#262: Reading & Writing Updates

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Emma: You're listening to the Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort listen. This week we are sharing lots of updates about books. We are gonna be sharing what we've been writing and also what we've been reading so far in 2025.

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Elsie: Okay, so before we jump in this week, I wanted to share a little bit about our family vacation that we took this summer to London. It was our first time to go overseas with all four American passports. That was a new experience because we did adopt our youngest daughter a couple months before COVID started. So we had a couple years where we just weren't planning to travel. And then after that, honestly we just kind of had to get re-energized about the idea of traveling overseas with kids. So we finally got our passports and we made ourselves a schedule that we're gonna try to. Go to a new country every year for the rest of their childhood into adulthood, like as kind of our family adventure. So the first place we wanted to go was London because some of our dearest friends have been living there for a couple years and you know, we missed them so much obviously, and we just wanted to see what it was like. I had never been to London before, I think none of us had. Jeremy hadn't been, I had been to England before, but not to London. You have to go. So I knew it was gonna be amazing, but it was even like 10 times more amazing. I love London. Oh my gosh. Like I can't wait to go back. It's gorgeous. It's so beautiful. Everything's so fancy. And I have to say, like the thing that left the biggest impression on me in an envious way, this is for our English listeners, is that I do think that English people get cuter book covers than we do. Like the book covers are all different. So it's just such a delight going through the bookstores in England. And next time I go, I'm gonna like bring a suitcase and try to have a book suitcase or do something weird with because I felt like I didn't have enough. I couldn't bring home as many books as I wanted. So that was really, really hard. But I made it through. Uh, what else we did when we were there is our friend Ryan, who's his project is called Sleeping At Last, so he performed at the Royal Albert Hall and it was our children's first time to go to a concert.

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Emma: Fancy first concert.

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Elsie: It was such a fancy first concert. They were maybe a little bit on the young side. So we were terrified. Like terrified. And I, and I will say like even up till five minutes before the show, I was convinced I was gonna have to spend it out in the lobby. It was not going well, and then a miracle happened and our kids both happily were able to sit through the show and enjoy it. There was a lot of lights, like it was very atmospheric. So that definitely helped a lot. And it did have a, what's it called when you have a break in the middle?

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Emma: Intermission.

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Elsie: Yeah, it did have an intermission. So that's terrified again. I was like, oh no. Oh no. Like the vibe's been broken. And now we have to restart. But we made it through the entire show, thankfully. And it was, yeah, just such a magical experience to see our friend perform in a space like that. It was just really special because Jeremy used to tour with him and, you know, they have their whole, like we've seen Yeah. Friends, they've performed together in like a place with like 20 people, you know? So that was probably like one of the most special venues in the world, I guess, that you can perform in. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. So it was really, really wonderful. And then other than that, we had a big kids trip because our friends also have children kind of the same age as our children. So we did like some, I think it's called soho in that area. There was like this unlicensed Harry Potter experience. It was like wands and wizards or something like that. So we did like a wand making. Experience. Fun. It was really fun. And we did the, I can't, oh, I can't remember the name of the place, but we did like this really fancy department store high tea. Was it Herod's? Maybe? I'm not sure. Is it Giant? It was a big fancy department store with a candy shop in the bottom. I think Herods or Herods or something. It was very, very beautiful. I'm extremely American, so I don't know how you pronounce it, but yeah.

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Emma: Does it have Turkish delight in the candy?

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Elsie: Yes. It was so amazing in there. Oh my gosh. So I loved that. So that was for our little 7-year-old because she is a princess child and she cared about the high tea more than anything. That was a wonderful experience. And then last but not least, we went, oh, we went to the Tate Britain. Lovely. There's two tapes. So I wanted to see Ophelia. And I got to see her, but she did have glass. And I was like, I get really sad when there's glass on like a famous painting. And I know that. I get it. I get it. Yes. But yes, it's a bummer. It's so sad though. 'cause you never really know. It's like, 'cause a lot of, like the most famous paintings don't have glass. Yeah. So you just really never know until you're there in person. Anyway, she had a glass. I wish I could get over it, but I'm not clearly, but she was incredible. And yeah, that was a amazing museum with a great kids area, like wow. But yeah, I met a podcast listener at the Tate. So that was really special. I met a couple people. And then last but not least, we went to Waterstones, which is like the UK sort of equivalent of Barnes and Noble. But we went to this fancy one and in the basement it had this whole room of all the Booker prize winners and I think like the shortlist maybe like for every single year. So you could like look at like year by year, by year by year. That's fun. And it was like so special. I didn't buy anything that day and it was like definitely, definitely regretted that. I should have just done it all cost. It was like such a special place to be and just to like see, I dunno, like the Handmaid's Tale and all the books. It feels like history. Like it, it was a museum in its own way. That I had never experienced before, so I really enjoyed that. So yeah, I can't wait to go back again to London. It was just so like clean and beautiful like the parks.

