What Have We Been Reading?

In this episode, Kelly and Nikki talk about what they've been reading during their six month break from BYOB. They discuss their reading habits and goals for the year, the genres they've been reading the most (including romance, fantasy, mystery, and thrillers), and share their favourite and most disappointing books of the year so far.

Listeners can now send BYOB fan mail! Click the link at the bottom of the show notes to send Nikki and Kelly a message.

Socials:

• Tiktok: @bringyourownbookpodcast
• Instagram: @byobookpodcast
• Facebook: @byobookpodcast
• Youtube: @bringyourownbookpodcast

Transcript

Kelly (00:11)
Hey everyone, welcome to season four of BYOB, the Bring Your Own Book podcast. I'm Kelly.

Nikki (00:16)
and I'm Nikki.

Kelly (00:17)
Thank you so much for joining us for season four! We're so excited to be here. And since we took a much needed break from our bookish antics, we're gonna kick off season four by talking about everything we've read so far, starting all the way back in January until now, the time of this recording. So we're just kinda like gonna talk about what the heck have we been reading? Like what's been going on?

It's been quite the year so far.

Nikki (00:41)
Yeah, I mean, it has been. Uh, like I had a really good January, February, and then March got slow. I feel like January, February really boosted myself up. I was feeling fresh. I was reading all the books that I wanted to read last year that I didn't have time to read because we were doing podcast stuff or I was in school and just, you know, all of those things. And now I'm slowing down. I'm getting more into my like.

Kelly (00:51)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Nikki (01:11)
three, four books a month thing instead of 20 books a month, which is excessive. But yeah, what genre have you been reading the most? I think I know.

Kelly (01:27)
Well, romance, obviously, but I've been reading a lot of fantasy too. So it's like pretty close. Yeah. And I have been reading a lot of like, you could say kind of both like Romantasy or like paranormal romance, I guess. Yeah. Like I've read quite a few Omega verse so far, which I love, but it's just fun. Okay. It's fun. So I like it, but like, yeah, I don't know. I, I ran into.

Nikki (01:32)
Oh.

Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Kelly (01:55)
a friend at work the other day and he was like, so how many books do you read a month? And I was like, well, it depends on the month. And he said, well, what did you read last month? And I said, well, last month, because I think this was like March, I only read two books, which is like really low for me. And I said to him, yes, I only read two, but like in January, I read like 20 books. And he was like, what? But you know, I also like I read a lot of picture books and stuff because sometimes I like to read picture books before bed to like.

try to calm the mind or if I'm stressed or whatever, like it's easy through the Libby app and I just read some picture books, I don't know.

Nikki (02:31)
Right, it's not like you read 20 novels. Yeah.

Kelly (02:35)
No, yeah, like, I mean, some people do. I haven't. Yeah, like that's a lot. My eyes get tired. My brain gets tired sometimes, like literally. What about you? What have you been reading a lot of so far?

Nikki (02:40)
Couldn't be me.

Yeah.

I have been like the mystery thriller queen this year. I mean, I always loved mystery thrillers, but I feel like I start every year on a different trend. Last year, it was fantasy. I was reading so much fantasy at the beginning of last year, and this year, I don't know, I just picked up the right book at the right time

Kelly (02:59)
I love that.

Mmm.

Nikki (03:20)
I guess I started off January reading every Riley Sager book I could get my hands on and That really just kind of blasted me off into murder

Kelly (03:27)
Mm-hmm.

On the Orient Express?

Nikki (03:37)
Yeah. Actually, funny you say that because I have read that one, but I did read an Agatha Christie book, The Pale Horse, and I DNF'd it. So yeah, I will pick it up again eventually, but I was just not feeling the writing style at that time. I would like read a page and be like, I have no idea what just happened and then read it again and be like,

Kelly (03:39)
Have you read that one?

Oh no, okay.

Okay.

Nikki (04:04)
I don't even remember what was going on last chapter, so why am I doing this?

Kelly (04:08)
I've never read any of her books just like plays. So.

Nikki (04:11)
I really, really loved And Then There Were None. That's probably one of her most famous ones. It has a really torrid history with the title too, that I'm not going to talk about on here because it has bad words that I'm not going to say, but you can look it up. And it's crazy town. But yeah, just murder for me. Detective fiction? I don't know.

Kelly (04:15)
Okay.

Okay.

Oh, okay. Wow.

See ya.

Nikki (04:40)
Just really getting my goat.

Kelly (04:40)
I thought, well, I thought I had been reading a lot of mysteries so far too. And then I looked at my books and I'm like, no, because I read so many picture books early on because I was like stressed, couldn't read whatever I should also. Well, I guess it doesn't really matter, but like my dog passed away at the beginning of the year. So I was not reading like at all. So I really needed those picture books. So, you know, you do what you got to do. But like.

Nikki (04:53)
Right.

Kelly (05:06)
I thought I was reading a lot of mystery. And then I looked, I only read those two truly devious books, which I loved, but I hadn't read any others. Yeah.

Nikki (05:13)
That's funny. Yeah, we were talking in March or something and you were like, yeah, I've been reading a lot of those too. And I'm like, she hasn't been putting any of them on her Goodreads. But I'm like, who am I to say no, you're not. I don't know what you're reading.

