met the redbud and the redbud said now I'm your favorite. There you go. Um, I love that. Okay, that's going on my list.

Maggie: The cover is also gorgeous. Cover is beautiful. Let me pull it up. Yeah.

Grace: So there's a little bit of that romantic love in there, but it's really about the sisterly bond. I believe I read physical for this one, but we do have it on Libby as well.

Maggie: What else do you have?

Grace: Um, in historical romance realm, I have been loving a lot of Victorian historical romance lately. Um, and one of the new series that also started last year is, uh, the Crinoline Academy series by Mimi Matthews. The first title is Rules for Ruin. It stars Miss Euphemia Flight and betting shop owner Gabriel Royce. They both have their [Love their names] Very, very Victorian. Yeah. They both have their sights set on Lord Compton. Euphemia wants to discredit him because he's blocking a women's rights bill in parliament. Well, Gabriel wants to gain his favor in order to secure funds from him to reform the Rookery, one of London's slums. So they very much start off at odds.

And one of the things I love about romance is, you know, there's going to be a happy ending. And so it's seeing how the author gets to that happy ending. And there's something there's a really common trope, the third act breakup. And people either love or hate the third act breakup, I find. But one of the things I love the most in romance authors is when that third act breakup feels very natural and, like, doesn't feel forced. And I do really feel like Mimi Matthews, first of all, has excellent research in all of her books. She has a series before this about these like Horsewomen, and you can really see that she knows her stuff.

Amy: I appreciate an author who researches her content before they write about it.

Grace: So she really knows her stuff. Yeah. And what was I talking about? Um. Mimi? No. Third act. Third. Third act. Breakup. Yeah. She makes it feel so natural. The way everything happens. It doesn't feel forced to me at all. And I really. I think that's great. The other thing to note about this is this is going to be on the cleaner side. I know we've been talking a lot about spicy books. This is closed door. Yes, it's going to be a closed door romance. That's something you can safely give to grandma. Um, not that I'm judging. If your grandma reads spicy, all the more power to her. I just know what my grandmother reads, and it would not be something like that. So it's going to be a closed door romance. And she. I mean, all of Mimi Matthews books are excellent. You can't really go wrong, but this is her newest one.

If we're also talking Victorian historical romance with kind of a feminist theme, um, I have to shout out Evie Dunmore and Bringing Down the Duke, which is one of probably my all time favorite historical romance books. Also going to be enemies-to-lovers. It's a young suffragette who, um, through her suffragist society, um, is asked to kind of work on this Duke and get him to support the Married Women's Property Act in parliament. And of course, they fall in love. Um, but it really talks a lot about class difference. And that, I think is very interesting.

And Mimi Matthews, that Rules for Ruin also really talks about class difference because both Gabriel and Euphemia are orphans. And so that's very interesting seeing more of a working class background, but they're interacting with high society and what that looks like.

Maggie: Yeah, you bring that up. And the other thing uh, that reminds me of is back. I mean, it it's still hard now to, like, kind of move classes, but especially, like, back then. It's like you, you were born and you die in your class and you don't really move up. That was not like a thing to do. And then even if you did, the people then in that new class you're in would look down on you and you forget that you.

Grace: Also a theme we're seeing in Bridgerton season four. Yes. That plays through very Cinderella story of it is a maid that goes to a ball. And then Benedict Bridgerton, who is the second son in a to a… He's a rake.

Maggie: Is he going to be reformed? I don't know, we'll find out. Maybe they'll kiss I don't know.

Grace: You'll have to watch it Amy.

Amy: Oh my gosh I'm so excited.

Maggie: Cinderella influence. Yeah. So tell me that other title that you just said I got it. Yeah.

Grace: Bring it Down. Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore. Whole series is great.

Maggie: Okay, so we can document it, but also so I can put it on hold right now. Also for selfish reasons.

Amy: Maggie, do you want to go? I see one of your picks. I'm excited about it because I did read that years ago.

