#280: Goals and Vision Boards for 2026

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Elsie

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You're listening to the Beautiful Mess podcast. Your cozy comfort listen this week, we're sharing our

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goals for the new year and our process for creating tactile vision boards. We're getting a little woo woo,

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as we share our experiences with manifesting and debating a literary hot take. So should we go back

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and forth on 2026, goals, or do you want to go like all Emma, all Elsie, what do you think?

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Emma

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Yeah, let's go back and forth. These are just, like, personal goals, and we're just doing five, yeah. I'm

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just putting that out there in case anyone's like, Oh, should I make goals around my family? Should I

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make goals around my whatever? Like, yes, go for it. We're just sharing one little part of our goals here,

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basically, yeah, to inspire you and like, have something to talk about next year, when we inevitably

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succeed or fail, right?

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Elsie

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Like, there we have goals that aren't on this list. Like I was like, I want to finish my laser hair removal,

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but I didn't put it on here because it's not exciting to talk about or hear. But I have goals like that too,

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where I was like, this is on the list, but they don't want to hear about this. Yeah. So, yeah, exactly. Cool.

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Emma

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Cool, cool. Okay, well, my first one is I'm going to query the wedding photographer. So this one's like

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coming up, because I'll be doing this in January, hopefully, hopefully mid January. So I've, I've polished

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her. She's done. I've written my letter. I had that proofed. I'm ready to go. I've made my list of agents.

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I'm pretty much ready to hit the ground running on this goal. I have no idea how it's gonna go, but I am

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optimistic and hopeful, and I am telling the universe that what I want for my birthday, which is January

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21 is an agent, yeah? So we'll see how it goes. Yeah. No, I am so excited for you, and I'm manifesting

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that you're going to have an agent and be selling your book in 2026 Yeah, I actually don't care if I get it,

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like, by my birthday. I'm just saying, like, that's the, you know, yeah, what I want, kind of thing to the

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universe. Anyway you get it, because agents do take a while to read, by the way, and that's very normal

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and fine. So anyway, unless they don't like it, unless they don't like and go in the real class. Yeah, this

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sucks. Must have luck to you. Okay, my first goal is the same, exactly. I am going to query my novel the

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surrealist and I am hoping to get a fiction agent, and I'm hoping to sell the book to a publisher in 2026

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that would be best case scenario. And, hell yeah, that's all I have to say. Two thumbs up. Yeah. It'd be

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cool if it happens like around the same time. It's kind of like being pregnant at the same time. Wouldn't it

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be cool?

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Elsie

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Yeah, yeah. And we never had that experience. So I would love it in my perfect world, I would love it if it

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happened for you first, because I feel like you started writing first, and you've been on this journey for

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longer, and I think that would be better. But also, if it happens for both of us this year, we can really sell.

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We should just really celebrate, yeah, really, really, really celebrate.

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Emma

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It's gonna happen for both of us this year, but I'm gonna get a bigger book deal. Just kidding. That's

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fine. That's fine. I keep trying to piss you off, and you're just like, Yeah, okay, I accept that thing you

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said. I'm like, it's not fun.

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Elsie

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Sometimes my sense of humor is turned down real low. Okay, all right, that's fine. Okay, what's your

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goal, number two?

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Emma

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Second goal is, I'm going to write my first draft, and it'll probably get polished too. Of my next

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contemporary romance, which I'm currently calling Sundays are for lovers ice cream sundae. Ice cream

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Sunday. It's Sunday like ice cream sundae, and it's about, it's kind of a rivals to lovers contemporary

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romance. It's set in Springfield, Missouri, so we have Andy's frozen custard in our hometown. This is a

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real, yeah, oh, it's real. This is a real friend who follows Chapel Road knows about Andy's. It's Andy's

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custard, which I'm a huge fan of. And we also have in our hometown pineapple whip, which is kind of

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like a pop up seasonal type thing. It's really cute. And I sort of know the owner. This is a very, very

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fictionalized version of those two companies with characters that are not based on anyone that I know

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at all. And so it's kind of like the son of the custard Empire and the daughter of the other ice cream.

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Elsie

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Let me say one sentence, pitch Romeo and Juliet but with ice cream.

