Ep. 27: Lit Recs: Women’s History Month

Join Kelsey and Amanda as they share some fantastic book recommendations for Women's History Month, from wartime heroines to millennial mishaps. Expect thoughtful discussions, heartwarming moments, and a focus on celebrating women through literature.

00:00 Welcome to Lit Vibes Only

00:24 Social Media Plugs

03:23 Book Talk w/ Amanda & Kelsey

07:46 Women's History Month Background

09:44 Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo

20:27 Codename Helene by Ariel Lawhon

28:14 Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole

37:00 Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

44:50 Conclusion and Socials

Follow us on TikTok & Youtube @litvibesonlypodcast and on Instagram @litvibesonly_podcast. We'd love to hear from you!

See you on Mondays!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Lit Vibes Only
• 0:24 Social Media Plugs
• 3:23 Book Talk w/ Amanda & Kelsey
• 7:46 Women's History Month Background
• 9:44 Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo
• 20:27 Codename Helene by Ariel Lawhon
• 28:14 Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole
• 37:00 Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

Transcript

Ep. 27: Lit Recs: Women's History Month
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[00:00:00] 

[00:00:04] Kelsey: Welcome to Lit Vibes Only, where we lit the shit out of books we love and hate. 

[00:00:10] Amanda: I'm Kelsey. And I'm Amanda, and we're so glad to have you back for yet another episode. This is going to be our Lit Recs episode for Women's History Month. Yay, women! March! So, , we've got some great book recs coming your way, but before we do that Don't forget to find us on socials, but vibes only underscore podcast for Instagram and lit vibes only podcast four tick tock and YouTube.

[00:00:38] Amanda: And I'm not going to forget this time. Don't forget to rate and review us. , please. We ask every single episode and there, there's a reason why we do it's because it's super important for us and for us to grow as a podcast and to get more listeners tuning into this, , this podcast every week. So, , please take a moment and do that whether you're listening on Apple [00:01:00] podcast or on Spotify.

[00:01:01] Amanda: On Spotify, you cannot write a review. You would have to leave a comment on this episode or any of our episodes. We would love that. But you can, , write a review on Apple podcast and you can rate us on both of them. So by all means, we would really love that. And then once you've done that, you can come over to our socials and tell us that you did that.

[00:01:21] Amanda: We would love that 

[00:01:22] Kelsey: too. 

[00:01:23] Amanda: Yeah. But, , yeah, we have a lot of fun on our socials. We post a lot of other content. That's not necessarily. Directly connected to the podcast episodes, just like fun bookish stuff, what we're getting up to, what we're reading, our thoughts on things. So yeah, I 

[00:01:37] Kelsey: was just looking at, , Spotify.

[00:01:39] Kelsey: We have 18 ratings so far, which is exciting and they're all five stars. So thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you. , I think I have not rated the show, 

[00:01:54] Amanda: the hypocrisy we're out here asking people to do it. And I know for [00:02:00] sure I have rated us on Apple podcast and I think Spotify, I obviously haven't written a review cause I feel like that would be 

weird.

[00:02:09] Kelsey: Although I do see some authors 

[00:02:12] Amanda: do that on their books. They'll write a review of their own book? Oh, you mean like on Goodreads? Yes, I have seen that actually, that's true. I just, I don't know, I feel like it's weird and people are maybe gonna be less inclined to. Hey, I 

[00:02:28] Kelsey: just rated us on Apple. 

[00:02:29] Amanda: Yay! I feel like we have, we definitely have less ratings on Apple than 

[00:02:34] Kelsey: Yeah.

[00:02:35] Amanda: I think we have like three, 

[00:02:37] Kelsey: five now. I'm the fifth one. 

[00:02:41] Amanda: So if you're listening on Apple in particular, if you could just like hit that little rating so 

[00:02:47] Kelsey: lovely, 

[00:02:47] Amanda: 0. 05 seconds, even if you don't want to take the time to write a review. , and honestly, if you write a review, it could be like a sentence and it could say something like Kelsey and Amanda are the greatest podcasters that you [00:03:00] have ever encountered in your life.

[00:03:01] Amanda: Something like that. Like, I don't know. I'm not feeding anybody words or 

[00:03:05] Kelsey: anything, but it could be similar to, Oh my God, you're so cool. Oh my God. This is so great. Anything like content I've ever found more books. 

[00:03:19] Amanda: We'll take any and all of it. 

[00:03:20] Kelsey: Thank you. 

[00:03:22] Amanda: All right. 