Maggie's Book Recommendations

Maggie: Oh, I'm interested to hear because all of my books are old. Like all of my books have been out for a while. But I feel like this is what I really enjoyed about the challenge was because it was just love story, and I was enjoying leaning into all the ways that can play out. Yeah, and not just a traditional like romance. So the first one is one I think I've talked about this book before on the podcast. I've talked about the author and some of his other books before, but that's Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. I think it came out sometime in the nineties or late eighties, but it is one of those classics. What I like about Kazuo Ishiguro, he is like a British author to his core. He is of Japanese descent. But he is, he might actually been born in Japan and then moved to to England. But he has such a British sensibility about his writing. Yeah. Everything reads like, uh, he's like, he's like a T.S. Eliot like you read this. Much like how we how we could watch Heated Rivalry and be like, wow, this is so Canadian coded. Everything guru writes whether he specifies it's in England or not, I'd be like, wow, this was written by a British person. This is so British.

It's a beautiful story. So it centers on a butler who lives his life of service. And we talk about like, the class system of not being able to kind of like move up or down. And he is somebody who does not fight that, that this is this is he is of the working class. He is of the serving class. And this is what he was born to do. And there's so much honor and dignity in it. And he works in this beautiful manor house. While he is there, the head housekeeper he has fallen in love with entirely. He is completely infatuated with her. And you watch that she is also in love with him. And watch that this whole time of of these moments where they almost break and like, almost like want to be together. And she seems more likely to be the one to be like, yeah, let's do this. Like I love you. Let's go off together. But he holds himself back so much.

Meanwhile, the backdrop of what's happening is it is the lead up to World War II. His, the master of his house is starting to fall in line with the Nazis. And it starts to kind of take the, it's how he this butler is starting to kind of lose that shine a little bit about what's going on. I mean, he has a moral compass of like what's right and what's wrong. Some things that they're doing in the house to help two Jewish girls is also there's so much going on in this book. Um, and I don't want to spoil it because it is beautiful. I will spoiler alert, though, you will be devastated and heartbroken at the end. Yeah, it's it's not one that. I mean, you can say that. It's like everything happens for a reason. And it's also, I think, just a lesson in taking the opportunities that life gives you.

Because you're you are allowed, you should take them. Butterfly. I didn't step on those. You shouldn't should not butterflies. You should not time travel and kill all the butterflies in the past.

My next book. The next one I wanted to do. This is one that I would put outside the realm of romantic reading. Have either of you read Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking?

Amy: No, but I want to.

Maggie: You haven't. I thought that was the one I thought you were gonna say you read?

Amy: No, it was the first one. The Remains of the Day.

Maggie: Oh, but you haven't read my third one. I forgot to put the author in, Have you read Year of Magical Thinking?

Amy: I want to, because for…It's on my TBR. How long has it been out?

Maggie: It's been at least 20 years, I think. It's old. This is another book I read in college.

Amy: Did she have another one that came out recently?

Grace: Notes to John, I think, it was published recently.

Maggie: So Joan Didion, one of the eminent authors of our time, um, journalist. She's everything. Um. The Year of Magical Thinking is about a period of time in her life where her husband and her daughter both passed away fairly close to each other. Um, if memory serves me correctly. So her husband and daughter both passed fairly close to each other. If memory serves me right in the book. It's just you watch the daughter actually pass, and then the husband passed later. Um, it's not documented in the book, but it is talking about this year of, like how she's processing this grief because it was anticipatory grief. Like the daughter was hospitalized. She was in a coma. There was a number of things going on. So it wasn't like a quick, sudden death. Um, it's very complicated. It is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read.

I read it in two thousand and five. I read it again after I had children. I almost couldn't get through it. Her feelings of being a mother and her feelings toward her daughter are so deep and intense. You know, hear about them actually adopting her. This was their only child, and they adopted her, and Ir loved her name. Her name was Quintana Roo after, the location of Mexico. I just think that's such a cool name. Um, it's beautiful. And it's talking like this unraveling of the relationship, exploring it, the complexities of, like, a parent and a child, two people together wanting to have children and doing it together. And then what it's like to kind of lose that, but not really lose because you still always have them. It's just their physical form is gone, right? It is a beautiful book. If you've not read Joan Didion and you've not read this book, you have to read it.

Grace: Another tear jerker.

Maggie: Oh yeah. Yeah, but a good emotional high, like it's one of those of like, oh man, you're gonna process through some stuff when you read this book. It's so good. But when I thought of love. I thought of that book. It's a love story.