Kelly (05:24)
Oh, well, I also, how could I forget because I hated the book so much. My first book of the year was a Frieda McFadden book. And yeah, I had never read anything by her. And I actually was somewhere and someone told me that they loved that book. And I had to like, forcibly stop myself from being like, Are you serious? I hated it so much. Because I don't know, I feel like some people might think that's rude.

Nikki (05:34)
Oh yeah!

Yeah, I have, I've only read one, uh, Freida McFadden book and it was basically the Verity dupe. I don't know which one came first, so don't come for me if she wrote her book before Colleen Hoover wrote Verity or Colleen Hoover, what the f- how ever the hell you say her name, but I swear this was like, what's that Robert Frost poem like to

Kelly (05:53)
But I just wanna talk.

Mmm.

I took the... Oh.

Nikki (06:23)
two roads diverge in a yellow wood, but they didn't diverge. They just stayed on the same path. And then every once in a while, they'd take like a little dead end street to a different kind of plot or topic, and then they'd come right back. And then the books continued almost exactly the same. It was weird. But anyway.

Kelly (06:28)
Oh, wow.

Oh my God, you don't know what it was called?

Nikki (06:48)
It was, you know, I can tell you what it was called. I'll look it up. It was not that Frieda McFadden.

Kelly (06:53)
because I read Lie to Me.

Oh sorry, no that's not even what it is, it's Neverlie. I don't even know what it's called either, that's how bad it was, like.

Nikki (07:05)
Are you?

It was...

Wow, I can't even see it at all. I swear I don't make this shit up. Oh, The Wife Upstairs.

Kelly (07:18)
Why would you like?

The Wife Upstairs? Isn't that where Verity was?

Nikki (07:26)
Yeah.

Yes, it is.

Kelly (07:34)
Isn't that where that lady in Jane Eyre was? I haven't read it yet. Yeah, true.

Nikki (07:39)
She was like behind a wall though. I think they were also upstairs, but she was like the wife adjacent to the room everyone else was in.

Kelly (07:50)
You know, I would love, well, I wouldn't love it, but I kind of would, I would like relish in being the crazy lady behind the wall. I'd be like, trying to spook everyone. But not if I had to be like stuck there, you know, just a thought. Yes, like for funsies. Yeah. But yeah, no, I've only read like three mysteries, I think so far.

Nikki (08:04)
Yeah. Only if you could do it when you wanted to do it.

I agree. Your side job.

Kelly (08:18)
this year, which I was so surprised by, because I thought I read more, but...

Nikki (08:23)
But Truly Devious is a great mystery series to read, so...

Kelly (08:26)
It's so good. And they helped me get out of a slump. Like they're just so cozy. I love them. Nikki gifted me the eBooks. Yes. Yeah. It was great. Thanks. I have two left. I gotta get back to it. I like started The Box in the Woods and then I got distracted and I thought, okay, well, I'm still at the very beginning. So I'll just go back to it later. So.

Nikki (08:30)
Yay! I know, and they're so fast-paced.

Oh yeah, I did that!

You're welcome.

Yeah, definitely.

Kelly (08:55)
But yeah, I love it. I love them so much, but yeah. Did you have any reading goals this year?

Nikki (09:00)
Me too. Me too, man.

Um, you know, I don't have a lot of reading goals. Um, I set my standard 60 books on Goodreads. I'm at 31 books right now. So that's nice. Um, feels good to know I'll complete the goal this year because last year I was hustling at the end of the year to get that goal, just because I was telling myself you are not a failure and you can read enough graphic novels to get to 60.

Kelly (09:15)
Mm-hmm.

That's good. Yeah.

 for 

Nikki (09:37)
And I think I ended up going to like 65 or something. Like I really pulled, I pulled through in the end. But no, I just, just 60 books. I really like, I don't know, thinking about what I have, I do want to read a few older Stephen King books this year. I have some on my shelf and I look at them all the time and I think, oh, I should read you and then...

Kelly (09:41)
Okay. Yes.

Nikki (10:06)
I pick up something else. But I feel very motivated because in March I read Holly, which is one of his newer releases, I believe it came out last year. And it centers around a character named Holly Gibney and she was in the Mr. Mercedes book, which came out years ago. And she has been a reoccurring character in some of his other works, like The Outsider and If It Bleeds.

Kelly (10:15)
Mm.

Nikki (10:34)
and she is a private detective for a company called Finders Keepers and people are going missing and they're trying to figure out where all of these people are going and it's all happening on the same street and I can't even say any more than that but holy shit I read the book so fast. I actually sold somebody at Chapters on

Kelly (10:34)
Oh, okay.

Nikki (11:03)
on getting the book too. You're welcome. And yeah, so.

Kelly (11:05)
Oh good. Thanks. I get nothing from it.

If only.

Nikki (11:12)
Too bad, because if they would have said like, oh, what's your name? I would have been like, Kelly. You can tell them at the cash. I just don't have my name tag on.

Kelly (11:19)
Thank you. Yeah. I have sold many a book with my sticker on it. And do I get a penny? No.