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Emma

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It's for fans of forbidden love and ice cream, I love it. I instantly loved it the first time I heard it, and I love

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it just as much today. And, yeah, recently, she went through the whole plot with me, and it's, it's great. I

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do think it's like, you have found the perfect genre for yourself, where you can just keep doing lots of

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books that are completely different but also very much aligned. Yeah, this one's got, this one's, I think,

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got, like, a little bit more heart in it, because it's a lot about the families, yeah, because it's a lot about

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how the families don't like each other, and there's a lot about legacy in the book and, like, how that's

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both a burden and something that we want to carry and that brings meaning to our lives. So anyway,

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and obviously, it's also a. Out falling in love, and it will have sex scenes and all of those things too. Yes.

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So and ice cream. Definitely. There'll be ice cream in the book. So anyway, yeah, that's it. What's your

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second one?

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Elsie

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My second one is to complete my second novel project, lighthouse. So I'm just going to finish that

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manuscript. And I'm really excited. I had a little bit of a slower process of bonding with it, but I think it's

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because I was, like, always still working on my other book. You had another boyfriend, so yeah. So I am

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excited as soon as I sort of, like, the end on my first book, which should be soon, then I am going to

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really, like, put myself into the second one and do all the rituals. Like, I really like the rituals of making a

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new playlist. I already made a mood board, you know, just like the tactile like that. Make a journal, just

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for this novel, for like, research and stuff. Like, I just, I really like that, the ritual stuff, and that helps me.

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So, yeah, I'm hoping that I can really bond with it, and then I'm really excited to see where it goes.

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Because it's, like, in my mind, it's, I would say kind of half formed right now.

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Emma

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Nice. That'd be fun. Yes, I like the title too. They think it that'll be the title or, no, like, it's a placeholder.

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Elsie

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Yeah, that's a placeholder. I just didn't want to say the title, because it's, like, really specific, and I just

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didn't want to explain it, yeah, yeah, no, it's cool. It's got a lighthouse in it, though.

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Emma

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Cool. I love it. Okay, my third goal is I'm going to write another first draft, so last year. Whoa, yeah, last

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year. Whoa, I was like, my goal was to write half of my novel, and I blew that out of the water. So I was

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like, I'm gonna write two this year. I'm gonna write two novels this year. Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.

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I probably won't get this one polished by the end of the year, in part because that takes, like, other

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people, you have to involve other people's timelines, as far as when they continue your edits and things

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so anyway, but yeah, this one, the one I'm wanting to write, I keep having ideas for it. I was telling you

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in the car the other day, so I keep coming up with ideas for this one. And it was kind of just like on my

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list of a contemporary romance that I would probably write someday. But to be honest, I wasn't really

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necessarily, for sure gonna write it. It was just an idea I had. But lately I keep coming up with ideas for it

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and scenes for it, or little pieces of dialog for it. And then, like, what the other day I was at my body

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pump class, which is a group fitness class at my gym, and I had a really good in my mind, a really good

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idea for basically, the dialog before the first sex scene. And so in between the songs, when people are

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changing their weights on the bar, I was like, frantically typing into my phone this, like, very weird dialog

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before a sex scene, and then, and then putting my weights on and starting my because I was I just had

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it. So anyway, I don't know what the title of this book is. I like, I'm kind of calling it icon, in my mind, that

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will most certainly not be the title. There are other books called icon, but it's basically about a woman

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who the book will probably open at her 70th birthday. And it's kind of a mixture of Martha Stewart,

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Oprah Winfrey, like big, iconic women who have done a lot with their careers, and they're also like kind

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of personalities, but not necessarily an actress, more like lifestyle or talk show, or I'll probably give her a

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backstory, where she started out on some kind of show, like the Bachelor or Bachelorette, and that's

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how she launched her career initially. So it's at her 70th birthday party. In my mind, when I write it, I'm

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picturing Meryl Streep, just so, you know, it's not Meryl Streep, but I just like to picture someone when

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I'm coming up with ideas.

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Elsie

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I think it helps to pick, like, sort of like, cast the novel as a movie, just for, like, your own visualization. I

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love that. Yeah.

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Emma

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So we're at her 70th birthday, and that's sort of how we start. We learn a lot about her and see big

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swaths of her past and how she's gotten to where she is, hell yeah. But the love story is, she's going to

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fall for an older man, but he's about 10 years younger than her, so he's only like 60, and he is a former

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NFL athlete who became a commentator, and then he's kind of had his own career of being on talk

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shows and different things like that since. And in my mind, it's a little bit like Martha Stewart and Snoop

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Dogg, but not It's not them at all. It's it's a mashup of all sorts. And Snoop Dogg isn't a former athlete.