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Emma: Did you ride the underground?

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Elsie: No, we didn't. We rode the buses a lot. The tall buses. Buses are lovely. Then you get to see more.

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Emma: The underground's just, you know, an experience.No, I think London's magical, magical, magical. I'm not even really a big city person, but I kind of like being in like rural places, but I love London. It's lovely. It's a 10. I love New York too.

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Elsie: I tried to find Harry Styles of course, but it didn't happen for me. But you know, maybe it'll happen for you.

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Emma: Oh, I wouldn't say hi. I am too shy.

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Elsie: No. Oh, too shy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

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Emma: I would just be like, oh my God, this is the greatest story of my life, and I'd never even say hi. So, yeah, exactly.

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Elsie: That's the way to be, I think.

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Emma: I think so. I'm 40. All right.

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Elsie: Yes. So, okay, Emma, so I know this is like, this is a big moment, so I wanna get you giving your writing update of what you've done so far this year and it is, it is very special.

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Emma: So over the summer I finished my first draft of The Wedding Photographer, which is my contemporary romance, and I think it's pretty good. I think that it will get longer. It's currently only 66,000 words or 65, something like that. So I think it's gonna get a little longer. I think I'm gonna add a few more scenes. I don't know what though. Elsie's reading it right now. Yeah. I have a developmental edit in October booked and I'll probably have a few other friends read it. I've been kind of mulling over because it's a lot of work to read something for someone and provide real feedback. Like it's a lot of work, honestly. Yeah. So I'm like, alright, I should think about, you know, I don't wanna just throw it out there 'cause I think all my friends would probably do it because they're super nice. But I'm trying to be strategic anyway. So that was really exciting. I also had like a little bit of a life update over the summer where we've decided not to have Hugo in daycare. So he's home with me right now. I stayed home with him like this past month. And we're about to have a nanny start two to three days a week. And then my mom's gonna come one day a week, so I'll be able to work a little more than half as much as I was able to before. And that's just gonna, what we're gonna do for a year or two. And we'll put him back in preschool when he's like. Two and a half, three, somewhere in there. Yeah. So anyway, so. A lot of what I've been working on is going a lot slower than it was before, but I still can see that it's going relatable. So I'm like, it's all good. Life's good, and I don't have harsh deadlines right now, so it's great. So it's perfect time for that to happen, so it's great. But yeah, I finished the wedding photographer and I'm working on updating Cloud Nine, which is my middle grade. It's kind of a coming of age mystery. So I'm working on that a little bit too, and it's very exciting. I feel like I'm gonna have two books to be submitting before the end of the year, and I'm very excited to do that. They're two very different books, so I don't totally know, you know, I kind of have an idea that I'll probably just do the wedding photographer. And just kind of have Cloud Nine and bring it up later. I probably won't be submitting them to like different agents at the same time. I don't think that makes much sense, but at any rate, that will be kind of an interesting and fun thing to see. I'm really happy with The Wedding Photographer. It's definitely the first novel that I've written that I felt like I could write a bunch more like this. Mm-hmm. Like different? No, no sequels. It doesn't have a sequel, but just. You know, contemporary romance, I'm like, oh, I have a lot of these in me. Which makes sense because that's kind of my comfort read genre. So I read it fairly often and so I'm very familiar with it and I'm a huge fan of it, so it makes sense. And yeah, I was like, oh yeah, I already have like two more ideas that I'm debating which one I'm gonna start working on once I'm kind of at a stopping place with Cloud Nine. I'm very excited about it. It feels like I'm starting a new era, although it also feels like a very nebulous, like I'm walking into a place, but it's filled with fog. But I know I'm somewhere I wanna be. Yeah. But I can't see anything, you know, like, I'm like, that's the vibe. And I'm like, okay well, here we go. You know?

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Elsie: Yeah. No, it's an adventure and every person's story, you know, is so wildly different every single time, so you really can't, like, no matter how much you try to like learn about the industry and how it works, your story will be different than other people. So, yeah.

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Emma: Yeah. And yeah, I've never really pictured myself staying home with my kids. I'm not, like I said, we are gonna have a nanny start soon, so I'm still gonna have some work time, but I'm definitely in a part-time work era. Mm-hmm. For the next couple years and that's different. I wasn't really planning that. I think it's what makes the most sense for our family and what we need and I'm good with it and it's really fun. Hugo's a blast. So it's good. It's just different and it changes the way I think about my career and the time that I have for it. But it's also just a season. And, you know, takes an adjustment. The trade offs of it are like, kind of like, oh, I work less and I feel like I have less to say about my own personal career and life, but I gain all this time with my son. And yeah, it's really special and he's in a really special age. So I don't know, it's really, it's really good, but it's just has these two sides to it.