Nikki (11:29)
Cheating They're just cheating you out of it.

Kelly (11:29)
Yeah, if I were to commission, I would be getting so much. But anyways, I appreciate the sentiment, Nikki.

Nikki (11:35)
right? But yeah, so Stephen King books. And I think that's really it. If I give myself too many goals, I never complete them because I like revenge procrastinate on myself. So it's just it can't, it can't be me. But do you have goals? What are your goals this year?

Kelly (11:40)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Well, I am an avid goal setter, but this year one of my goals was to do less of that. Because, yeah, so I do have a couple goals, but like, you know, I have the Goodreads challenge goal that's whatever. But my goal is 100 books and right now I'm at 47. And in like previous years, I would set the Goodreads challenge and then if I met it, I would up it. I'm not doing that. Why?

Nikki (12:06)
That's good.

Kelly (12:27)
that just makes me stressed when I've already accomplished it. So like not doing that. But my biggest reading goal.

Nikki (12:28)
Yeah.

Also, like no one gives us money for meeting our Goodreads goal. So it's like, it's a personal achievement.

Kelly (12:36)
Right? Yeah, like, seriously, it's not like diet bet where it's like, if you lose the weight, you win a bit of the pot of money. Like, what? So anyways, which I also have never done that, but I did sign up for that once and I didn't do it at all. I like forgot about it. And then I was like, I don't care. So. Yeah, you like depending. Yeah, it's a website, not sponsored.

Nikki (12:58)
That's crazy. I didn't even know you could do that.

Kelly (13:05)
Clearly because I didn't do it so But yeah, like you can sign up for a challenge set your goal and then if you meet it you get a split of the pot of money, so Yeah, just saying yeah anyways my main reading goal is to take a look at the series that I have either like physically or that I have started and really decide am I gonna keep going or am I gonna get rid of it? So

Nikki (13:15)
Oh, nice.

Mm-hmm.

Kelly (13:35)
I like so far I have abandoned at least one series which is great and that was the Winter Night trilogy which I was really bummed about. That's the Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. Yeah, because it was just like meh to me and there was so much hype. I wanted to read it so badly and then I read it and I was like I didn't love this. I don't need to force myself to read two more books. So I'm just going to say thank you but I'm moving on. It's...

Nikki (13:48)
Okay, yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

Mm-hmm.

Kelly (14:05)
 you, not me. So, and so I abandoned that, but I've made really good progress on Throne of Glass and I've made great progress on Truly Devious. So I have like some graphic novels behind me that I need to catch up on, like Sailor Moon, Witch Hat Atelier, which I love. But yeah, I think that's like my main thing. I have a few romances that are like they can be standalone, but they're technically a series, you know? So like,

Nikki (14:34)
Right.

Kelly (14:35)
I have read a couple of those where I'm like, yeah, I don't need to read this anymore. One of them being Lucy Score. I just DNF'd one of her books this morning. And I'm like, wow, I have two others of her books. Two other of her books, I mean. Two more of her books, English. But I don't need to read them because I am so let down. I am ticked off. We sold so many of her books. Her covers are so cute.

Nikki (14:47)
Yeah.

Kelly (15:02)
Why are they like 500 plus pages? It's a romance. It's a contemporary romance, okay? And now I'm just mad. I'm mad at everyone online who was like, these books are so good, the chemistry, the heat, the whatever. I didn't like it, so now I can get rid of those books. I can give them to someone who wants them because they're taking up space. So that's my main goal is to be like, series, do I want them? Do I need them? Will I continue? Because there's way too many.

Nikki (15:07)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah, I agree. Oh, I guess a loose goal of mine, it's not like a specific book, but I have like a lot of books here that I have not read. And so I am actually I have it right behind.

Kelly (15:32)
That's how I feel.

Yeah.

Magic's gonna happen!

Nikki (15:53)
I have my little cauldron and that's all of the books that I have physically in my office that I need to read. So have I been doing it? Yes. Have I also been buying more books? Yes. But I don't think as many as I've read, so that's a win.

Kelly (16:02)
Wow.

Good for you. Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Nikki (16:20)
Yeah, so that's, I think that's the main goal is some days or not some days, some years when it comes to books, I feel like very consumerist about it and I really want things. But since I really do read primarily on my Kindle now, and I have looked at some of my purchases lately and gone, why did I need to get that? That's just a waste of money.

Kelly (16:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Nikki (16:47)
buy not even just with books but just with anything so I'm really trying to be very intentional about what I'm buying especially when it comes to books because if I'm gonna get it on my Kindle do I really need it on my shelf when I have all of these great books it's just gonna another book that's gonna get lost in the in the pile essentially so I don't know we'll see how long that lasts but I'm trying very hard

Kelly (16:55)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like I've been buying less books too so far this year, which is great in general. Um, but like I see what you're saying about the Kindle thing. I try not to buy eBooks because I don't know, I used to buy a lot and then I wouldn't read them cause they got like lost in the digital mess of, I don't know, the internet, right? But like, as we were recording this, the new Emily Henry book comes out tomorrow.

Nikki (17:36)
Right.