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I'm a little bit but it's just like people who you would not necessarily expect to have great chemistry, but

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then they do. And so it's kind of like that. And I think the book will also part of my I always give myself

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little writing goals with every book I write, and this one part of the goal was, I was like, I would love to

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write a love story of older people, people who are older. So again, this woman's 70, and I want to do

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love making scenes, and I want them to be hot. And that's like part of the goal for me, because I feel

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like a lot of times, just to be really honest, we don't do that in our culture. We make a lot of you know,

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sexy people are young. They're in their 20s, and. 30s, maybe their early 40s, if they really try, and it's

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like, you know what? You're really sexy at every age. And I would like to explore that, and I would like

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to, like, bring that to the page. So that's part of my goal with it. Is I want, when I finish this book and

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people read it, I want them to read the sex scenes and be like, Whoa. That was hot.

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Elsie

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Yeah, I love it. I love it so much. I'm so glad you're gonna do that's it, yep. Well, you know who your

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alpha reader will be.

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Emma

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Yeah. Like, what did you think of this?

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Elsie

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My next goal is I am going to launch, actually, this episode is for December 29 so that means that this

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week this is happening, because I'm launching this for the first week of January my weekly newsletter.

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So I decided I am doing a weekly newsletter. It's very inspired by our friend Elise Cripe, who made this

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amazing newsletter this past year. She she gave me a visual of what a newsletter can be. Yeah,

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because I like, I don't want to, like, yuck, anyone's Yum, but I had been like, trying to figure out for a

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couple years what I could do, as far as, like, a sub stack or something like that. And I was just seeing a

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lot of stuff that didn't make me feel compelled to do it myself. And when I saw her newsletter, I was like,

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Okay, this is, like, highly visual. It's goal oriented. It is, like, it has a lot of lifestyle content, like, it feels

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like, a little bit like an old fashioned blog where we, you know, where really, like, a lot of my skills are still

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from that era, and I don't get to use them as much like on social media at this current moment, it is

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mostly videos, which is a completely different skill set, and I enjoy it, but like, I miss taking photos and

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writing long form content. So, yeah, my newsletter is launching. You can go to Elsielarson.com to sign

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up. It is called the Lost Arts.

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Emma

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Ooh, good name. Thank you. Yeah, because Elise's Scattering Seeds, yes. And then she also has

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Postcards from the Art House.

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Elsie

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So Scattering Seeds is the name of the newsletter. And then Postcards from the Art House is like a

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segment she does. Okay, so if you want to see, in my opinion, the world's greatest newsletter that Elise

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has been doing, go to elisejoy.com sign up for her newsletter. She has a free and a paid version. In my

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opinion, the paid version is so, so, so worth it, but the free version is also wonderful, great. The free

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version is still better than any other newsletter I'm subscribed to, yeah, so I just love it, and I'm so

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excited to take this journey. She talked us into it when we were in Italy, Florence, yeah, she like, really

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got mathy with me, and she was like, do it. And I appreciate that, because I just, I had no plan, and then

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by the time I was like, landed back in Missouri, I had in my journal, like a full plan, and I've been

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working on it ever since. And I think it is going to be a game changer for me creatively. So it's going to

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be a newsletter that is very focused on creative ideas and not just writing, not just painting, but I will

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share my stories from those experiences, because it's like my whole life right now. I love it. Thank you.

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What's your next one?

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Emma

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My next one is, I have a goal to do a quarterly visual art project. So this isn't something I necessarily

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plan to put anywhere. It's not a secret, some examples. So I'm definitely going to do some collage. I

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want to do oil pastels. I want to do acrylic painting. I'll probably do a couple collages, honestly, and it's

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quarterly, so that's only four in the whole year. For me, it's just like, part of it is just having the time and

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space I have to, like, plan to, like, get all my supplies out, yep, because I'm in the era where my older

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son can kind of get into my things, and it's okay, but if my younger son gets into them, it's a big

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problem. He eats it. It's everywhere. It's it's not good. So I really can't leave anything out. And I do have

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a little office room, and I do shut the door, but our youngest has learned how to open doors, and so it's

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just sort of like a thing where I'm like, okay, part of the goal is just to give myself the space to be

