The Best Fictional Villains
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Season 3, Episode 31: Deliciously Evil - The Best Fictional Villains Mon, 3/15 • 47:19 Meredith Monday Schwartz 00:10 Hey readers, welcome to the Currently Reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready. Kaytee Cobb 00:23 We are light on the chitchat, heavy on the book talk and our descriptions will always be spoiler free. We'll discuss our current reads, a bookish deep dive, and then we'll press books into your hands. Meredith Monday Schwartz 00:33 I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom of four and full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I love a good villain in my novels. Kaytee Cobb 00:43 And I'm Kaytee Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in New Mexico. And I'll read all the fantasy novels I want. Thank you very much. This is episode number 31 of season three. And we're so glad you're here. Meredith Monday Schwartz 00:54 It sounds like we're gonna have some big bookish opinions in this episode. I think we might from our bite size intros. Yeah, no, that's gonna be that's gonna be good. All right. So I'll let you know the top of the show that our deep dive this week is about the best fictional villains. Who are they? What makes a great villain? Do we like a villain? Do we not? Do we kind of wish that they didn't exist because they're yucky and we don't want to think about it. I'll let you guess how I feel about this later on in the show. But first, let's get to our bookish moments of the week. Kaytee, what have you got? Kaytee Cobb 01:29 My bookish moment this week, Meredith came from you. I got the mail yesterday. And I got a book shaped package from my Meredith and I don't think there's anything that can come in the mail that makes me happier than a package shaped like a book. Meredith Monday Schwartz 01:45 Oh, seriously, Kaytee Cobb 01:46 Right? - 1 - Transcribed by https://otter.ai Meredith Monday Schwartz 01:46 Absolutely. Yes. Kaytee Cobb 01:47 So I opened A Vow So Bold and Deadly yesterday. And then I immediately sat down on the couch. And I was like, everybody go away. Don't bother me. I don't need any of you right now. It has a map in the front. And this is part of a book train from Kate Marshall to you to me to any number of bookish friends that want to read this third installment in The Curse So Dark and Lonely series by Brigid Kimmerer. And I'm just I'm so thrilled to get to it. I just love getting bookish packages in the mail. Meredith Monday Schwartz 02:16 I love the idea of the book train. In fact, I was just talking to Johnny about this last night. So I guess book trains can happen all in all different ways. But in this, the way Kate started it was she wrote a little something for me in the front of the book. And then I wrote a little something and then Kaytee, you'll write a little something. And so I love the idea that as we pass these books along, we can kind of be marking it in a little way for each other. We're not doing anything spoilery or anything like that. But just you know, just a little as you can see who's been here. Alright, well, my bookish moment of the week is kind of also about the love of reading with another person. And I mentioned on Instagram a couple of weeks ago that Jackson was doing one of his classes, he's virtually learning right now still. And I had heard that they were having a conversation right at the beginning of the day, they always have like a topic of the day when they they first kind of get together. And this one, I heard out of the sort of corner of my mind that they were talking about the best book that they had read recently. And so I loved listening to Jackson, he had just finished Harry Potter six on audio. And so he was talking about that. But then afterwards, he came running out to me and he said, Mom, I heard about a book that sounds really, really interesting. Can I get it? And can you can we read it together? Because I really, really like it when we read books together. So that's something that I'm just absolutely loving. I've talked about this before Jackson is on the reluctant reader side of the spectrum, right? He's not an ink drinker. But he likes reading enough, especially when he's really interested in the book. And when we do it together, that seems to really help. So we're reading The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix. And I have to say we're probably about 50% of the way through now. And it's really, really good. I'll definitely be talking about it on the show. But it's kind of creepy. It's got a really, really great premise at the start that really grabs you where there's three kids. You know, all within a couple years of each other elementary school aged kids and their read there, they find out there's this news story saying that three kids have been kidnapped. But those children have the exact same names and birthdays of the three children we're following. Kaytee Cobb 04:32 hmm... Meredith Monday Schwartz 04:33 All sorts of weird things start happening from there. So it's got a great premise. And Jackson is really really, you know, happy to be reading it. So we're excited about that. I love reading books with him and - 2 - Transcribed by https://otter.ai when he's into it when I don't have to drag him into it. All right, Kaytee, let's get into our current reads. What's your first current read? Kaytee Cobb 04:53 Okay, my first one I actually stole from my children. Speaking of reading with your kids, it's Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia. The story starts out pretty normally for middle grade. Tristen Strong is a kid that really likes boxing. His dad, his uncle are really into boxing. So that's kind of his little backstory. But he's going right now through a very rough time. His best friend Eddie died recently. And all that Tristan has left to remember him by his his journal. Because it's a rough time, he goes to visit his grandparents in Alabama on the farm. And they everybody's hoping that he won't be too overwhelmed by grief and by you know, walking around with memories of Eddie everywhere. But his very first night there, it gets a little crazy. He sees a small sticky creature steal the journal from the bedroom that he's staying in. And he runs off to try and catch it before it takes off with this one memory of his best friend. So they're struggling under this under this tree with and he's struggling with this weird sticky baby doll thing. And he punches the tree that they're wrestling under, which rips a hole in the sky and opens a chasm to MidPass, a completely brilliant, amazing fantasy world. There he gets to meet John Henry and his silver hammer, Br'er Rabbit exhausted from having to be cunning all the time. Anansi....the story we were all these amazing Black American legends are there inhabiting MidPass. So it's kind of like if you fell into a library and all the all the villains and all the heroes were alive inside that library, right? Tristan has to put aside his grief in order to help this kind of found family of creatures and friends and villains to repair the hole in their world, and hopefully get him back home. There's mythology, there's fairy tales, it's all woven in. I went to Google trying to find out more about what was happening there. They the stories here tied into other reading that I did in February, which is always great when it brings another book to life. And I thought that Kwame Mbalia did a great job creating a fully new and interesting universe. Couldn't put it down. Great map in the endpapers which we all need right? Love... The audiobook was excellent. But picking up the paper copy was beautiful as well, which is great because it was already on my kids shelves. So I really, really enjoyed it. It's Tristen Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia. Meredith Monday Schwartz 07:24 All right, so I am bringing a murderful story today. And this was one that I listened to on audio and it was fantastic on audio I This was one of those ones where it made me want my workouts to last longer. And this is what I'm looking for in my audio.