Kelly (17:43)
And I wanted to buy the ebook because I don't want the hardcover. I want to wait for the paperback, but the ebook is like $18. So I may as well just get the book. You know what I mean? So I'm going to do that. Unfortunately.

Nikki (17:57)
Yeah.

It's also hard, I mean, you have a Kobo. I don't have a Kobo, I only have a Kindle and we're located in Canada. And unless you pay for or find a free United States library, you cannot get your library books put on your Kindle because it doesn't work for Canadian libraries because Canadian libraries are paired with Kobo, which is fine, but I don't have a Kobo.

Kelly (18:21)
Yeah.

Nikki (18:30)
And my iPad is the 12.9 inch huge bad boy of a thing because I do like graphic art and stuff on it. So I don't love reading on my iPad. It's not a super enjoyable experience. So I think I might have to get a Kobo soon.

Kelly (18:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Kobo, if you're listening, Rakuten, Heather, whoever I need to talk to, could you please sponsor us and give us a Kobo?

Nikki (19:02)
A colored Kobo. A beautiful colorful Kobo. I would die.

Kelly (19:03)
 Seriously, I so I just checked because we have the info at work, right? Again, not sponsored. So I feel kind of like, why should I be talking about them on here? But I wish so. It's still going to be like the e-reader ink, even though it's color. So it's not going to be like blaring white at you, which I'm like, oh I want it.

Nikki (19:14)
Right.

Yeah.

Kelly (19:31)
But, yeah.

Nikki (19:31)
Yeah, it's, I really like too that Kobo has the option to write in the margins with the new color e-readers because they have a pen that's coming out as well. I don't know if the pen's already out, maybe not. But on the Kindle colored e-readers that they announced that are coming up next year, you don't have that option. And also they're going to be like scribe sized, which is too big.

Kelly (19:38)
Mm-hmm.

Uh, they have something, maybe it's new. I don't know.

Oh.

How big is that?

Nikki (20:04)
The Kindle scribe is like... Ugh, I don't know, like...

Kelly (20:08)
Oh, is it like this, the ellipsa like massive? Oh, Oh my God.

Nikki (20:12)
Yeah, because it's for like note taking and all this other stuff. But on the Kindle scribe, you can't write in the margins of the book. You can just write in like the little note feature. So I don't know if it's just speculation and maybe they will change it if they're not too far into development. But I like that in Kobo you can write in the margin and you can still see it, but you can also do a note. So I don't know.

Kelly (20:18)
Hmm.

Okay.

Mmm.

Yeah, yeah, and you're gonna be able to highlight in color now and change the color so you can annotate it. Kobo, please sponsor us!

Nikki (20:47)
right? Because I mean, I used to do that on my iPad. I really liked that feature of the books app on the iPad. But yeah, it's just really hard to read on a screen like that for hours and hours and hours. And also, like I said, my iPad is massive, so I'm not trying to get carpal tunnel over here. I need the Kindle size, the little paper white for the basic.

Kelly (20:48)
Please.

Mm.

Yeah.

hahahaha

Yes.

Nikki (21:16)
where I can just put on my stand with my little clicker and go. But yeah.

Kelly (21:21)
Yeah. Well, I'm putting it out in the ether. I'm going to try to manifest it for us. Please. Oh my god. Yes.

Nikki (21:30)
Oh man. Anyway, back to what we've been reading this year. Do you have any favorites? Like any books that you were anticipating that are a favorite or any books that surprised you are a favorite?

Kelly (21:45)
Yes. So actually I did take the time to write a few notes down because I mean, I feel like I've read nothing, but I have read quite a bit so far. I've read 47 books so far, right? It just like zooms by like, I don't even know. But so I've read 47 books so far and I have five star books so far, which is pretty great. One of them is a reread. One of them is The Hand On the Wall by Maureen Johnson. So that's number two.

Nikki (21:55)
That's how I feel.

Mm-hmm.

Kelly (22:16)
Three? Two. I think it's two. I think it's the green one. I go by the color.

Nikki (22:16)
Yep. I don't know.

I think that's the third one. The Vanishing Stair is the second one. I think. That's the red one. Yes.

Kelly (22:28)
 I know the first one is Truly Devious and it's also blue. Okay, but so, okay, I liked that one a lot. Bride by Ali Hazelwood. That was like one of my most anticipated releases of this year. I read it the day it came out. I gave it, I think like a four and a half, but it's probably a five, honestly, cause I had so much fun. I couldn't put it down.

And so that met my expectations. I was so excited. Um, I also recently read. Yeah. I also recently read Wild Love by Elsie Silver, which I didn't think I was going to read period, but my coworker was like, you got to read this. It was so much fun. And it was so good. Like, I think I gave it a four and a half and now I have a new author to check out. So I'm like, cool. And she's Canadian. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. Um, but I feel like.

Nikki (23:00)
Awesome.

Mm-hmm.

Nice. Love that.