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creative for a couple nights, and find a way to not get my paints gotten into or whatever, not let my kid

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eat my oil pastels. So it's that. And then I also was thinking that I would probably I'm kind of thinking I'm

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gonna just like copy, but in my own kind of style or whatever, some masterpieces that I like fun, like

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some seasons or things like that, because I don't necessarily like I don't plan to do anything with it. I

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just want to make some things. And I love visual art, but it's not really a big part of my life right now, and

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so I just wanted to have a little goal around it, because I really enjoy using this stuff. And. I don't really

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want to hoard it in my house without using it. That makes me sad, because I actually really like it

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anyway. So here you go. Love it. That's a great goal. Okay, my next goal for the year is to become

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active on social media, but I want to have a professional relationship with it. So starting in about 2020

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and I think this was good at the time, I started a habit of taking really long breaks off of my social media.

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And I think I was off of Tiktok for actually, like, two years. And then with Instagram, I will most years, I

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will be on it for a few months, and then I will be off it for a few months and on and off and on and off,

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which I think that was serving me in that era, because I, like, you know, it's good to take breaks from it,

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and we hadn't had that chance before that, when we were being influencers professionally, we had to

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be on there every day. And, you know, we were on Instagram since it was invented, so it was great to

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have a little break, but the past year I've been kind of planning that I want to kind of redirect my social

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media to have more of a purpose. And so since I'm starting the newsletter, I'm also going to make my

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social media more about creative stuff. So I did spend the last few months sort of, like, wrapping up my

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home renovation stuff. So I'm not going to be, like, mainly talking about my home anymore. I'm going to

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try to make it more about, you know, the creative stuff. And I'm excited about that and then, so, yeah, I

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have a goal for the year, but it's pretty much just to, like, have a consistent routine. Yep, I like it. Okay,

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my last one is, I'm going, so what I'm what I wrote down is I'm gonna cook my way through a cookbook.

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Ooh, but I don't actually mean that. So the cookbook that I'm planning to use is called recipe 10 eats

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dinner. She's a big food blogger. She's really cool. You've probably seen her around, and I love this

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cookbook of hers, and I bought it a couple years ago, I want to say, I think, or at least over a year ago,

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and I have all these post its in it, and I've only cooked like, one or two things from it for really no reason.

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I kind of just get into dinner ruts where I'm like, frantically trying to buy my groceries and plan for the

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week, and then I'm like, Oh, we're eating the same things that we always eat, because I just know how

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to make those, and we like them, and, you know, and that's great, and I'll still do that some. Part of the

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goal with this is I just want to have some, get some new dinners in the routine. And I also don't cook as

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much for my job anymore, and I just like cooking. And I like learning new things. I like seeing how other

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people make things hair. Recipes aren't necessarily like way out there. I think they're actually very

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accessible. But still, I'll probably come across some ingredients that I don't normally buy, and I like that,

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that that for me, is fun. Some people really don't want that, and I do want a little bit of that in my life. So

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I'll probably cook more. My goal is more like 50 recipes. This cookbook actually has 150 recipes in it.

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So I won't be cooking all my way through this cookbook in one year. I just don't have that much in my

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life. But I'm just going to pick 50 of the dinners that look like something that my husband and I would

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want to eat, and because we tend to also eat kind of low fat. So I won't be making a lot of stuff with

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pork. I'll probably replace it with like turkey or whatever. So anyway, so that's sort of the goal. And I just

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love cooking, and I want to make a little goal around it. I'd had a different type of goal this past year with

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cooking, and I do think it kind of helped me so good this year. I'm like, All right, I'm gonna this cookbook

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looks so good and I haven't used it much, I'm just gonna make it a goal to cook 50 recipes out of here,

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because there's so many good ones in there.

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Elsie

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There you go. So fun. So a lot of my the rest of my goals are, like, really small. Like, I want to work on

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my routines this year. So I want to kind of have a photography era for Christmas. I got a couple of new

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cameras, like, kind of, like, the small, little, cute, novelty type of cameras, and that is something I'm

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excited to do more with. I want to get my nails done. That's one of my, like, I think, my personal goal for

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the years that I want to, like, keep my nails done. And that would be like a lot for me. I'm usually, like,

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very on and off with it. And then, yeah, just, like, going on walks, things like that. And then as far as,

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like, my reading goal, do you do a reading goal, or do you just always reading, yeah, I mean, you don't

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need a reading goal, like, I just do it because I have the Goodreads account. You don't have to do it.

