Best Books We Read in 2024

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Show Notes

This week, Nicole is back! Patricia and Nicole talk a bit about what has been keeping them grounded post-election and then they talk about some of the best books they read in 2024. Tons of book recommendations in this episode!

Small correction: Tomes & Tea is a quartet. In the show we say it is a trilogy. Now we’re even more excited!

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Sound editing by Jen Zink

Transcript

EP 028

Music: [Intro Music] 

Patricia: Hey there, tater tots! Welcome to Enthusiastic Encouragement and Dubious Advice, the podcast for folks who would rather curl into the fetal position than lean in. I’m your host, Patricia Elzie-Tuttle. 

Nicole: And I’m filled with existential dread, Nicole Elzie-Tuttle. We are recording this show on November 22nd, 2024.

Patricia: Yes, but this show is being published the day before Thanksgiving, and I think this is basically a year, our one year anniversary. 

Nicole: Because the episode that comes out after this one will definitely… 

Patricia: After December 6th, and we published our first shows on December 6th last year. 

Nicole: Wow, it’s been a whole year. It feels like we’ve been doing this more than a year, but… 

Patricia: Yeah, it feels, it feels like we’ve been doing this forever, but also it still feels like we just started. 

Nicole: Yeah. 

Patricia: We should do something to celebrate. I’m, I’m saying that out loud in case my therapist is listening. Yes, I should celebrate my wins. 

Nicole: Uh, we’ll break out the party hats. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

And, you know, a year in, uh, and also considering, mm, how the past month has gone. 

Nicole: [Snort] 

Patricia: Yeah, I know. We’re still thinking about what this podcast is going to look like and what is the newsletter going to look like. I wrote a little bit about that in a recent issue. Yeah, it’s just a lot of thinking about what it is to be us, what it is to be visible, what it is to share things about misinformation and disinformation, which might be criminalized at some point.

So just thinking a lot about what we do here and also what people would find useful. 

Nicole: Yeah, what people would find useful. What would also continue to fill our cups? 

Patricia: Absolutely. 

Absolutely. Like, I want to keep doing this. 

Nicole: Yes. 

Patricia: And I want it to still be sustainable for us. I don’t want it to be a drain. 

Nicole: No, but also, what can we do to help benefit other people in this time through this medium?

Patricia: Yeah, how can we use this to pour into other people’s cups as well? 

Something that has helped us in the past few weeks are making lists of things that we want to get done, especially want to get done in the next couple of months, like renewing our passports and doing some decluttering and things like that, but also listing what resources do we have, you know, not only for ourselves, but what do we have to offer.

You know, I could build a quick website. You are great at spreadsheets and data. And it’s like, what can we offer to other people? You know, can we have people over for dinner and things like that? 

Nicole: Yeah. And this, I think, importantly, doesn’t always have to be like physical labor marching in the streets and stuff, which is definitely helpful.

But I think people are often short sighted or people can be short sighted on what they can bring to the table. There’s going to be a lot of space for a lot of people to help in a lot of different ways. And taking stock of what you’re able to manage and how you can help is going to be really key in the coming years.

Patricia: Absolutely. And it could be even things like writing letters to people in solitary confinement. It could be waiting with someone at county offices to help advocate for assistance for them. Mutual aid looks all kinds of ways. 

Nicole: Yeah. 

Patricia: And I think also don’t assume that you aren’t wanted, especially if maybe you are a cisgender man or a white man or, or both, or… 

Don’t assume that you’re suddenly not wanted. Um, sometimes it might be helpful for you to, to take the hit for you to make the phone calls or something like that. And also, again, thinking about what you have to offer. 

Nicole: What you have to offer and like you mentioned in the case of like a cis white man, where can you use your privileges? 

Patricia: Yeah, exactly. 

I also want to talk about we recently had an elder in the family say, you know, what do we do? Nobody’s doing anything. And if you’re listening, a lot of people are doing a lot of things and like this work has been happening. Just because you’re not plugged in doesn’t mean this work isn’t happening. Just because it’s maybe not flashy marching in the streets, pink cat hats and snarky signs doesn’t mean that the work’s not happening and most of the work isn’t flashy. 