Kelly (23:24)
I'm waiting on a lot of books to come out because I think a lot of them are in like the second half of the year. Like I really want to read the next India Holton book. She writes, can I reach it from here? No. She writes like,

Victorian era romances sometimes, but they're like whimsical there. It's like the, what is it, the League of Gentlewomen Witches and the Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels. Like they're fun romance, like little fantastical elements too. So I really like her stuff. So she has a new book coming out that I want to read.

Nikki (24:12)
Nice.

Kelly (24:12)
 a new Sangu Mandanna book coming out. She wrote The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, which was so good. I think you would really love it. It's like super cozy. It's like found family ensemble book. I can't wait. She's got another one coming out. So yeah, I have books coming out like in the summer or fall I feel like that I really want to read, but so far it's been kind of quiet. Like...

Nikki (24:27)
So nice!

Right.

Kelly (24:40)
I don't know in terms of new books, like I did read the new Tessa Bailey. Hated it. Fangirl Down. So you'll have to let me know what you think. Yeah, we're going to do like a special sports romance episode later on. So we'll talk more about that book later. But yeah, that's yeah.

Nikki (24:48)
Can't wait.

 I'm sure if you didn't like it, I'm gonna absolutely fucking loathe it, but...

Kelly (25:01)
You're gonna hate it. I hated it. So you're gonna be like, what is this garbage? So what about you? Ha ha ha.

Nikki (25:09)
Ugh.

Well, I mean, I guess for surprising five-star reads. So I started off the year I read The Only One Left by Riley Sager. Phenomenal. And then I went on to read Home Before Dark, which scared the pants off of me. Haunted house things are where, like, my trigger button lies, I think. I don't know

Kelly (25:24)
Mmm.

God, okay.

Nikki (25:41)
what it is but like the paranormal ghost, you're walking down the hall and you feel something behind you, that just gets me every time. I had to make my boyfriend get up with me in the night to go to the bathroom because I was scared. So... and our bath- the bathroom is not far from... He would do it for you too, don't worry.

Kelly (26:00)
I've definitely done that before. Not with Bryce.

He would, he's sweet, yeah.

Nikki (26:11)
But yeah, so those books, and then I read a couple more from him and then I wasn't surprised anymore that they were really good because I had such a good time with the first few. And I mean, Holly five star read, it was phenomenal. I read it in two days, couldn't put the thing down. And I was so excited.

Kelly (26:30)
Wait, sorry, did that come out this year?

Nikki (26:35)
No, came out last year. I believe last year. Yeah. And yeah, five star read, couldn't put it down. I will recommend it to everybody who wants a detective fiction who loves horror, because even though it was detective fiction, it was scarier than detective fiction because Stephen King. And yeah.

Kelly (26:36)
Oh, okay, but you read it this year. Yeah, okay. I was like, what? Okay.

Okay.

Now I have a question. So sorry to interrupt. Do you have to read the other books that she's in to read Holly and enjoy it? Okay. Okay, cool.

Nikki (27:08)
No. The only, there was only one thing in the book where I was like, what's going on, is you hear about her, there's like a freelance detective that works with them sometime named Jerome, and you hear about his sister Barbara. And the way he was talking about them, I was like, I feel like I'm missing something. They were in other books too with her, but you, I picked it up. It was fine. Like the first

Kelly (27:37)
Okay.

Nikki (27:38)
Couple times they mentioned them, I was like, who are these people? But then you get enough information that you don't need to know what happened in the past books. So no, you don't need to read anything else. She was like very minor in the other books, but I just love it. I wish I could read it for the first time all over again. That's how much I loved it. And I am not going to stay on this for long.

Kelly (27:48)
Okay. Cool.

Okay.

Hehehe

Nikki (28:05)
because I don't want to give them airtime, but I have to say I read the remaining three Robert Galbraith books and I did really enjoy them and that's all I'm going to say about it. And I didn't buy them because I will not give her money. But we're talking about what we read and what we liked, so.

Kelly (28:19)
True. Boom.

Yeah, so there.

Nikki (28:26)
So there.

Kelly (28:29)
I did um I took my because we were talking about this before we started to record we use Goodreads but I have Storygraph mainly for stats because I'm curious about like what is going on here. My average rating so far is 3.66 so like okay but I would rather it be higher yeah but I feel like I have read a lot of mid books so far so I don't know.

Nikki (28:46)
Oh.

could be worse. Yep.

Yeah.

Kelly (29:00)
Some of that I think is like me getting through books that I own, that I've been staring at for a while thinking I should just give it a go. So on the plus side, at least it's like I'm going to clear out room for better things that I want to keep long-term hopefully. But, um, then it's just like a bummer, you know? Like I want to be reading five stars all the time if possible, you know? So.

Nikki (29:14)
Right.

I know.

I know.

They're few and far between.

Kelly (29:28)
Yeah.

Nikki (29:29)
I'm finding like I'm trying really hard to be more not critical necessarily but just really think more in depth about what I'm rating things because I will look back at past years and I'm like why did I give that a five star? Like just because I read it fast or whatever like I'm trying to discern within myself what is a five star? Is it only books

Kelly (29:49)
Mm-hmm.

Nikki (29:59)
that like I feel the way I felt about Holly where I read it so fast and I was so enraptured or is a five-star book any book that I was just like oh that was really fun and I like read it in a few days. What is the feeling that is giving me the five-star-ed-ness? But it's hard. It's hard because five, a scale of one to five is not a very large scale to put.