[00:03:23] Kelsey: , well we do have some exciting news. 

[00:03:26] Amanda: Well, it's exciting for Kelsey.

[00:03:27] Amanda: Let's be clear. I am. What is the opposite of excited? 

[00:03:33] Amanda: , 

[00:03:33] Amanda: complete and total, yes, sad news. I'm devastated. I, you know, no, because I don't care enough to be devastated, but I am certainly displeased by this. 

[00:03:44] Kelsey: Okay. Displeased, displeased. Well, I just sent today. , to Amanda, , the announcement from Allie Hazelwood that there is going to be a bride sequel.

[00:03:57] Kelsey: And last week we, , [00:04:00] talked about bride and 

[00:04:02] Amanda: we sure did. 

[00:04:04] Kelsey: I very much enjoyed that read and Amanda very much. Did not. It 

[00:04:10] Amanda: was truly painful. Loved. Hated. Yes, despised with every fiber of my being. And I, I truly, it's just hard for me to fathom that somebody would be like, yes, give me a second serving of this because the first one was so delicious.

[00:04:26] Amanda: That's me. That's me. But it's funny though because you also can acknowledge the fact that it's not going to be a good book. It's just 

[00:04:34] Kelsey: totally, totally, it's going to be so cringe and hilarious. And I'm just like, I don't know why I'm loving that right now, but I am. It's it is. 

[00:04:44] Amanda: Yeah. It's. It's just the kind of cringe, like I do like some cringe, like we talked about, like, I love The Office.

[00:04:48] Amanda: That's like cringe, but in a really funny way. And Bride was just cringe in the cringey way. And I was like, Oh, this makes me feel uncomfortable and weird. I'm 

[00:04:58] Kelsey: having weird feelings. 

[00:04:59] Amanda: [00:05:00] Also, we were just talking because she sent me the video to her kind of announcing this book at this like convention.

[00:05:07] Amanda: And I was listening to her speak and I didn't realize that she. Well, I think she's an American citizen now, but she was born in Italy. And so I was like, hearing this accent, I was like, I don't, I didn't realize she wasn't like, like born and raised here. , so that was an interesting twist. And , yeah, I had 

[00:05:25] Kelsey: no idea either, actually.

[00:05:26] Kelsey: And I wonder if she brought over like cultural, , I don't know, 

[00:05:31] Amanda: beliefs or differences. And so like, Yeah. Cause I don't, obviously I haven't looked into her background, so I don't know how old she was when she came here, but I'm like, Oh yeah, I wonder how that does inform her writing. Cause there was nothing in Bride that I would have been like, Oh, this isn't someone who grew up in the United States, you know, like there was no indicators.

[00:05:49] Amanda: , so it was like based in the United States, essentially United States. Yeah. , but just thought that was interesting and I didn't know that. I mean, not that I had any interest in learning more about her, but, , I did. [00:06:00] 

[00:06:00] Kelsey: Watch out, Amanda. I might have you read one of her romances. 

[00:06:04] Amanda: I did read one of her romances.

[00:06:06] Kelsey: Another one of her romances. That was a paranormal romance, okay? Okay, 

[00:06:11] Amanda: I honestly, I would, if you had me read the love hypothesis, I actually would read that one just because I have heard More good things about that from people I know. And so I'm a little curious. I feel less 

[00:06:25] Kelsey: interested in that one. It doesn't sound like a U book at all.

[00:06:29] Amanda: I feel like, have you read lessons in chemistry? Okay. Oh, 

[00:06:35] Kelsey: I know about that one though. Yeah. And 

[00:06:36] Amanda: it was made into a TV show not too long ago, which is excellent. I love the book and the. show , but yeah, the reason why I was talking about the love hypothesis with this group of friends is because I had read lessons in chemistry, which is it's not necessarily a romance.

[00:06:48] Amanda: There's certainly a romance at the center of it, but it is about like, you know, a woman scientist. And I know that like, that's her thing. Allie Hazelwood. Yes. , So that like came up in that same conversation. So it's like, Hmm, I wonder if [00:07:00] I'd like it. I don't know, I guess. But yes, that's the only one you're allowed to have me read.

[00:07:04] Amanda: I will not read any of her other things ever, ever again. I just, life is too short and I will never get those hours back that I wasted on that book. So 

[00:07:11] Kelsey: we'll see. 