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Elsie: No, I think that that's extremely relatable. Yeah, everyone has to find that balance and it does change. I feel like I'm just at the point of getting a little tiny bit more time back. And it is so great but also it is, I don't know. Like I got used to, I got used to speed working and squeezing it in. And you can do that.

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Emma: Yeah. I'm already kind of like, oh, the nanny's, you know, we talked about three days and I'm already like, maybe I should tell her two days because I kind of feel like used to my new schedule in a way. And I don't know, it's weird. It's weird how quickly you can kind of take today, change. Take today you're, yeah, I think I will. And then just see. Yeah, it's all good. But yeah, it's funny how quickly you can get used to a new person. I'm definitely a routine person. So when my routine first changes, I'm kind of freaking out. Maybe not on the outside, but definitely on the inside. But I'm just like, just adjust. It's okay that you feel weird, just adjust. But then eventually I'm like, this is my new normal and I don't wanna change again. You know, like, I don't know. It's funny how quickly it goes.

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Elsie: Yeah.

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Emma: Anyway. That's what I've been writing. What have you been writing? Let's talk more about that.

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Elsie: Okay, so I think, I can't remember exactly where we left off the last time we talked about writing, but in the spring I finished and queried my novel, The Surrealist, and it was my first novel I ever wrote. And my, I'm just gonna share a tiny about how this query was. Eventually when I have had a successful query, I'll give a full episode and it'll be like, but I'm just gonna give a like where we're at for now. So I started querying in March and. It was a very exciting, Emma and I were in New Orleans the first morning that I sent like two, my very first two queries to agents, which is just a letter to the agent, sort of like pitching your book. You'd like for them to read it and consider working with you as a client. So I sent two of them, like five in the morning and then we went to get beignets. And then when I got back to the hotel room, they had both requested the full manuscript. I would say that was like one of the best moments of my career. Like it was unforgettable, amazing experience. I'm really glad that I did it, but I did also learn pretty quickly that I queried way too early and that my manuscript was not ready. So I did get a lot of rejections. I did get 17 rejections and I sent more queries that week, and I think I only sent queries for two days and I ended up with 10 requests, and out of those 10, 8 of them had written me back with the rejection by the time I decided to stop querying. So two of them I wrote back to and kind of was like, I'll see you later. I'll come back. I decided I wanted to do a rewrite, and that is like, it's kind of actually controversial because a lot of people, well, like kind of, everyone feels like they wanna rewrite their book after it's been rejected. And a lot of people would be better suited to just write a new novel because rewriting is kind of the same amount of work as writing a whole new novel. So you have to know like. The reason why I knew it was the right choice for me is because I did have a lot of interest in my concept. So I knew that the concept was good, but the manuscript was not at the level it needed to be at. And that was very clear. And I even got some personalized feedback from some of the agents that said what they thought was wrong with it, and it was pretty consistent, which was nice. That's good. People don't always get that, you know, like sometimes you can get like no feedback or you can just get all reductions and no one says any reason, and the reasons are wildly different. So it's really nice if they say like, oh, I have something similar, or, oh, I don't like this genre. Then in my case, they mostly said this story has bad pacing. That was like, so good for me.

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Emma: That's a fixable problem. Yeah. I represent too much of this already, not a fixable problem. It's like, okay, well this agent just is a dead end for you. Yeah, that makes sense.