Grace: The most recent book from Joan Didion was Notes to John. It was posthumously published last year. It consists of journal entries from psychiatric sessions she began in 1999, addressed to her late husband, John Gregory Dunne.

Maggie: My last pick is one of my favorite romance reads of all time, and there's probably a lot to unpack there. When I say this, and if you've read it, you understand. That's Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds, published in 1977. An infamous mini series. It is an epic. Like this is you watch, uh, the epic drama.I would say it's a cast of characters, but it really centers on Maggie. The whole world rotates around. Yeah. So she they are in Australia. during a I can't remember the exact oh no, here I see it 1915 to 1969, in Australia, in the outback, which was, you know, very remote, still is remote, but you have to even think back then.It's Maggie's family, which is a variety of Irish immigrants who are living there. And she ends up having a love story with another character who that's where the controversy is going to come in. She meets him, uh, when he is a young adult, but they don't have a romance until they're much older. And there is an extra complication of he is a priest, guys.

Grace: Fleabag.

Maggie: Yes. So Fleabag coded? Yes, yes. Every time I watched Fleabag after that, I'm like, this is so Thorn Birds. So there's that love story, like there's love there, but there's also what struck me is that Maggie's love for each member of her family and the complexity of that, that the relationship she have has with her mother is very complicated. She's kind of harsh. But also at this side of parenthood. And I think of, like, what's going on to that woman in that story of like, oh, she was terrified all the time. And the only way she knew how to process that was to, like, disengage her feelings and be like, no, no, no, I don't care about this. She obviously didn't care about these kids and she didn't care about this, but she was so afraid of losing them. And there's one part of that story. It's so it's a big, epic book. But there's at one point in the story where Maggie is watching one of her older brothers and her father have a terrible fight where she, like, this is going to be the end. And this kid, this kid is going to walk away forever.

And I remember this of Maggie standing there, and she has this, the horror of the moment that she realized that she couldn't keep them both, that she was going to have to have one or the other. And that is something, I think, that happens to children still today. It's a line that really stuck with me. So it's it's love between family. It's love between a grown woman and a priest. Yes. Um, it's it's a little bit of everything. It is. It's a little pulpy. It's slightly campy. It's amazing. If you've not read The Thorn Birds, 10 out of 10. One of my favorite books of all time.

Grace: Is it the more romance or family saga or kind of a combination of combination family sagas?

Maggie: Combination, it is a saga.

Amy: Is it a big book?

Maggie: It's pretty big. It's long. Amy's holding up her hands in a chaotic…

Grace: Six hundred and ninety two, according to wikipedia.

Maggie: I was gonna guess 700. I was like, no, that's too many. It's worth it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They say family sagas. It's one hundred percent worth it. So it's family saga. The romance does play pretty heavily in the later half of the book. It takes a much bigger take of it. But that first part is still it's love. It's family love. It's a love of how they get processed for a child, for a number of things. I also really think it's a love story about Australia, about the wild outback and people who lived there, sometimes against their will. It's it's a great book. So again, I feel like all my books were old, but they're all things that I'm like, if you've not read this, you need to read this. Amy, close this out. What did you. You have kind of a slightly different approach for this, because what did you do for this challenge?

Amy's Book Recommendations

Amy: Well, for the first time ever, I thought, let's read a romance.

Maggie and Grace: [Cheering] One of us. One of us?

Amy: But I realized actually researching this. I have read a romance novel here and there. Or a love story. But let's start with the one I'm currently reading and can't put down. But I'm not finished yet.

Maggie: How close are you to the end?

Amy: Um, I'm probably like, seventy five percent. Okay. Yeah.

Maggie: What's, uh, what's happening right now? Do you remember? U

Amy: So she… So let me just tell you the title. It's Book Lovers by Emily Henry. And I'm sure everybody knows who that author is. She's so popular. And now I understand why. Oh, my gosh, what a fun book.

Maggie: We were in a meeting earlier this week, and we were saying that it's like she's Emily Henry's kind of in a class all of her own. She's writing romance. It's rom com. It's a little smutty. It's very bantery.

Amy: That's my favorite part.