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But I've done 52 every year. And the first several years, I only started reading in like 2021, fiction. So it

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wasn't that long ago. The first several years, I exceeded my goal, and then this past year, I did not

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make my goal, and I was, like, kind of upset by it a little bit, but I also just had a very different lifestyle

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this past year, so I think that makes a big difference. So anyway, I'm gonna just do the 52 again, and

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this year, my focus for reading is I did make a. List of like books I want to get to. So it's about like half

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the books for the year are books I want to intentionally read. So I think I'm going to go between the list,

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which is like a combination of it's, I would say it's mostly books that I feel like could benefit my creative

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brain, like they're not like, necessarily, like Guilty Pleasures or any but there are a couple of Guilty

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Pleasures on there. And then I think I can kind of transition between like, you know, if a, if a new

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celebrity memoir comes out, or if everyone's talking about, you know, an Emily Henry book or

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something. I can go back and forth between like and add some stuff in that is just like feels like. It just

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adds like happiness, yeah, to the routine. Because this year, I did do better last year, but I had, at first it

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was really bad that I wouldn't DNF anything, and like ever. And last year I did. And I'm glad I'm, like,

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able to do that now, but I still have a hard time with it. Like, if I'm more than halfway through, even if I'm

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not enjoying it, I feel like I just have to finish it. And I know that has something to do with the the good

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reads like it. Because why would I be like that? You know what I mean?

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Emma

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Yeah, I never finished books. I don't like. I just stop whenever. I'll stop in the beginning, I'll stop in the

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middle. I'll stop 10 pages before the end. If I'm, like, done, I am on Goodreads, but I forget about it. I'm

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just not good at I've never been good at social media generally, yeah, I just am not a I'm just so insular.

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Yeah, on my own, I love delete my Goodreads. Maybe, maybe I don't need it. I don't know. I've always

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read reviews on there. Yeah, I think it's a great community. I'm just bad at keeping up with things, yeah,

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but I do love reading all the way. So, okay, do you ever feel like you power through, though, and it was

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worth it? Has that ever happened or no, no.

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Elsie

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Only for classic books, like, Little Women got a little bit, like, there was a lot of, like, religious scenes

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more than I thought there was going to be. I expected it to be, like the movie, there was a lot more, like,

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you know, like, scenes that were not as, like, entertaining to me, but I'm so I am so glad that I powered

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through it. And, like the it's a little more of a high low, you know what I mean. So maybe, like, once in a

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while, books like that. Yeah, classics are kind of worth it, yeah, which brings us to our hot take of the

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week. It does. This is a great one, Emma and I actually naturally fall a little bit differently on this opinion,

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so it's a good one for us. So this one is from rose, and it says, Elsie, you inspired me to read The

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Secret History this fall, and when I finished it a few weeks ago, I thought, What did I just read? I won't

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say I hated it, but my hill to die on is that it does not deserve a cult like following.

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Emma

00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:18.000
Okay, wow. All right. Also gonna put it out there. If you haven't read the secret history, this is gonna

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have spoilers. There's really no way to talk about it with the hot takes, yeah, without. So if you were

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wanting to read it and you don't want spoilers, don't listen to this. Read it. Don't listen. You want to read

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it, you should read it. You definitely should.

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Elsie

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Yeah, I'm on Team. It does deserve a cult like following. I can't be on any other team. It's one of my

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favorite books. I think it 1,000% deserves a cult like following. Do you think you can do the opposing

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position? Yeah, I can roast it, but I did like it, but I can roast it, sure. Okay, Emma read it this year too.

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Emma

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I did because Elsie told me to, and I was like, all right, and I feel like I understand you more after

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reading it. Yeah, good, yeah, I do, because it's extremely atmospheric, which is a thing that you always

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kind of like a book's very atmospheric. I think that's like your vibes. And I like that. I notice it, but it does

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not do it for me. We've got to have some really good plot. And I think this book, for me, it is like a plus

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atmosphere, a plus characters, nuanced dialog, a plus plot, what's happening.

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Elsie

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It goes up and down though, it goes up and down though I am not dependent that it does have certain

00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:34.000
sections of high intensity.

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Emma

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Oh yeah, there are parts of the book that are very commercial, and then there's so many parts where

00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:37.000
you're like, you just gave me like, 20 pages about basically a college boy getting hypothermia. Nothing

00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:38.000
happened, and it's like, and it was good, great. Writing saved him, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, okay,

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okay, so say some of your points.