Nicole: Yeah, there will be a need for other things like helping put together hygiene kits. 

Patricia: Absolutely. 

Nicole: And things like that, like that’s not flashy, but someone needs to put all that stuff together in little bags for handing out. 

Patricia: Yeah. Food bank always needs volunteers, right? 

Nicole: Yeah. 

Patricia: I think also one of the things that I’ve had to say to multiple people, is, you know, people are often overwhelmed because they don’t know what to do. And the cool part is this work has been happening. You don’t have to have the answers. You just have to show up, be willing to listen and fill in where you are needed.

Like you don’t need to be a leader. You don’t have to come up with all the ideas. I think it was maybe disability justice framework. I don’t remember, so don’t quote me on that, but the saying goes community knows what community needs. And especially if you’re outside of that community, but you want to help, show up, listen, plug into where you’re needed.

Nicole: Yeah. 

And I think what you said there is like, not everyone can be a leader is really key for a lot of this work. If we just have a room full of leaders. Nothing’s getting done. We need people to just, like I said, show up and do the grunt work sometimes, 

Patricia: yeah 

Nicole: and that might not be pretty, but it’s what’s needed.

And so, like, you may have ideas, that’s fine, but if you’re new to this, show up and just fill in where you’re needed. The more time you spend, you’ll get a better understanding of how everything works, and then there may be space for you to share ideas. But until you know what’s been tried and what hasn’t been tried and what’s been working and what hasn’t been working, you need to spend some time in that place and just do the work. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

Because I am a book professional, I do have a couple of books to recommend. One, I’ve recommended multiple times on this show, through my Book Riot platforms, on all my social media, and I’m going to say it again. Microactivism, How You Can Make a Difference in the World Without a Bullhorn by Omkari L. Williams. Also recently I read Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade. That book is not perfect. I actually, funny enough, read a couple reviews that gave me some things to think about, but I still think if you are new to mutual aid, if you don’t actually know what mutual aid is. And it is, you know, maybe some of it’s about giving money. A lot of it’s not about giving money. This is a great book. We’re going to link both these books in our show notes. They will be in our bookshop. 

We didn’t want to start the show without mentioning some of what’s going on in the world. So moving on though, our Patreon has a new feature, or rather just Patreon in general has a new feature, which is you can gift one to twelve months of a Patreon subscription.

You just type in patreon.com/eedapod/gift, and you can gift a subscription to our Patreon for someone else. And remember, the $8 level also gets that person a subscription to the newsletter. 

Nicole: It’s such a great deal. 

Patricia: It’s such a great deal. And also, then you’re not buying someone a candle or scented lotion that they don’t need.

Nicole: That scented lotion that comes with Pop Rocks in it? 

Patricia: Pop Rocks? Oh, wait, oh, Bath Body Works, no, it had those, like, plastic microbeads in the hand sanitizer. 

Nicole: Mm hmm. 

Patricia: Ugh. I wonder how much of Never mind. Never mind. 

Nicole: You too then could smell like plastic sugar plums. 

Patricia: Excellent.

We also have a bookshop. I’m going to keep mentioning our bookshop, especially because if you are taking part in capitalism, if you are buying books, please buy them through our bookshop.

It is linked on our website, eedapod.com. It is also linked in the show notes. And you can always give us a gift as well. Sharing the show, subscribing to this show, writing a review, that would be amazing.

Music: [Transitional Music] 

Nicole: Speaking of our bookshop, I think we’re gonna load up that bookshop a little bit today. 

Patricia: Yeah, we’ve read a lot of amazing books this year. 

Nicole: Oh my goodness. 

Patricia: I was like, you know what? I’m not gonna do a best book show for Book Riot. That’s someone else. But we could do best books we read in 2024 and recommend on this show.

Nicole: Yeah, just some of our favorites that we read this year. 

Patricia: They did not necessarily come out this year, and we are obviously not going to list all the books we read this year. 