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Elsie: So yeah, a lot of them just basically said like, your story is boring or it has bad pacing and it has low stakes, and that those are like very common first novel problems. And I did write the book for myself. So in a lot of ways I wrote the type of book that I like to read without any balance of like the expectations of readers. So after that, after I realized what the issues were, I read like five craft books in a row. I took a bunch of classes. So the last six months, I've pretty much just been like in an education zone, and right now I'm about halfway done rewriting the manuscript. So I started it over. Emma helped me plot it. Actually, she helped me so much. So we re plotted the entire thing and kind of just made it more of a. A story, like the first version, was beautiful, you know, like a lot of people say this happens to them in the first novel, but like beautiful things happening to beautiful people. Everything's beautiful all the time. It was kind of that kind of vibe and that's like not entertaining to read for 300 pages. So yeah. So now I'm. Same characters, same research, completely different story unrecognizable in other ways. So it's been a really good learning experience. And as I, I did have a long break in there 'cause I was waiting for some editorial feedback. And so during that time I started working on my second novel, which has been, I've learned so much from this comparison. It's kind of like having a second child. Like you think that everything you learned on your first child is going to be applicable help to you. You might like most, for most people, you just get a completely different child and they behave differently. They have different issues, they have different strengths, different, you know, tough points, different challenges like, so my second manuscript. So I, so at the moment I'm working on both and I'm going back and forth, which is also controversial, but I think it's really good for my seven brain. 'cause when I get really frustrated, because the surrealist is pretty, it is a pretty difficult story to rewrite. Since I was so attached to my flawed first version. Like I had all these like just. The things that happen to a first novel, like all the worst things that can Happen happened, and I'm still committed to it and I'm still enjoying it, but it is very tough to work on and to like sort of, it's a lot of problem solving. And my second novel is really easy for some reason and it's just like popping out and it's like it just wants to be written. It's a true second child. It's just yes. Easy peasy. You're like, what's happening? Well, my kids were not that, not in the world. Oh, my kids are that way. But I think that's definitely how me and Emma were. I was the tough first child and she was the easy, sleepy baby little angel child. Anyway, so I'm glad that I'm doing two at once. It is slower. I'm trying to wrap them both up this season and into the year with two drafts at whatever phase they're at. It's fine but just not like two completed drafts because they already have another one I wanna start next year. So yeah, it's been. The best learning experience and I'd love to talk more about it in the future. I think that, you know, just like the experience of educating yourself from nothing has been such a great learning experience for me to like go from being someone who. I just didn't know. I just didn't know anything about publishing and writing, like writing novels. I didn't know anything except for just, you know, small, a little bit of like what you are attracted to. And when I started writing my very, very first manuscript, it was just like. You know, with no information at all. And then now I feel pretty educated because of all the classes and things like that. So yeah, it's been like an amazing experience and I'm so glad we're going through it together.

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Emma: I've like been a reader so long that I never thought Elsie would be a reader or wanna be a writer either. So it's really fun because then it feels like we can talk about it all the time. So it's like the best thing ever that you got into it. I love it. Yeah. And I will say, um, it's magical. I don't think you had as much of this as me, but so I've been writing since like 2020 or right before. I finished my first novel in 2020 and for a long time I viewed it as I was just learning and practicing and I would try to have a writing career maybe in like my fifties was kind of what I thought. I didn't really have a clear timeline, but just. Nebulous, you know, this is what I kind of thought. And now that we're in a place where our blog is really changing and our industry's changing, and we're both like, okay, it's time to start our new career. Now I'm like, oh, I need to be more serious about this. It does change the way I think about writing. I think if you're like, pick a different medium, I think if you're like making music and it's just for you're just making a song that you find beautiful. That's one thing. And then if you wanna make a song that makes money or it gets a placement in a movie, or you know, that's a really different thing.

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Elsie: Yeah.

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Emma: And so I think that now I'm thinking about writing through the lens of what would people buy. You know, so it's still like I want it to be something that I'm interested in and that I like writing and that has like my artistic views or whatever. Just like I did before, but now it's much more, oh, and I'm trying to sell this. Whereas before I wasn't really too concerned about that. I just wanna learn to write well right now and I'll sell something later and now my perspective is I wanna sell something soon. So, you know, it just changes things a little bit. I also think like just even if you don't sell art, if you just plan to show it that changes it too. It does, because I think when you make something just for yourself, it's really just about the making and the process of it. It has nothing really to do with the outcome because it's just for you. But if you plan to show it to other people, all of a sudden. It's much more about the outcome than it is just the making. And if you plan to sell it, then you have to think about what's the market for this type of thing. What do people like buying? What is popular in writing and movies and music and painting, whatever the thing you do is, and it just changes it slightly. And it's all interesting because I happen to love creativity and art and business.So for me it's a very fun exploration. I love learning about economics basically I think it's really interesting, but I also think it changes what you make and how you view it and how you think about it. In a good way, but in a different way.

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Elsie: I agree. On one side of the coin, I will say the first year that I spent writing The Surrealist just for myself with no real information. I mean, I've really read just that Stephen King craft book. Which a lot of people think is not the best one to start with. It's very inspirational. It's a little bit of a biography about Stephen King, you know. It's not what I would recommend anymore for starting off, but like, but fun. It's fun. Anyway, it's very fun. But yeah, that first year it was like, so, like it was one of the happiest times of my entire life creatively to just sit down and write a crazy novel without knowing anything. And I think if you can give yourself that gift you should. Because the thing that's sad is that a lot of people can't handle the idea that your first novel is probably gonna be bad, but it just is and like, and I think it, it stops a lot of people from wanting to do it. But like, I am here as someone, I'm like telling you I had 17 people in a row, rejected in like a month. A lot of them read it and I admit it was bad. Like I admit it.