Maggie: She has elements, too, of literary fiction. I'm sorry. Like, there's parts of her books that I read that I'm like, if this had a different cover, if it didn't have cartoon people on the front of it, and it wasn't marketed as a rom com, this would have a wider like appeal or that more people. I truly believe that.

Grace: What are those elements that you see? I'm curious.

Maggie: So I feel like the authenticity of her characters, I feel like her characters read very true to life. Like, I don't think any of these are caricatures of people.

Amy: I imagine all these things that she like, the way that she sets it up and the inner monologue, all of that. I'm like, yep, yep. Absolutely.

Maggie: And so in Book Lovers, I feel like what connected for me is that the thread of so much of who she is and about her personality comes from being a big sister. And it's like the choices that she's making, you can see it like it's not just a one off. It is a through line throughout the entire book and good and bad ways and very subtle ways. And to me, that's what sets her apart, is that it doesn't-when I read her, and it's not just in book Lovers and her other books too, I see it like even the ones I like. Every Emily Henry book I've ever read. I just have like, my favorites versus ones that I'm like, maybe, you know, maybe I'll give this another chance another time. But like, I feel like that I see in every book she's ever written that she she just writes differently.

Amy: And I don't even know what year this came out. But there was a big hold list, and Maggie found a copy that she owned and lent it to me.

Maggie: And we've talked about this, that when we've talked to Carl from The Bookworm, that it's like my threshold is that there's there's books that it's like, all right, I'm buckled in. I'm going to be waiting for 150 people to get off this list. But then there's some authors, like Emily Henry. I'm just gonna go buy the book. know I'm gonna want it. And I know I have friends that are going to want to read it.

Amy: It's like an investment for you and your friends.

Maggie: Yeah, exactly. And my coworkers friends would take it.

Amy: It's true. So, um, right after I finish it, I'm giving it to another one of your colleagues who hasn't read it. There you go.

Maggie: So tell us a little bit about book lovers.

Amy: Well, it's about Nora Stephens. Um. And she is a workaholic, which, you know, I understand that. Compartmentalizes, has high standards of work ethic. I totally feel all of those things very much. And she is a literary agent, so it's all about books. If book lovers and she has a not so good first meeting with literary agent, um, I'm sorry, book editor Charlie Lastra, and she's kind of, like, irritated with them. And then she meets him again in a small town that her sister drags her to, which I think is interesting. So I don't know what's going on with the sister, so I'm trying to figure this out.

Maggie: Yeah. There's like a weird it's like…

Amy: There's a whole other story there, and I'm trying to figure it out. Yeah. Just so you know, folks, but Charlie and Nora have this, like, they really, really desire each other, but are keeping those boundaries while... It is enemies to lovers trope, for sure. Yeah, sorry. I always forget, like…

I love, love, love, love the banter because I think it's just hilarious. And that makes it go so fast. And then I finish a chapter, I'm like, okay, more more more, more. And so I'm like, okay, I gotta go to bed. It's like midnight. So it's so much fun and I want to read more Emily Henry. So I will be looking maybe to, you’ve probably read her Grace.

Grace: I have only read Great Big Beautiful Life, actually. Which I very much enjoyed, but I really need to read the rest of her books

Amy: Okay, so I need to know what I should read next, because I will.

Maggie: Are you, do you want to stay in the Emily Henry realm?

Amy: I think I do, but I am curious about

Maggie: Kind of stretching out a little bit.

Amy: Yeah. Why not? Grace, you've given me lots of titles that I'm going to explore now, which I love, so I love it. So thank you. Yeah, Emily. Henry. There you go.

Maggie: So one thing we talked about off mic is when I read that book, I had like, well, and this is on the note of I believe it is every Emily Henry book, maybe, possibly with the exception of, uh, Big Beautiful Life because I don't think it had been published at that point, but I'm sure this will be picked up too. Every Emily Henry, uh, work has been optioned for a movie or miniseries. I know everything's getting made. So the People You Meet on Vacation just came out.

Grace: That was on Netflix.

Amy: So, okay, then maybe I need to read that book next, because while I'm reading this book, I'm like, I need to see the film version of this because I–but I don't know who had the character.

Maggie: That's what I was gonna ask is if you had any thoughts. I have one person I had in mind when I was reading it

Amy: For Nora or for Charlie?