Nicole: I mean, if you want to know all the books we read this year, you could go find me on the, uh 

Patricia: StoryGraph. 

Nicole: StoryGraph. 

Patricia: We’re both on StoryGraph, yeah.

Nicole: Yeah, you go find us on StoryGraph and then you can know all the books we read this year. 

Patricia: [Laughing] 

Nicole: Good luck buying all of them. 

Patricia: Oh my goodness. 

But we’ve, all the books we mentioned today and all the books we always mentioned on the show are not only in our bookshop, but they are labeled in a category that is called mentioned on like the podcast.

Nicole: Oh, that’s really helpful. 

Patricia: I try to make everything very findable. 

Nicole: I should go check that out. 

Patricia: You should check that out. 

Nicole: Maybe I’ll find a book that looks good. 

Patricia: So I want to start with, and some of the books we read this year, by the way, are books we both read, and some of these are that we only read as individuals.

So we’re going to start with some of the books we both read. 

Nicole: And some of these also didn’t just come out this year. Some of them are a little older. 

Patricia: Correct. 

Nicole: They’re not books that were new this year. 

Patricia: Correct. 

Nicole: Okay. 

Patricia: Let’s start off with How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Kari Leibowitz, PhD.

I did talk about this on Book Riot, I did recommend it in the newsletter, but I still want to mention it here. 

Nicole: I read this one, too, and it, I mean, you know, as soon as I finished reading it, I started, like, doing things around the house. 

Patricia: Absolutely. 

So Kari Leibowitz is a social psychologist, Stanford grad, and she grew up near the Jersey Shore, where, you know, summer is king. And also, in a lot of the U. S., it’s just, like, ugh, winter and summer’s the best and winter’s the worst. And everyone has seasonal affective disorder. 

Nicole: I mean, I grew up in Southern California… 

Patricia: Yeah, you’re an LA girl, like… 

So, so she was like, oh, you know what? I’m going to go where it’s dark, for like nine months out of the year or something, like an insane number of months a year, and I’m going to see what the lack of sun, what kind of negative effect it has on mental health.

So she goes like up to north of the Arctic Circle, like Tromsø, Norway, Svalbard as well. And what she finds when she gets there is that there is actually less seasonal affective disorder, like fewer instances of seasonal affective disorder. And everyone up there was like, yeah, we love the winter. Like we prepare for it. And it’s fun. 

They do like different places will do movie kind of marathon festival situations and she was learning, like if you actually prepare for the winter and we’re not just talking about right clothing, but we are also talking about right clothing, but infrastructure and 

Nicole: culture 

Patricia: things like that and culture.

Yeah. 

Nicole: Building a culture around the winter. 

Patricia: And building community in winter. Still going out and doing things 

Nicole: yes 

Patricia: in winter. 

We’re often thinking of winter as a time to endure rather than a time to enjoy or thrive. And so she focuses on mindset. 

Nicole: Yeah, I think one of the things that kind of helped me with this is when she mentions like, everything else in nature does winter different than it does summer. And it’s silly to expect us as humans to just go on living our summer lives in winter.

Patricia: Yeah, no wonder people are miserable in winter. 

Nicole: Well, yeah, my, like, light tank tops aren’t sufficient anymore. 

Patricia: Now you wear your tank tops over a long sleeve shirt. 

Nicole: Which is also thin and not really great for winter. 

Patricia: Yeah, so we got you some real coats. 

Nicole: Yeah, and I walked around in the rain today and it was nice. 

Patricia: Yeah! 

I don’t know, I love this book. I already love winter, but it made me, I think, even more excited for the colder weather. 

Nicole: Yeah. 

Patricia: The next book we want to talk about, also talked about it for Book Riot, I don’t care. I’m talking about it here. We both read it. I loved it. It’s called Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life by Megan Hellerer.

Nicole: There’s a part of me that thinks this could also just be called, like, ADHD living. 

Patricia: I mean, kind of, yeah. You know, follow the dopamine. 

Nicole: Yeah. Okay, do you want to talk about what this book is actually about? 

Patricia: Totally, yeah. 