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Emma: Well, I think too framing it up is bad. Like what does that mean specifically? Okay. I admit it's unsalable. See, that to me, that's like, that's one thing because I think if you're starting to write and if you need to sell something, then yeah, you gotta make something sellable.

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Elsie: Okay.

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Emma: But if you're just starting to write and you're not necessarily needing to sell it right away, I would think of it much more like give yourself some kind of writing assignment. And for your first one, I would honestly just make it to finish a novel and give yourself like a word count. Yeah. You know, just getting those words down. Anything over 60,000 words or whatever, just pick something that you know isn't a novella, basically. So yeah, any subsequent ones, give yourself some kind of writing assignment so that the idea being, because I don't think anyone wants to do something that they're like, I'm going to be bad at this.So excited to do it. Can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning and be bad at it. It's like that's hard. We all know that we're bad at stuff when we start, but still it's hard to go through that phase. That's a good way to go, honestly, if you could do that. I like a little self delusion.I do it myself, but I just think like make the goal different. Make the goal like to finish, make the goal to write an interesting villain. Make the goal to write a sex scene. It doesn't have to be good. Doesn't have to be sellable. Just make a goal and eventually if you wanna sell it, your goal will have to be to make something sellable. But that's not the only goal.

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Elsie: Okay. Like, I wanna end this on encouragement, but like the idea that like, just do it for yourself on the first one. I do support that because I think that like, it's fun to just write something crazy and see what comes out. And most people have like some kind of a, like, self insert first novel that they wanna write is like something about your life or your experience or like, like most people just know what they would do. You know? And it's like something that's, I don't know, somehow like, reflects your life anyway. But yeah, like let it be, just let it be what it is and where I'm at now because it's like my second year to be working on the same book again for like the fifth time. It doesn't even feel like the same book anymore. So you can rewrite it as there is no one gonna stop you. No one is going to stop you from rewriting your book like seven times if you're willing to do that. Like you don't have to feel afraid of being bad, like no one can, no one can start to do whatever you want. You don't have to quit basically. And the other encouragement I would say is that learning the commercial side of the writing world has been so fun. It has given me a lot of ideas that I wouldn't have had if I would've just been like, I only just wanna focus on my artsy aesthetic like that. At first I had this very specific, like, I wanna write all books that kind of look this way to me in my mind. You know what I mean? And then as I, you know, did the querying, I had you, you have to. You have to learn, can't like keep your blinders on. You will learn if you do this experience and reading the like hundred different agents list of what they want to get sent was so illuminating for me. That was probably like the first time that I was like. Oh, like that. This is like a partnership. This is a business relationship where they have to be excited too and that matters a lot. So I started taking notes of like all the things they said they wanted to read. That was like anything I was interested in. And like my next couple ideas all came from that, which is really fun because it's like I've found a way to like do something that is exciting to me. I guess I'm just trying to say like, just because you learn about the commercial side of it and you try to write something that can sell and has a chance to earn money, does not mean that you have to like, give up your whole art brain. Like what whatsoever. Please bring your art brain. There's a very, very, very like, fertile middle ground that I've found so much more like, fulfilling to like, I don't know. It's like I'm bringing my creative energy, but I'm also like knowing that this has some kind of a chance to like, earn money in the future, which does matter. Like it, I mean, it probably matters to most people. 'cause it does, it takes a tremendous amount of time to write a manuscript way more than I thought, and I think I'm a little more on the medium or slow side. I know I'm not on the fast side from what other people say.