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Elsie

00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:41.000
Okay, my main point is that cult classics are never for everyone. That's why they're a cult classic. Think

00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:42.000
about David Lynch like, he's the cult classic, in my opinion, the king of cult of all cult classic culture. And

00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:43.000
if you talk about Twin Peaks in any room that you are in for the rest of your life, you will have people

00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:44.000
who disagree that it's a good show. And you will have people who like, love it, who like my husband, I

00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:45.000
watch it like, I don't know, like once every. Five years like, and that's how his whole library is, like

00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:46.000
everything he ever did, except for his dune movie, he is like so proud of, and it is like this perfectly

00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:47.000
coherent, cohesive body of work, which I haven't read the other two Donna Tartt books, so I can't talk

00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:48.000
about her body of work, from what I've heard, it seems pretty consistent as well. So I think that the

00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:49.000
secret history is it's one of the books that makes me want to be a writer. It's one of the books that gives

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me something to strive for and admire. And I do think that it's like an indie movie and not a blockbuster

00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:51.000
movie, you know, but like, who gives it? Like, that's there's a certain group of people who are just going

00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:52.000
to love that. So I don't know, I found it amazing, but I do think that, like, my taste in books is kind of like,

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I do get a lot of messages where people say they hated books that I loved. So I accept that. And I think

00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:54.000
that's just always going to be the thing with cult classics. So I think if you want to read it, and you don't

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end up 100% on the team, you still got to experience something that's like, I mean, it's a modern

00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:56.000
classic. I think that Donna Tartt is, in my opinion, one of the coolest humans on the planet right now?

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Yeah, Donna Tartt can write. If the hot take was Donna tart can't write, we'd both be like, Nah, that's just

00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:58.000
not true. But I think the secret history, I mean, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I don't, I don't. I think her

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other book might be her most famous book, technically, but I think the secret history is her most iconic

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book.

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Emma

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I think the Pulitzer, I want to say, but I'm not really sure. One of the big awards, yeah, it won. So it's, I

00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:03.000
think, more famous. It also has a movie. So this one doesn't have a movie yet. Maybe it will.

00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:04.000
Elsie

00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:05.000
Who knows? Yeah, I have. I've read about this, and it has been optioned three times. People think it's

00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:06.000
cursed, that it like it should have been a movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow in the Philip Seymour Hoffman

00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:07.000
era, yeah. And now the time has passed, and it will have to, I mean, obviously it will have to be a new

00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:08.000
cast of characters now, but like, it might have been like, like, what The Talented Mr. Ripley movie was is

00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:09.000
maybe what this movie should have been at that same time. Yeah, which I love that movie as well.

00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:10.000
Anyway, I can't say anything about I will defend this to the death. It is a hill to die on. For me, I think I

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would win. I guess for me, it's like, find a book that you want to like live in more than this. Like this is like

00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:12.000
the kind of that makes people love Harry Potter is, like, I want to go into that world. Yes, it is, yes, in my

00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:13.000
opinion, okay. Like, I want to go into that world. I want to like, dress like them. I want to eat what they I

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want to like, you know, go to their stupid parties. Like, I want to know all their little like, you know, well,

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be in their class. Like, go in Jullian's office. I don't know.

00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:16.000
Emma

00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:17.000
I think the thing, though, and no one's comparing this to Harry Potter, because there was no reason to,

00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:18.000
though, it doesn't even make sense you did, but I just mean, like you're not really trying to defend that

00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:19.000
to the team, but Harry Potter is about heroes. It is about, you know, young heroes who are growing up

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and they're going to defeat evil. You know, at its core, I mean, it's like vibey world. Yes, it's a vibey

00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:21.000
world, but this is about anti heroes. This is about bad people doing bad things. So if you don't like to

00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:22.000
read that, and I don't even think it's that, so I would put myself in this camp, and it's not because I had

00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:23.000
the same problem with succession, the TV show, where that show is amazing. Everyone knows it.

00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:24.000
There's really no Yeah, hot take on it. Did I enjoy watching it? I really had to power through at times

00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:25.000
because I didn't like anyone. Okay, maybe it's just a matter of, hey, some of them have arcs where they

00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:26.000
kind of redeem themselves at times or do some kindness to someone at a time. But it's really not about

00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:27.000
heroes. It's about just very morally gray, slash bad. Like, why do you need heroes all the time? Like, I

00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:28.000
could live in succession, like I could watch I could rewatch it, because I like hope and I like optimism.