Kelly (30:11)
Mm.

Yeah.

Nikki (30:27)
like so many different kinds of things on. So.

Kelly (30:30)
Yeah.

I think for me, sorry, I had a thought earlier. That's why I went, oh, in case it's still in there, but I'll tell you after. I think for me, a five star, like sometimes it's because I feel like, oh my God, this book moved me. Like the way it was written was so beautiful or like almost perfection, whatever. And then sometimes a five star is like, yeah, I could not put this down. I had so much fun. The vibes were there. Like, I think it just depends for me. Like,

Nikki (30:53)
Mm-hmm.

Kelly (31:01)
But I totally get what you're saying. Like it is hard to pinpoint and also, yeah, you do look back sometimes and you're like, what? Was that a five? Especially as you grow as a reader, like this is what I think with that Lucy Score book I read because a lot of people on my Goodreads gave it high marks or high, whatever, high rating. And it was years ago. And I'm like, did you just start reading? Did you just start reading romance? Because I didn't like this at all. Like what? What am I missing, you know?

Nikki (31:09)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

Kelly (31:31)
I don't know.

Nikki (31:31)
Well, that could be it exactly. That they just, uh, if you read it when you're new and it's something that like sparks your interest into a genre or something, then I mean, at that time, then it's enough to rate it high, but it's hard to trust people.

Kelly (31:46)
Yeah.

Yeah, I feel betrayed almost by some people on there because I'm like, usually I agree with your opinions. And so I was reading this and I'm like, this is really boring. I don't understand it. And like the banter sucks. And they're supposed to be like 39 and 44. And they're talking and behaving like 18 year olds. And I'm like, this is By a Thread I should mention by Lucy Score, didn't like it. But I did just read a book today that I think you will really like, two books.

Nikki (32:06)
Right.

Oh, that's cringy.

Oh.

Kelly (32:19)
two middle grade graphic novels. And they've been on my list for a long time. So I read it through Libby and it is The Witch Boy and The Hidden Witch are one and two by Molly Knox Ostertag or Ostertag. It's so good. It's the first book is about a boy who all boys learn like shifter magic and all the girls learn witchery and he doesn't wanna be a shifter. He doesn't like.

Nikki (32:22)
Nice.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kelly (32:48)
He doesn't feel connected to that but he feels connected to witchery and so it's kind of about like you know finding your identity and all this stuff and it's so good it's so good I think you'd like it it's like cozy fun short read yeah

Nikki (32:52)
Right.

Oh.

 I've been really into graphic novels the last couple years. I read this year Garlic and the Witch and Garlic and the Vampire and those were just the sweetest little books ever. I read another really fun one, Hollow, which is about like Sleepy Hollow and there's a girl and she's in high school and she is like from the Van Tassel line and another girl comes to the school.

Kelly (33:11)
Yes!

Yeah.

Oh, okay, yeah.

Nikki (33:32)
and she is a Crane and it's around Halloween and they have this kind of like sweet little romance but also there's the headless horsemen around and stuff. So fun. So fun.

Kelly (33:37)
Oh.

Mmm.

I love graphic novels. They're just, you know, they're fun. And sometimes they're more than fun. Sometimes they're like, they crush your soul. You know, there's just so many to choose from. They're great. I feel like they don't get enough airtime. They don't get a good rap sometimes because people are like, it's not reading. It is reading. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, but also it's reading the pictures and getting

Nikki (33:59)
Yep, I know.

It is reading. There are words on that page.

Yeah.

Kelly (34:15)
meaning from it, you know?

have you ever read a graphic novel where you were like, what the hell is this picture trying to tell me? Because it just wasn't conveyed well enough. Because I definitely have. Like, and that affects the whole book. Because you have to be a good storyteller, whether it's through your pictures or the writing or both. Like, yeah.

Nikki (34:37)
I don't know that I have, but I do have to admit I don't really spend a lot of time looking at the pictures. I read graphic novels very quickly because I'm just like, like I do a glance. I'm not somebody who's like on each page looking at in depth on at things. I don't care that much. I'm like, this is fun, very pretty, and then I'm done.

Kelly (34:45)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah, I guess, like, I don't remember what the one I read was called, where I didn't understand it, but like, there were like huge sections where there was barely any writing. And I was like, what? So like the pictures that they had drawn for that section, I was like, literally what just happened. So maybe it's just me, but I was like, what? Because I'm the same way. I don't like, pick apart each picture. But yeah.

Nikki (35:13)
Okay.

Right. Yeah.

Right.

Kelly (35:30)
I was like, what is happening? So, you know, it is reading.

Nikki (35:37)
So there.

Kelly (35:38)
Yeah.

because we talked about some of our highlights. Is there any book so far this year that you're like, Oh my God, I wish I didn't read this or have you DNF'd anything yet?

Nikki (35:50)
Well, I DNF'd The Pale Horse. I don't know if I DNF'd anything else, but I feel like, okay. One graphic novel was Snow, Glass, Apples, which is by Neil Gaiman. It was whack as fuck. Like, I just... So, I mean, it only took me like an hour.