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Emma: I write during nap times only, so, yeah. So anyway, no, it makes me think a lot about, you know, I know we've told the story before, but the story of how RL Stein. Bob started doing Goosebumps when he was retiring. He'd already retired. He'd been writing jokes for Scholastic. He was like a joke writer and they'd had a magazine, I think. Anyway, they called him Jovial Bob because he was a jokester and he was retired and he was talking with an agent. This was probably back when they didn't really have the internet. I don't know what year this was, but I think it really, I think it was, it was pre-internet because I was reading his books in second grade, so yeah, that's what I'm thinking. So like he wouldn't have been able to look up an agent's wishlist in the same way we can now. So anyway, he was just getting lunch with just a New Yorker, with a publisher friend. I don't know if it was an agent or a publisher. I wanna say it was a publisher. You can look up the story. An editor. Yeah, you can look up the story. I'm telling it bad. This is not an autobiography. A biography. I'm not a biographer. Anyway, they were like, oh, we trying to do this middle grade horror series. But the author just dropped out, you know what, Bob? You're a good writer. Why don't you write it? And he was like, I don't write horror. I write jokes, and also I'm retired. And then he was like, you know what? Yeah, I can do it. And I think like to me that I love that story and I got so hung up on it when I first heard it years and years ago because it was like, here's someone who is a creative, who loves writing. He was a writer his whole life from since he was a child, and he just decided to like try something that the market wanted. nHe was like, okay, I'll give it a try. I'll bring my art brain and my creativity and the skills that I've accumulated over my lifetime of writing and I'll, I'll give something a try that I haven't done before, but like in my own way. And as we all know, Goosebumps was wildly successful. Along with his other series, Fear Street and whatever else. All sorts of things. Yeah. Like we all grew up with that stuff and so it's just this, like, to me, this thing of, it's kind of like, uh, don't be too cool for something. Like just bring your art brain, bring your creativity, bring your talent. But don't be too cool. Don't be like, I don't write that. It's like, well, just try it. You know if you have an opportunity.

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Elsie: Yeah, that's true.

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Emma: Try it. If you have an interest, give it a shot. It's true what you think.

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Elsie: You know, so far I do like passionately believe that every genre is good. Every genre is fun. Every genre has something in it, at least for me, as a reader that I want. And I think that that's a really magical way to be. I hope that was a fun update. We'll maybe do another one like after Christmas in the new year. Emma's probably gonna do her query this fall. So everyone cross your fingers. Send her all the good energy because I have a really good feeling. I'm the only one who has read part of The Wedding Photographer and like it. It's a 10. It is a 10. It is so good. So I'm so excited for people to read it. I think she definitely found her genre and has definitely the type of vibe where you write a couple more of these really fast because I wanna read them.

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Emma: Can do as soon as my son takes a nap. Just kidding.

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Elsie: Yeah, no. Yeah. You're doing good. It's good. You're doing good.

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Emma: He's 1-year-old. He's a little tiny guy.

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Elsie: Yeah.

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Emma: All right. Let's talk about moving on from writing. We're still talking about books though, so let's talk about what we've been reading. So this is more of like, as we mentioned in our last episode, we're now and again gonna give a kind of book report on one book, but this is not that. This is just talking about books we've read recently that we love. So it's more of a list catch up time but like it's more of a long list. So if you just need a big list of good books. Get ready. Get your pencil out.

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Elsie: Woo-hoo. Your notes app. That's where I put all books. Tell us what you've been reading.

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Emma: Okay, so here's my list. The Nature of Witches, which is a YA, it's kind of a romantic, but would be appropriate for lots of young readers. There's nothing crazy in it, but it's like the witches, they take care of nature of the elements, so they like make sure that a hurricane doesn't destroy a city. That's like the witch's job in this book. And also boys and girls are called witches in the books. Everyone's just a witch. There's no real distinction on that. Anyway, it was really good. I really liked it. I was trying to find a witch book that was more recent. I don't know what year that book was written, but it's fairly recent and I really liked it and it was a different take on things and it was fun. It was much more earthy. So anyway, loved that. Also read Lessons in Chemistry. If you're a reader you've heard of. This is a big bestseller a few years ago and my sister-in-law bought it for me some time ago, and I finally got around to reading it and I loved it. Yeah, I'm so into it. Love it, love it, love it, love it, love it. It's a very strange book. The point of view jumps around a lot. The writing's really fun and fast paced, but very strange in some ways. And the genre, I guess is historical fiction.

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Elsie: It's historical fiction, but I think that some people feel like you should note the magical realism because it does have a little bit of that. It does. But I mean it's definitely, I mean, it's like a mid-century historical book.

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Emma: Yeah. It's just a little bit wacky. It's so fun. It's not necessarily magical. It's kind of just wacky is more what I would say. Yeah. But it's really fun.

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Elsie: I don't consider it magical.

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Emma: I don't either.

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Elsie: It just has, it's just a little out there. It has a talking dog.

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Emma: But the dog doesn't literally talk. So I feel like, you know, it's kind of, it's not really, I think it works.

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Elsie: I like it. It's really, really original. That part of the book is like, you're never gonna see that in other books. Like, it kind of reminds me of remarkably bright creatures where it's just like, what is this? It's just the thing you don't see very often. Very special.