So, Megan Hellerer, had gone to all the right schools, got the right degree, got the right job. She was a Googler. She was getting money just fire hosed at her and she found herself having a breakdown on the bathroom floor at work. And she was wondering why. And she eventually came up with this idea of the under fulfilled overachievers. 

So, it’s the folks who, again, go to the right school, get the right degree, get the job, get all the accolades. For some people, they have the plan, they get the spouse, they get the house, they get the children, like, and then they find themselves with everything they ever thought they wanted, and they realize it’s not what they wanted at all. 

Nicole: Yeah. 

Patricia: But then when you ask, what do you want? They don’t know. 

Nicole: It’s terrible.

Patricia: Yeah. 

Well, and I think, funny enough, at least looking at our friend group, I think we attract each other. Because I’ve recommended this book to so many people. 

So, Heller recommends directional living as opposed to that destinational living. So she defines destinational living as like having that end goal, that end goal ten years down the line and everything you do is a strategic step toward that thing at the end. Versus directional living, which is actually something I’ve talked about in the newsletter and maybe even on this show, which is like, what’s the next logical step? Like, what feels right to do next? 

And also, for people who are like, I don’t know how to trust my gut, like, she gives you exercises and tells you kind of how, how to go about this. 

Nicole: Yeah, I just, I don’t know. I think, as someone who doesn’t really have a five year plan, this was just really satisfying to read.

I did a couple job interviews recently, and of course you know in a job interview, they’re like, what’s your plan? Like, what are, what are you trying to do here? And having this book as like, if nothing else, a reference and being able to like, so like, actually, I’m not really into this five year plan thing right now.

I read this book, here’s the basics of it. And I mean, it worked for me. The managers were like, oh, that makes sense. Like just explaining that this position feels right for me right now. And so I am excited about it because it feels right right now. Like I said, it feels a little bit like ADHD living where I’m just like, yeah, this feels good, right? Let’s go in that direction. Like… 

But it makes sense in a certain way. Like, as long as you don’t get stagnant, but aren’t chasing what you were told you should be chasing. 

Patricia: Yeah. What you think you should. 

Nicole: That shoulding. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

Nicole: Yeah. 

Patricia: Shoulding all over yourself. 

Nicole: Oh, it’s a terrible thing to do. 

Patricia: She uses an analogy, which, again, is imperfect, but I appreciate it, of, like, driving, at night, or driving in the fog.

If it’s at night, you know, you have your headlights on, and you can’t see where you’re going, very, like, very far, but you can see directly in front of you, and so you keep driving in that direction, and just really paying attention to what is directly in front of you, what is immediate. 

Nicole: Yeah, I think it was a really helpful book, and I, I liked the way she framed things, and I really liked the exercises as well. I thought they were really good to help get you into this mindset. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

Nicole: Okay, this next one is another one we both read. This is Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz. Okay, this is going to be a really important book, like the next forever living 

Patricia: oh my gosh 

Nicole: in this world.

Patricia: Everyone just read this book, please. Please read this book. And we’re not saying that because Annalee is friend. We’re also saying it because I just, everything in this book is really eye opening, especially if you haven’t done any kind of reading up on what psychological warfare is. And Annalee is a writer, podcaster, journalist, and they talk about not only the history of psychological warfare in the U. S., and also where the U. S. is involved abroad. But also psychological warfare and PSYOPs in the present and in the near present. It’s just an incredibly important read. I learned so much. I was outraged for a lot of the book. They leave us with a bit of hope at the end about how we can win this war, this psychological war, this culture war.

I don’t know. It was just a really great book. I’m definitely going to buy this book for some people for the holidays. 

Nicole: Yeah, yeah, and I think examining the quote unquote culture war through the lens of psychological warfare was really eye opening as to how things have played out not only in the 2016 election but in more recent times.

Patricia: For the next book, it’s a book we mentioned on the show already. It is a book you have been hearing about everywhere if you’ve been paying attention to, like, the big book awards. I think it just recently won the National Book Award. It is James by Percival Everett. 

Nicole: Y’all go read this book. 