Maggie: For Charlie, I actually never pictured anyone for Nora. It was just Charlie that whole time. But here's my thing. My Charlie, I don't, I would’ve worked even maybe ten years ago. Maybe. But probably closer to like twenty years ago. But he is timeless when I say the name, I do think it's one of those of like, they could work with it. They could age it up a little bit.

Amy: Do you know who I would pick and somebody who wouldn't fit in a role, but I will. I have a name. So you go first.

Maggie: Adam Scott.

Amy: Oh okay okay.

Grace: Yes,. Ben, Parks and Rec

Maggie: Yes it is a version of that character it feels like. And I think he does that well that he could do it

Amy: So mine will date me. Okay. But I was so had a crush on him. Judd Nelson

Maggie: oh, I could see it. He was like the punk, rebel boy in. He was also in a Brooks, uh, Brooke Shields 1990s show.

Amy: Charlie, look at that brooding.

Maggie: There's a there's a version of him in the nineties that I'm picturing when you do this specifically. So in one of the fan castings I've seen on Reddit, when people have talked about this, for Nora, the most popular one I've seen is Elizabeth Olsen, and I could see it. I can't remember any of the other castings on it, but that was the only one. It was like I didn't have anybody in mind for her. I'm going to be open to that.

Oh, the other thing I have, sorry. The other thing I love about the movie specifically, about that book specifically, that cracked me up so much. One of the biggest opening for Nora is her talking about, basically bringing it back around to the Hallmark movies. She is the mean girlfriend in the Hallmark movies. That is her life. Because she's talking about, like, how many of her exes go home to their small New England town and end up staying to marry a Christmas tree farmer's daughter? Like it's a person who owns a hot chocolate cafe? It's happened so many times now that she's like, she works through, like, the whole list because it's like in all of those Hallmark movies, when it is, it's like a small town girl goes, you know, goes home, and then she ends up falling in love with the small town boy. Maybe it's an ex-boyfriend from high school. Maybe it's this. But it's always, like, very hallmark wholesome. Meanwhile, she has a whole ass fiance in the city that she has is leaving behind for this. That is a person that is a whole person. So that is another thing I really enjoyed about book lovers. It is like it is her. She's there. And yes, she is.

Amy: She's making fun of the tropes that she's in, the tropes.

Maggie: And she owns. She owns it. She's like, yeah, I'm kind of cold. I am, I'm a little cold. I'm a little stuck up, I am here. I had a really traumatic childhood, okay? I basically raised my sister and got us out of poverty, and now I now, I'm afraid every day of of failing her.

Amy: And can't stop working because I gotta make sure that I'm financially solvent.

Maggie: So she's a real person again. Emily Henry class all of her own. Love it. Amy, mean, I've got some suggestions for you. I don't know if you do them now, but I've got. I've got some thoughts. Something else I was gonna say. I know we're making this too long.

Maggie: So what is this movie coming out?

Maggie: It's already out. It's on Netflix. People we meet on vacation. Let me see where we at with book lovers? I think it's one of those that's just like. It's just been optioned. Like the contracts are signed. It's like this is the company that's going to make it. But pretty much everyone but I don't know when. Yeah.

Grace: It was announced in March 2023 a film adaptation in development by producer Tango.

Amy: I will want to watch it. So I love the book. I mean, I'm not finished, but I'm I'm. I think there's going to be more.

Maggie: I loved it because drama, when we were talking about the people meet on vacation, when we were talking about the the film adaptation, there are some edits they made from the book to putting it to the movie that I'm like, I haven't watched it yet, but I had heard of like the changes that they made. I'm like, that makes sense to me. Yep. They can move that. They can understand why they did some of these things. One hang up that I had about that book, though, is the ending in the sense that was my one criticism, that was the book that I read that I'm like, they're like, oh, you know, it's gonna work out. And I read it and was like, is it though long term? Like, aren't we just kicking a can down the road? That's my that's my, uh, my little feeling with it.

Amy: I will happily take recommendations from both of you after I read everything that you suggested today. Okay. Really quickly. My other two was Like water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. And I read the book. The book is fantastic. It has a food culinary theme, so it is really intense, as is the film. Highly recommend it. And it's basically it's like, what is the trope? It's like the Romeo and Juliet trope, like, you know, Tita wants to, um, express herself and marry her love, but she can't because she has to take care of her mom. Um, so, uh, that is Mom's.