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Emma: Yeah. Whenever I went to the aquarium with Oscar, I've been a few times there's an octopus and I'm very careful what I say around the octopus. Good. Because I know he is listening. Anyway. Okay, and then two more. These are both contemporary romance. One is the Love Hypothesis. This came out a few years ago. Ooh, this author's amazing. I have a whole bunch of hers on my shelf and I can't wait to get 'em all. As Elsie's mentioned, I tend to like spread things out. It's not that they're serious, it's not a serious, they each stand alone. But I just, when I love an author and I know that they're like in my comfort genre, I just tend to like save them and spread them out more, especially if I get in a reading rut. Anyway, though, love hypothesis. Very fun. Contemporary romance, great sex scenes. Loved it. Then the last one is, Who's That Girl, which is more of a romantic comedy, so it is a contemporary romance, but it's very, very funny and it doesn't really have sex. It has implied sex. So if you're like, I like a light sex. I just heard you might like this.

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Elsie: I won't call anyone out, but I just heard some friends tell me that they skip the sex scenes in romance books, and I was like, oh my gosh. Like, do people do that?

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Emma: Like, I skipped forward to the sex scenes.

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Elsie: I do think that sometimes they're embarrassing to read, but I like them.

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Emma: No, I don't think so. I think they would be embarrassing to read out loud.

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Elsie: Yeah.

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Emma: Yeah. Anyway, Who's That Girl doesn't really have sex scenes just implied. But it's a nice romance. Really liked it. This author, I believe is Scottish but the characters are all English. It's set in England, so it did have a lot of English slang that I wasn't familiar with and is even like to the level, it's a little hard to guess based on context clues. I thought it was fun though, and like I said this, it's very funny. This author's very funny, very witty, loved it, flew through it, and it's pretty long. So yeah, if you need a funny one, try Who's that girl.

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Elsie: Yeah. That sounds fun. Okay, so these are my favorites of 2025. So far I loved The Wedding People. It was kind of like my whatever like bestseller, popular book of the year that I like, just loved.

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Emma: Love that cover too. I thought it was so good.

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Elsie: Sad to tell you, but the. UK cover way, way, way, way, way better. I like, it's my biggest regret. It's good. But the other ones, so I just read, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. And this book is so unhinged in all the right places. Nice. There's this one page I like got stuck on. It's pretty early in the book where she starts talking about burying all her baby teeth in the yard as like protection for her family and like, oh my God. I love that. I loved it. It was amazing. Weird. Love it. It's weird and also good and yeah. I don't hardly read anything that's classified as horror. So this is probably like my one for the year, but it didn't have anything horrible in it, you know what I mean? It was just like a nice little spooky. So I would definitely recommend it for this season. It's medium length. I thought it was very charming and it had that sort of like book written in the seventies feeling that I love. It's like something you can't really replicate, you know? It's just such a good era. Okay. I read 100 Years of Solitude and I did also love the TV show. I wanna mention, 'cause I feel like maybe people don't know. I haven't seen that Netflix TV show. It is in Spanish. So you either have to watch it with subtitles or with overdubs. And since I had my kids Nova watch part with me, I had to watch it in overdubs. So that was a little hard, but it's gorgeous. Like it's a gorgeous TV series. And yeah, the book, like it sent me into a thing I like. Got just like incredibly inspired slash jealous. My second book is definitely gonna be a family saga and it's definitely because of a hundred years of solitude. I loved it so much. So yeah, the writing's beautiful. I think that like, it's one of those books where the good reviews and the bad reviews are both true. Yeah. So it's a weird book. It's hard to read. Kind of, it's a challenging book, which I kind of like, I think like, yeah, like a couple challenging books a year. It like makes me feel good about myself. Anyway, but it's so beautiful and so worth it. If it's kind of like on your maybe list because Emma told me to read it like four years ago and I had it on my shelf all that time. I don't know why I was intimidated by it. It has one of the best opening lines I've ever read. It's just, it's great. So worth it. And another old book, three in a row, The Bell Jar I just read for the very first time and I had, you know. Read that Fig Tree poem before, which is like I think the best part of the whole book. I get it. Like same thing about the reviews. I get it, like it has the super racist part. It actually has like several parts, so it's like maybe it's pretty old. It's an old book and I read a lot of old books. Like I feel like that you feel like you have to acknowledge that, but also like there are so many beautiful parts of the book that So anyway, I thought the book was gorgeous and loved it. Fig tree poem the most though. So if you're not gonna read it, just look up the poem and that. We'll get you somewhere good.

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Emma: You can talk about it at a party if you know that poem.

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Elsie: It's like the greatest poem I've ever read. Like it's like, it's really up there. Then I loved Klara and the Sun. I don't know if you should say Klara or Klara and the Sun.

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Emma: I always say Klara, but I don't know if that's right because I just like read it. I'm not sure. I wonder what the audio book says. Did you listen to it? I

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Elsie: I did.

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Emma: What did they say?