00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:29.000
Yeah, I don't really like pessimism that much. I don't live in it very often. I do think it's interesting. I do

00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:30.000
think it exists. I'm not naive. I'm 40. But like, you know, do I like watching bad people win? Not really. I

00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:31.000
feel like I can watch the news and get that, you know. So I'm kind of like, not for it, in a way. It's not my

00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:32.000
entertainment, you know. So I feel like that's like, got a piece of it. We have to know that going in secret

00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:33.000
history doesn't have a hero, yeah, but it does have very interesting characters who have arcs and have

00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:34.000
human qualities, where you will understand them as a person. And I like that. And it definitely has

00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:35.000
atmosphere, and that's fun. It has the best opening line, like Todd is the opening line. So the opening

00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:36.000
line is the snow in the mountains was melted. And Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we

00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:37.000
came to understand the gravity of our situation. But that's just the PROLOG opening line. I want to get

00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:38.000
like the real opening line, okay, chapter one does such thing as, quote, The fatal flaw, that showy, dark

00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:39.000
crack running down the middle of a life exist outside of literature like it's so cool, yeah, yeah, yeah,

00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:40.000
yeah. I mean, I went to college and talked about literature. I get it. It's a fun time, like, I like it. But, and

00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:41.000
here's the spoilers, the plot is basically nothing happens. Nothing happened. Nothing happens. There's

00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:42.000
a murder, they're trying to cover it up. There's another murder, there's a suicide. That's the book. And

00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:43.000
you know, I think you could hand that overarching plot to a bunch of different authors and get so many

00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:44.000
different takes. And this is Donna tarts, who's a very literary, rich writer. And the book is very literary and

00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:45.000
rich. The plot, for me is kind of a zero, like it's just very true crime. So when I finished it, I was like, what

00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:46.000
you think about the suicide? Because that's how it ends, and Elsie goes, what I was, are you about

00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:47.000
that? Because it doesn't really matter. Because, like, it's not about what happens in this book. It's about

00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:48.000
that's true. You know, the atmosphere and the characters and those parts are very good, but the book

00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.000
doesn't go anywhere, and it also goes everywhere, like and it just sort of to me, kind of disjointed in that

00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:50.000
way.

00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:51.000
Elsie

00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:52.000
Okay, well, I will just say I've read so many books in my life that I felt kind of disappointed by that didn't

00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:53.000
have the greatest lines of all time. So I still think she deserves her flowers. I will die on that hill. But I

00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:54.000
also do understand that cult classics are not for everyone, and I think that that's fair. And I think that's

00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:55.000
also like, why it's like, what's cool about being in a cult it's like, you feel like you get something that

00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:56.000
other people don't get. And it's like this little, you know, like, whatever, like, that's what makes the David

00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:57.000
Lynch culture so special. I think, you know, and like you connect with other people who like it, and then

00:05:57.000 --> 00:05:58.000
most people don't, you know, because that makes sense too. So yeah, I can go both sides with it, but I

00:05:58.000 --> 00:05:59.000
will.

00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:00.000
Emma

00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:01.000
Yeah, and all of us outside of the cult are like, what are you doing? You know, no, but I do. I do actually

00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:02.000
really like Secret History.

00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:03.000
Elsie

00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:04.000
All right, so thank you for the hot take, Rose, and I'm not mad at you, and I'm glad that you read one of

00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.000
my favorite books. Oh yeah, yeah. I think that that's, like, part of the beauty of reading. I can't think of

00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:06.000
one where I felt this way, where it's like, so famous, and I didn't really enjoy it. But I know that that

00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:07.000
happens sometimes, and, like, I think that happens to all readers sometimes, right?

00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:08.000
Emma

00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.000
Oh yeah. We'll be back next week with our winter bucket list. Thank you for being here. The best way

00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:10.000
you can support our podcast is by going into the new year. Tell a friend about it. Any friend who's weird

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.000
like you, maybe they'll like our show too. And we are so, so grateful for your weekly emails, messages

00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:12.000
and listens. If you have a topic request or hot take, please email us at podcast@abeautifulmess.com,

00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:13.000
see you next week.