Patricia: But you have to read it in a certain way. Umm… 

Nicole: [Laughing] 

Patricia: And I would like to say I am biased because Dr. Everett was the head of my English program when I was in creative writing in college, but this book is so good. He does satire so well. And so, first, what you have to do is read, or even listen, to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. 

Nicole: Yeah, just go get yourself a used copy. I’m sure there’s 30 of them at the used bookstore. 

Patricia: Get it from the library. 

Nicole: You can get it from the library, too. 

Patricia: Get it from the library. 

And then listen or read, or however you read, James by Percival Everett, which is basically the same story told from the point of view of the escaped enslaved man, Jim.

I don’t want to give anything away. And it’s like, there’s not too much to give away, right? Because it’s just a retelling. But it’s so clever. And reading these books back to back was a wild reading experience. 

Nicole: I love it too, because it’s a satire of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which in and of itself was a satire.

Patricia: Exactly. 

Nicole: So like, the layers on this are, they’re really good. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

Nicole: They’re really, really good. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

Other books we both read this year. Completely different. 

Nicole: [Laughing] 

Patricia: So, the first two in a trilogy. So, Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea. And then the second book, A Pirate’s Life for Tea. 

Nicole: In both of those, that’s 

tea, T E A. 

Patricia: T E A. 

And then, by the way, the third book, Tea You at the Altar, is out in March 2025.

Nicole: That is so exciting. 

Patricia: And this is the Tomes and Tea series by Rebecca Thorne. 

Nicole: So this is, these books are in what to many people is a pretty new genre of cozy fantasy. And If you need some books to just take you away from their daily existential crisis, 

Patricia: yeah 

Nicole: these books are cute, they are fun, they have very low stakes, and are great with a mug of tea. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

If you read Legends and Lattes and Bookshops and Bone Dust, these are along that same vein. 

Nicole: Yes, for sure. 

Okay, so the first book is about Reyna, who is a member of the Queensguard, and I’m probably going to get this wrong even though I listened to it. Kianthe? 

Patricia: Kianthe. 

Nicole: Okay, who is the Mage of Ages. And, Reyna and Kianthe have forbidden love.

Patricia: Forbidden love! 

Nicole: They should not be in love, and they are in love. The problem is, if Reyna leaves the Queen’s Guard, that’s essentially treason. And if she’s caught, she could be sentenced to death. So what do these two do? They run away together and open a bookshop and tea store. 

Patricia: Oh my gosh. 

And then the next book in this series is, you know, something happens at the end of the first book and the next book you can read without reading the first one, but I think it’s more fun if you read the first one, and you meet Bobbie and Serina. And Serina’s a pirate and Bobbie’s a constable and…

These two chuckleheads. 

Nicole: They were besties growing up. 

Patricia: Oh my gosh. 

[Exhale] 

Yeah, you’re just yelling at them the whole book. Like, don’t, don’t, you know, you have the hots for each other. But, you know, that’s how it is. Chuckleheads in love. 

Nicole: Chuckleheads in love. 

Okay, so the next book is one I think I just read. Did you read this one myself?

Patricia: I read this one last year. 

Nicole: You read it last year. Okay. So I read this this year. This is He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters by Schuyler Bailar. Schuyler is the first openly transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division one men’s team. He competed in swimming for Harvard. 

And I think this is a great primer or entry on the basics of what it means to be transgender, as well as offering accessible information about some of the politics surrounding being transgender currently. In particular, going into what it means for trans people to participate in sports. In, at any level, really.

Schuyler is a fantastic communicator, and, I mean, he’s, he’s a treasure for the community, but this book is also good for people in your life who want to know more, but aren’t sure where to start. I think this is a really accessible book. And if you are a listener who just wants to know more about these topics, then this is also a really, really great place to start. 

Patricia: Yeah, I really enjoyed this book. I definitely bought it for some family members already. 

Next book, again, we have talked about this before, and you’ve read these books. 

Nicole: Oh, yeah. 

Patricia: First is Parable of the Sower and then Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler. I finally read these books this year. They were written in the 90s.