Kelly (35:53)
Oh yes.

Oh yeah.

Oh, shoot.

Nikki (36:19)
so to read, but it was just like this really pornographically weird version of Snow White that I feel like no one asked for.

Kelly (36:28)
And this wasn't like the Anne Rice thing. Oh my God. Okay, wow. Wow.

Nikki (36:31)
No.

 So that just because I'd love to just erase the memory from my brain entirely and Love in the Time of Serial Killers. Yeah.

Kelly (36:42)
I'm gonna read it just so I know what you're talking about.

Nikki (36:48)
and The Art of Catching Feelings.

Kelly (36:53)
which we'll be talking about in an upcoming episode. Okay.

Nikki (36:56)
Yes, yes. So look forward to that. We have lots of opinions and thoughts, but yeah, I don't know. But I think really for reading like 31 books, only having three books that I'm like, and only one that I'm like really condemning, the other two were just like, they just weren't my cup of tea. I think that's pretty good. What about you?

Kelly (37:17)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nikki (37:23)
What are some books that you read this year? You've read 47, so you probably have a list of a few that you were like, well, I didn't have to waste my time on that.

Kelly (37:30)
Yeah, so I guess we'll already talked about Never Lie. That's the Freida McFadden? Yeah. But I did DNF By a Thread by Lucy Score at 62% because I was just like, why did I waste three days on this? I'm so mad at myself and everybody else who's around me. How dare you? But I also, I did a, I'm going to call it a soft DNF on The Catch by Amy Lea.

which I was really, really upset about. And I say soft DNF because I stopped reading it at 70 something percent, and then I skimmed to the end because it was so boring. And I loved her other book, Exes and Os, and she's a Canadian author. This book was at Nova Scotia, which is like nearby where we are.

Nikki (38:03)
Oh.

Right.

No. Yeah.

Kelly (38:24)
And so I thought this will be so cute. Nice summer read. And it was so boring. There was no chemistry. It felt very much like we're in Canada. We like to fish out on the East coast. We like poutine, not poutine, poutine. Like just very, oh, we're gonna buy you some Timbits. They're not donut holes. Like it was so like, tell me everything that you must include in a Canadian.

content. Everything that was music that was playing was Canadian musicians, everything. I just felt so annoyed. I was like, I get it. I get it. But could you have just like written a book that was set in Canada, like Elsie Silver did in Wild Love and not have it be like, we're in Canada. Oh my God. It's so quaint. You have free healthcare. They had that in there too. Like it was just, and she's Canadian. It was just, I was so disappointed. So I think that's one of my most disappointing.

Nikki (38:58)
Thanks for watching.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kelly (39:22)
things so far.

Nikki (39:25)
I mean, just to say a little thing off of that, which doesn't have anything to do with this episode, authors who are Canadian that feel they can only write about being in Canada bother the crap out of me. I mean, I read a lot of Kelley Armstrong and she writes most of her books in Canada, but it feels like how Stephen King writes most of his books in Maine.

Kelly (39:41)
Yeah, agreed.

Nikki (39:52)
it's still like the setting of a book. It's not like I am trying to single-handedly show everybody why this is the best province in the universe or whatever. Like, it just makes me cringe. Cringe, I tell you.

Kelly (39:52)
Sure.

Yeah, I agree. I agree because, again, the most recent thing I've read where it was in Canada, Wild Love, it was in BC, but it felt like it was just in a mountain town. And it was a part of the story because that's where they were. It wasn't like, I must tell you about Canada, and I must make us seem quaint and cute and-

Nikki (40:20)
Right.

Right.

Kelly (40:33)
One of the lines was like, we're not all polite or not every Canadian's polite because this guy's a grump. Like, of course we're not all polite. I've met so many friggin bitches and assholes here, okay? Like they're everywhere. They're in every country. Yes. Home born and bred, okay?

Nikki (40:40)
Ew.

Yeah you're from Ontario.

Kelly (40:54)
I don't know, I just feel... I'm annoyed because... whatever, I don't mean this in a mean way, but I just need to say it the way it's in my brain, okay? She wrote this book as a Canadian author for Americans to be like, look at Canada, isn't Nova Scotia quaint? Come out here for a vacation! But like, she's from Toronto, I think? I don't know if she's been to Nova Scotia, I honestly can't tell from the way she wrote this book, because it felt like PEI.

Nikki (41:13)
Right.

Kelly (41:23)
And there's nothing wrong with Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia. Love them both, they're great. You should go visit both. Why not? If you can, but it was just so, eugh, so cheesy and corny and not real. Mm-mm.

Nikki (41:38)
Well, I think too, people who are Canadian, but aren't from the Maritimes have a stereotype of the Maritimes. Like somebody who has spent a good amount of time here isn't going to be like, Oh yeah, eh buddy, we got our Tim Hortons and how about that? And like, it's not like that. It's very normal, except we don't have to wait in rush hour traffic for like an hour and a half to get to work.

Kelly (41:46)
Oh sure, sure.