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Elsie: I don't remember. Oh, yeah, I don't know. Whatever. I'll say Klara. Klara and the Sun. Okay, so it's Kazu Ishi Guru's robot book. So he is the writer of Never Let Me Go, which if you read our or listen to our favorite books ever episode, it's like gush, gush, gush, gush. I will never let it go. I will never let it go. That book is, it will always probably be my number one book, which is sad for all the other books. I think I have three number one books, but whatever. It's okay. It's one of the top three.

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Emma: Mine’s like a Google search. There's three and they refresh, you know, depending on the day.

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Elsie: But yeah, this was his robot book. I highly recommend it. It's a quiet book. It's definitely literary. It's not action packed at all. So keep that in mind whether you select it or not. But I thought it was gorgeous and exactly like everything I long for in a robot book. It's the type of sci-fi that is like just what I love. So on that note, please send recommendations. Like I really buy almost every single book that you send in an email.

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Emma: Yeah. My husband's reading a book right now. And when he needs a new book for nighttime reading, he just goes in my little library room and I was like, I think you might like this. Everyone says it's weird. So anyway, so everyone in my family's reading a recommendation.

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Elsie: Yes, yes. Send them away. And Nova is too. Yeah. So thank you for sending those. It's our favorite emails. And then last but not least, I read Little Women this year, so I just wanted to put it on there for fun. But Little Women, I do think it's a challenging book. Like it is a long book with a lot of religious passages that were honestly kind of boring to me. But also like the Joe and Teddy thing is like, there's like no like romantic relationship that's ever like fixated me as much as that, like those two characters. They're like permanently and it is definitely from the 2019 movie the most. But the book in the movie are so alike. Like there were so many parts where she's the exact passages from the book. Anyway, the book is incredible. My daughter Nova read it and she thought it was amazing, which I think is so fun. I think that it's a really good way for children to learn about history because it's set in the Civil War era and then they get like all this context, you know? Because when you learn history at school, no offense, but like, you know, it's kind of one note and then when you read it in like a book, like Little Women, you get all this additional context, you know, like they're slang words at the time. And like what they did for fun and what they ate and you know, just like how people were living. And I think it really brings it to life.

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Emma: I think it's a big part of why they, you know, teach and so many people have read The Diary of Anne Frank because I think it gives a different level of humanity to that war. Because when you just learn about it, there's a lot of facts about it. And you know, honestly, too, it's really heavy. So having a book like that of a little girl who's also going through just stuff in her life, but in that world, I think is a great way for young people to learn about different eras of the world.

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Emma: And now it's time for Nova Segment.

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Elsie: Hey Nova, what do you have for us this week?

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Nova: I have a meditation, and this is a special one because it's a pool one. I'm closing my eyes. Let's just pause and take three big deep breaths. Inhale, 1, 2, 3. Inhale, two. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Okay, keep doing that while you listen to the meditation. Imagine you land into a swimming pool and then you decide to go off the diving board. So you climb up the ladder, go and walk over. And you take a deep breath and you feel the wind around you and hear it, and you jump and then splash, you fall to the water and it was the best jump you ever did. You swim back. And then you go and everyone's cheering you and you just feel so happy and light, and then it blow the whistle and then they do it one more time. And then, you know, to get out of the pool. You go back home and then you walk in, take your bath, and then you get out, go to your room, put on your pajamas, and you say, well, in your mind, this is the best day ever. Open your eyes, but do it slowly. You just came out of a dream and wherever you are, I hope you love the meditation because I thought it was one of my favorites, and I hope you enjoyed this. But I also hope that you all. This week and I'd like you to do something for me. Whenever you feel like you're tired or anything, take a deep breath, three long, deep breaths. Find a calm place, listen to a meditation or whatever makes you feel soothed, and then go on with your day. Thanks Nova. Yeah, I hope you have a happy week, and I hope this meditation makes you feel soothed.

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Elsie: Okay, so just a reminder, if you are listening to our podcast, would you leave us a five star review?

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Emma: And not a one start.

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Elsie: Would you please, would you please,please, we're begging, we're begging. If you don't mind. Also coming up soon, we have our annual ghost stories episode. So this is your formal invitation to send us your very best ghost stories at podcast@abeautifulmess.com. We love this episode. We do it every year. I think it's like our fifth or sixth time. I mean, I think so. Yeah. I think we started the podcast in 2019. So it's probably six. Crazy. So yeah. That will be so fun. And we've never had a year. I always think like if we don't get enough ghost stories, then I'll like read a passage from like a Shirley Jackson book or something, but like we always do. We always, always do. So yeah, please send them to us if you're thinking about it. And join us next week for a renovation update episode.