And my last book, which I'm basically just going to talk about all of them. I mean, not all of them, but her catalog, Rainbow Rowell, our local author. We love, I mean, that is like love stories galore, right? Love. I feel like she has love element in basically all of her books. And of course, Eleanor and Park was an Omaha Reads selection back.

Maggie: People still love it. When I was prepping for this episode, I did a couple of Googles. I looked at our, the reading list that was suggested for this one, but then I also just like some light googling and I looked at some Reddit posts and basically every Reddit post suggests Eleanor Park. Everybody wants. Yeah,

Amy: And I listen to that one, believe it or not. Isn't that funny? And I forgot that that was a love story. So I have actually read a love story, love story? Yeah, but she has Cherry Baby coming out, right? And she actually has an event at the Bookworm, right? The day before we open.

Maggie: Oh, I love that.

Grace: Big weekend in Omaha for book lovers.

Amy: and I love that she's from Omaha. I feel like a lot of people are always surprised, even people who are not from here but live in Omaha. I'm like, oh, you know, Rainbow Rowell lives here. And they're like, what? What? Yeah. I'm like yeah. Mhm. Yeah.

Grace: We've got cool things.

Amy: And she's a dedicated. I also love that she's, she'll have like five or ten like national events. One is always at the bookworm. Yeah. How awesome is that.

Maggie: Should we see if we can go to the bookworm and just get her to record, like, two minutes of podcast if we just, like, talk to me like I was talking to Carl. Oh my God.

Amy: Okay. That's it.

Maggie: We're, uh. If you, uh, didn't hear, we are doing also our queries a little differently this year. We used to ask a query every single week. This year we are doing a query of the month. So every week we're going to plug this little question in there. And we will read all of the answers at the final episode that airs that month. So February's query is we want to know all about your favorite local content creators and influencers.

Amy: I can't wait to.

Maggie: We've already got some answers and they've been good.

Amy: I know they have been good, but I'm also curious if there's going to be anything that folks submit that I don't know about.

Grace: Do you think a real estate agent account on Instagram counts as a local content creator?

Maggie: Yes, absolutely. I know a couple. Yeah, yeah,

Grace: I'm thinking of can I. Can I say it? I'm. Oh, yeah. Kara loves Omaha. Oh, I think I think I know that I think I followed her does a lot of like, older houses and like. And.

Maggie: Yeah, I think I followed. I think I followed her on there. Yeah. I'm just a nosy little goose. And I like going in people's houses. And if I can do that from the comfort of my own home with my phone, all the better. No, I'm, I'm big on the “yes, and” for this of like, if you even question to yourself if they should be submitted submit them. Let us decide if that was the wrong call. I can promise you it won't be.

Amy: It's true. We take everything.

Maggie: All right. This has been the most enjoyable afternoon of my entire life.

Grace: Thank you so much for having me… Thank you for letting me talk about historical romance with other people. Thank you. I love to hear that. I am gonna have to. I'll have to read even more. I always say you can tell how stressed I am in my life by how many historical romance books I've read in a row.

Maggie: It's kind of like It's like the pizza index. You know what? The pizza index in DC.

Grace: Oh, yes. Yeah. When they all order from Domino's or whatever, it's like, okay,

Maggie: Yeah, there's some people who track pizza orders within a five mile radius of the Pentagon. And it's like if it starts to peak up, it means something's going on and you're like, oh, this is how we track. Yeah.

Grace: You're opening a new library. Yeah.

Maggie: Romance on three, one two three.

Group: [Cheering] Romance

Maggie: As I was doing it, I made Emily do that for the happiness episode I ‘one, two, three happiness.” Is this our new closeout? I think so. It might be.

Grace: I think it is. Yeah, absolutely.

Every book, resource or thing that we mention that we can link to on the internet can be found in list form in our episode description, so if you miss something we talked about, check out that list.

The Book Drop is produced by Omaha Public Library. Our theme music is Trapped in Amber courtesy of the band Lucid Fugue.

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The Book Drop | OPL’s Podcast

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