Uh, but the first book starts on July 20th, 2024. Octavia E. Butler probably wouldn’t call herself a prophet, but reading these books, it’s like, oh. 

Nicole: Octavia told y’all. 

Patricia: Octavia told us. There’s literally a conservative presidential candidate winner who has the slogan, um, to make America great again. Remember, she wrote this in the 90s.

There’s the California wildfires, the earthquakes, the, so much. There’s so much. And 

Nicole: The, the looming economic collapse. 

Patricia: The looming economic collapse. And it was absolutely wild to read at this time. It’s something I also bought for a family member and we saw him the other day and he’s like, how did she do that?

How did she write that? 

Nicole: Yeah, it’s, it’s eerily prophetic. 

Okay, the next book is another one that if you’re really interested in how we got here, this is another book to put on your list. This is The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism, A Memoir by Adrianne Black, written under the name R. Derek Black. Adrianne’s father is the former Grand Wizard of the KKK, and the founder of the longest running white nationalist webpage on the internet. Growing up in the white nationalist movement, being close family friends with some of the most notorious white supremacists of the 90s and 2000s, and even hosting a regular radio show with their father, Adrianne was poised to be the next leader of white nationalism in the U. S. And then she went to college. 

And while in college, with the help of close friends, she publicly denounced her family’s ideology and apologized for the harm they had caused. 

Patricia: I wonder why they want to shut down education. 

Nicole: Actually, funny enough, the college they went to, 

Patricia: mm hmm 

Nicole: Ron DeSantis in Florida, it’s one of the colleges he totally took over and replaced the entire board with and everything.

Patricia: Wow, okay. 

Nicole: Yeah, like, it’s almost a clear act of retribution for this specifically. 

With the rise of Donald Trump’s first presidency, Adrianne recognized the same rhetoric that they were raised with was now being mainstreamed. And so this book offers an insightful look at the roots of white nationalism in current politics. And really, I think is necessary reading for anyone who wants to even begin to understand the ideology driving the right wing of US politics.

Because even though they don’t say it is, in reading this, it becomes incredibly clear that this is one of the main driving forces behind current far right politics. 

Patricia: Yeah, I, I don’t know if I’m gonna get to that one. That sounds like a lot for me. 

Nicole: It is a lot. And, you know, there’s a lot that goes on in the book.

And there was definitely some friends that were just incredibly kind and opened their dinner table and made sure that even though everybody knew who they were, nobody talked about it, which gave space for Adrianne to kind of experience a much broader culture and have their eyes opened. 

Patricia: I have a bit of a change of pace for the next book.

I think I also talked about this on Book Riot, but I don’t care. I’m talking, I’m shouting about these books everywhere. It is Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares about Words by Anne Curzan. 

So, Anne uses the term grammando and our inner grammando. She does not use grammar Nazi. If we’re going to talk about Nazis, we’re going to talk about Nazis. We’re not going to talk about people correcting other people’s grammar. 

Often, the policing of grammar is, one, not quite accurate, and also, it’s classist, and racist, and rude, and I come at this from a person who was a very staunch grammando, and I’m trying to unlearn a lot of things. 

She makes a case for the use of irregardless.

She has a whole chapter on singular they. Which is something I could go on about for hours. 

She even makes a case for ain’t. 

And the other one I really appreciate is she makes a case for aks 

Nicole: mmm 

Patricia: instead of ask. Which people are like, oh, it is African American Vernacular English. Yes, and Chaucer used aks. The word was actually aks before it was ask.

Nicole: [tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk] 

Patricia: I know. 

And just blowing my mind this whole book. I know it was one you were like, meh about. 

Nicole: I think I’m just not, like, I appreciate good words and grammar and everything. I don’t think I’m this into it. 

Patricia: I don’t think you nerd out about it. Yeah. 

Nicole: Although, did I hear recently singular they is older than the, like, th being put together to make that th sound?

Patricia: Possibly. 

Nicole: Like, the first time it appeared was actually, like, they had to use the thorn to, like, 

Patricia: who knows, yeah 

Nicole: write that, so, like, anyways. 