No. Yeah, like

No, but you do have to wait in the drive-thru line sometimes for an hour and a half. So that's one thing.

Nikki (42:12)
Yeah, because Tim Hortons is fucking slow here. Just putting it out there.

Kelly (42:15)
It is, everything is. But as someone who's not from the East coast, who's been here for like over five years, I want to say it's like eight years now or something, like the one thing I noticed was just like some people's accents were like a little bit different, but not in the way that you were doing like the stereotypical it's just like, Oh, you have some different like slang words. Okay. Like whatever, but like, no, it's not, it's not like that.

Nikki (42:34)
Right.

Right.

Kelly (42:46)
just gonna say. And I would like to think I'm not like the stereotypical Ontario jerk.

Nikki (42:46)
Yeah.

No, you're from a small town in Ontario. I think that makes a big difference.

Kelly (42:55)
Yes, right? Yeah. People, sorry people from Toronto, but someone when I first moved here said to me, okay Toronto, and I was offended. I was like, how dare you? Because they're trying to tell me, oh, you think you're so cool? I was like, no, I don't think I'm cool at all. Are you kidding me? I hate Toronto. I'm an Ottawa girl. You know?

Nikki (43:07)
Yep.

I had a guy, so I went to school in Ontario and I had this one guy at the cafeteria that my friends and I would go to and sometimes I would get a poutine and I would say, can I get a poutine? And he was like, what's that? And he's like flirty joking with me, but it just made me so angry. He's like a poutan, it's a poutine. And I'm like, it's not.

Kelly (43:41)
Yeah.

Nikki (43:41)
And the fact that you keep correcting me about it is just so ignorant because it's not even an English word. So just get over the fact that you obviously say it wrong and just stop hounding me about it. I'm not - every time someone says a poutine. I don't go, you have to say it like Poo-tin. I don't do that. You, you live your life. But I'm just saying don't correct me when I'm the one who's right. I'm just saying.

Kelly (43:46)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, also, find a better way to flirt, cause you clearly suck at it, dude. Ho ho, you're wrong. Wow, I fell in love with him instantly. Said no one ever.

Nikki (44:15)
Right?

Yeah, that just makes me wanna go on a date real bad. Makes me want a hot dog real bad. Ha ha ha.

Kelly (44:23)
Right? Oh my god.

I love that.

Nikki (44:31)
Oh my gosh.

Kelly (44:34)
Well, to end on a positive note.

Is there anything that you're dying to read before the year's up? It could be a new book, it could be one you already own. Let me know.

Nikki (44:47)
Yes, it came out this year, Empire of the Damned, which is the sequel to Empire of the Vampire. I loved that book so much and I am so excited for the second one even though I know the first one was very long, but I loved it and I was actually low-key disappointed that the second one was not as big as the first one because I was just like, I want all of the info.

Kelly (44:52)
Oh

Mm.

Wow, okay.

Nikki (45:14)
I want all of the things. I'm sure he's giving us whatever we need because obviously the book is done and published, but I just feel in my soul like I want more. And I haven't even read it yet.

Kelly (45:14)
Yeah.

Do you know? Is it a duology or a trilogy or like, do you know?

Nikki (45:27)
No, I have no idea.

Kelly (45:29)
Oh, okay, so you could be getting more, more bigger books.

Nikki (45:31)
Maybe I'd be okay with that. But yeah, so Empire of the Damned, I'm really, really looking forward to reading. What about you? I know you talked about a few new releases, but is there anything else, like just a book you already have?

Kelly (45:39)
Okay.

Yes.

Well, so many books that I have. But you know what? I think one of the books that I really want to get to is...

Sorry, I'm like taking a look. I'm like, what?

Yeah, actually, I thought about it. I know what I wanna read. I really wanna try to finish The Poppy War this year, like the trilogy. Yeah, because I don't know what it is. It's not her, it's definitely me. I feel so intimidated by RF Kuang at all times, even though everything I've read by her I've loved and I have just like eaten up, but I'm still like, I'm always so scared to start one of her books. I don't know what it is. Cause she's just great. Like...

Nikki (46:28)
Yeah.

Right.

Kelly (46:48)
Everything I've read about her I've loved. So I think this is the year where I just say, Kelly, put on your big girl pants and just read the rest of the trilogy because I loved The Poppy War. I just need to finish it. I need to do it. So that's my goal.

Nikki (47:00)
Right.

I think I have to re-read The Poppy War before I can continue the series. I mean, I read the whole thing in 28 hours, so I need a refresh.

Kelly (47:10)
Mmm. I'm just gonna listen to our episode. Yeah, that's true. I'm just gonna listen to our very detailed synopsis from our episode. And that's it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Too much work. Look it up.

Nikki (47:22)
Oh yeah, when we used to do that. Crazy.

Kelly (47:32)
Thank you so much for joining us today for our first episode back here on BYOB, the Bring Your Own Book podcast. If you want to stay up to date on all things bookish on or off the air, you can follow us on Instagram at BYOBookPodcast or on TikTok at bringyourownbook.

And remember, you don't have to finish the book if you hate it. You can DNF it. So until next time, see ya!

Nikki (47:56)
See ya!