Okay, I am also changing pace to a, uh, funner book, in my opinion. You see? 

This is The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron. Okay, this book has women pirates, epic battles, sapphic love, really, what more could you all ask for in a book? 

Patricia: That sounds like it’s everything I want. 

Nicole: Again, if you want something that is not, like, modern day stressful, I mean, this book definitely has some higher stakes to it. It is not cozy fantasy. 

So Jacquotte is a mixed race woman and a shipwright, which is someone who fixes sailing ships in the golden age of piracy, really, is where this book is set, in Santo Domingo. Which is an island in the Caribbean.

When she and her motley crew are forced to flee the island, they end up as crew to the ruthless pirate Blackhand, and the adventure takes off from there. 

Patricia: Oh my goodness. 

Nicole: There is a lot of fun to this book. It is definitely a pirate book that is not for kids. 

Patricia: Mature content. 

Nicole: Mature content. 

Patricia: Mature content.

Nicole: It is violent, and Jacquotte is a badass, and it was just a lot of fun. 

Patricia: I have a book that I also, again, talked about earlier. I love this book. I don’t think you’ve read this book yet. 

Nicole: No, I haven’t. 

Patricia: It is The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed. And it is a novella, so if you’re also trying to shove in books at the end of the year to get to your reading goal, I think I read this one straight through. I could not tear my eyes away from it. 

It is, in my opinion, the only correct way to write about the Fae. It is the only correct way to write about, you know, fairies. Because they are terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. This is, it’s fantasy horror ish novella. We have our main character, Veris Thorn, who’s around 40, love a middle aged protagonist.

And there is a tyrant who has, like, taken over her area and killed a bunch of people, and then suddenly the soldiers show up at her door early one morning, and they bring her to the tyrant, and the tyrant’s like, my children have gone missing, they’ve gone into the forest. I need you to get them, and she knows no one goes into that forest because they never come out. Except Veris was the only person who has ever gone into the forest and come out. 

So now, the tyrant has given her 24 hours to go in there and fetch his children. If she doesn’t come back out with his children, he’s going to kill her entire family. 

Nicole: My brain’s like, imagine being so, like, annoying that the Fae make you leave their realm, but I don’t actually know why Veris got out.

Patricia: Is that how you’re gonna, is that how you’re, if the Fae get you, you’re just gonna be annoying? 

Nicole: But I ate your cakes! Please leave!

Patricia: [Laughing] 

Nicole: Okay, this book that I’m gonna tell you about next literally just came out, I think. It is The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist and a member of the citizen Potawatomi Nation. She’s also the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.

This book is a bit shorter than Braiding Sweetgrass. 

Patricia: It’s a lot shorter than Braiding Sweetgrass. 

Nicole: It’s a lot shorter. Yeah. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

Nicole: But I feel like this is another one to just go back and read a couple of times over the years. In this book, she reflects on the nature of the economy, and the fundamental assumptions of scarcity in Economic Theory.

Using the serviceberry plant and the abundance it provides as allegory, Kimmerer encourages the reader to consider an alternative economy of interconnected gift giving, reciprocity, and gratitude. 

And I love this kind of stuff. Not to, like, noble savage Indigenous peoples of the U. S., but I still think there is a lot that we can learn with regards to how we interact with the natural world, but also interpret teachings from the natural world. And I think Robin Wall Kimmerer is an excellent teacher of this. And so that’s why I recommend this book. I think it, it gives a lot of food for thought. 

Patricia: Yeah, I’m excited to get to that one. 

So the last book I’m going to talk about that I did read this year, did not come out this year, it is The Dabbler’s Guide to Witchcraft: Seeking an Intentional Magical Path by Fire Lyte, aka Don Martin, the host of the Head on Fire podcast.

There is a lot of interest in witchcraft lately, on witch-tok, they’re calling it the, the call of Hecate or Hecate or Hecate, you know, there’s like a million different ways people are saying that goddess’s name. And the author talks about what is witchcraft, what is maybe not witchcraft and his own relationship to it.

And I really appreciate a lot of the book is about how to do it ethically. How to do it without appropriating other cultures. How to do it with ethically sourced materials, and not just buying white sage from anyone, which is a whole problem. Or, you know, maybe paying attention to the crystals you’re buying and are they obtained by multiple human rights violations? Are they even actual crystals, or are they resin? And being really kind of deliberate about your practice if you’re going to get into this thing. 

Nicole: This one is definitely on my list. 

Patricia: I liked it on audiobook. He’s very engaging. 

Nicole: I think it’s, I think I have it on hold. It’s just got a long wait list at the libraries right now.

Patricia: Fun fact, I’m the one who requested that the library buy it. 

Nicole: Mmm, well done then. 

Patricia: Thank you.

Music: [Transitional Music] 

Nicole: Okay, so that’s a lot of books. And we had a short episode the other week. Patricia, what’s been filling your cup lately? 

Patricia: Two things. 

One, we went to Southern California and saw a lot of loved ones, including their littles, including their pets, and it was great. 

Nicole: It was a whirlwind tour, but it was delightful.

Patricia: Yeah, it was great to see everyone. 

And then the other thing is something my co worker told me, like, earlier this month, is that I inspired him and his girlfriend to get full size candy bars for Halloween. Like, so, knowing that there is a neighborhood nearby in Oakland where someone got full size candy bars, and kids in that neighborhood got full size candy bars, and it’s because I was the inspiration, is just, like, the highest compliment. 

Nicole: I love that. 

There is such joy in handing out full size candy on Halloween. 

Patricia: Yeah, if you’re able to. 

Nicole: If you’re able to, like, watching the kids light up is just, it’s, it’s great. 

Patricia: So, Nicole, what’s filling your cup? 

Nicole: We did some planting of bulb plants the other weekend. Notably, our, we did your, your tulips for our, and some additional plants to kind of have our spring goth garden. 

Patricia: Yup. 

Nicole: But also we did some garlic. We’re going to try growing garlic this year. 

Patricia: Including one of Martha Stewart’s favorite kinds of garlic, apparently. 

Nicole: Sounds good. 

Patricia: Yeah. 

Nicole: I hope it’s good. I am really interested in trying different culinary garlics, as opposed to just the white California garlic we mostly get at the store.

Patricia: Yeah. 

Nicole: So… 

This was after the election, after we came back from a whirlwind tour of Southern California and jumped right back into work. It was great to just stick my hands in the dirt. There’s something about that, just sticking my hands in the dirt and like, really getting in there and not worrying about like, I’m getting dirty, I might mess up my nails, whatever.

Like, no, just get in there, get dirty, smell the soil, like the whole, the whole thing. It really did a lot to brighten my day and keep me going for a couple days after. So I’m really excited to see what all this turns into in the spring. 

Patricia: Well, that’s our show for today. We’d like to thank our awesome audio editor, Jen Zink. You can find her at loopdilou.com, we’ll leave a link to that in our show notes. 

Nicole: You can find the full show notes and transcript at eedapod.com. That’s E E D A P O D dot com. There, you can also find a link to our Patreon, our bookshop link. And a link to the ongoing Enthusiastic Encouragement and Dubious Advice newsletter.

You can also find us on Instagram and Bluesky at eedapod and email us at eedapod@gmail.com. 

Patricia: We are nothing if not consistent. 

Nicole: We would also appreciate it so much if you would subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts that allow ratings. It really goes far in helping other people find us.

Patricia: We would also appreciate anyone who can subscribe to us on Patreon. Support is going to help us keep this show going another year, especially without ads. You can find us at patreon.com/eedapod. 

Nicole: Also, we would love it if you gifted someone a subscription this year. 

Patricia: Oh yeah, patreon.com/eedapod/gift.

Nicole: Yes. 

Patricia: In the meantime, we hope you find ways to be kind to yourself. Drink some water and read a book. We’ll be talking to you soon. 

Nicole: Ah, can I have some hot chocolate with that book? 

Patricia: Absolutely. 

Nicole: Fantastic.