[00:07:14] Amanda: , but we are going to be talking about authors today that we do like, and some of their books. And Because it is Women's History Month, we are going to be kind of doing like a two pronged attack in that the books that I have chosen, they are written by female authors, but I chose them not necessarily because of the women who wrote them, but because of the story that the Novel tells, and Kelsey's books are more about the author and like celebrating the women who wrote those books.

[00:07:46] Amanda: So just a little bit of background about women's history month for those who might not really understand like where this all came from and how it came to be. , so it started off as just a week long celebration, , and Santa Rosa, California. This was [00:08:00] back in 1978 and a lot of these 

[00:08:02] Kelsey: heritage months started out as like a week.

[00:08:04] Amanda: They did. Yeah. A lot of them dead. We're learning, which I guess makes sense. Maybe you're not going to go for a month right out the gate. You have to see if people are interested in like, at least a test on the waters. They did this. And it was a group of, I think, largely women, , in Sonoma County. And they were part of this education task force.

[00:08:24] Amanda: And so they specifically chose the week in March, that particular week in March, because it coincided with international women's day, which happens on March 8th. And so, , two years after that, so two years after them, like kicking off this week long celebration in 1980, , president Carter issued this presidential proclamation, which.

[00:08:45] Amanda: kind of just reinforced and declared that yes, this week of March 8th will be National Women's History Week. , and this came about after a lot of lobbying from different women's groups and historians. And then seven years later in 1987, Congress [00:09:00] finally passed a law that designated the entire month as Women's History Month.

[00:09:04] Amanda: And this happened in large part because the National Women's History Project had. been petitioning for this to happen. And so the purpose of this month is to honor and celebrate women's contributions in American history and in our contemporary society. And, you know, considering the current climate of our country, I think any moment we can take to celebrate and uplift women and, , come together as women as well, , is really important.

[00:09:32] Amanda: And so I am particularly excited about this episode and the books that we have to share with you. 

[00:09:38] Kelsey: Absolutely. 

[00:09:39] Amanda: How's y'all turning over to you for your first book? 

[00:09:42] Kelsey: Sweet. So the first, , author that I want to highlight is Ijeoma Oluo. And she is actually a local Seattleite and, , her first book was, and is [00:10:00] still fairly well known.

[00:10:01] Kelsey: , so you want to talk about race. And this was like an introduction to how to talk about race, in any setting, really. And, , so she became very well known after, , that book and currently has three published books to kind of give a background on her her work began way before she became an author, , she, It oftentimes is showing up at local civil rights protests and, , oftentimes even speaking at those protests, , that she attends, , she gets invited to, to speak at various events, , especially locally.

[00:10:42] Kelsey: , And has been a huge voice in our community around, you know, human rights and civil rights. , and so this is kind of, , the entry point, that book, that first book, , of the work that she does. And, , I wanted to [00:11:00] bring a quote about the book, , just to give you an understanding of the content.

[00:11:05] Kelsey: Salon said, generous and empathetic, yet usefully blunt. It's for anyone who wants to be smarter and more empathetic about matters of race and engage in more productive anti racist actions, , and, , yeah, I just find that to be true. Like it's, it's definitely a book that you would want to dive into if you just want more tools around talking about anti racism, , and that work that goes along with it.

[00:11:34] Kelsey: And that personal work that goes along with it. , her first book has a 4. 49 rating on Goodreads, which is quite high. , it's well regarded. , she as an author has been named, back in 2021. On the time 100 next list, , was named twice, to the root 100 and then was nominated as a Harvard human, [00:12:00] human, is it humanist of the year?

[00:12:05] Amanda: Yeah. Wow. I was like. 

[00:12:07] Kelsey: Humanitarianist was coming out of my, was coming into my brain, but humanist of the year. And, , she has two other books as well. And I'm going to highlight Mediocre a little more in depth, but basically, you know, her first book was really about , the entry point and how to talk about these things.

[00:12:25] Kelsey: And then. The second book that I'll talk about more in depth is more about some history. And then this book, this last book, her third book is more about action and inspired to action and change. She's coming from a place where she wants to take us out of a place of pain and trauma and into a place of loving action.

[00:12:45] Kelsey: And, , Yeah, and, , this, oh, I didn't get the rating for here, but, , I'm sure it's quite high as well. And I wanted to point that out, is that while she has a high rating for her books, , she [00:13:00] faces a lot of, violence, , against her life. , even here in Seattle, where We like to say that we're more progressive and that we're more welcoming, but when people talk about these things, very , 

[00:13:16] Kelsey: People react and respond and get triggered and I just wanted to point out, yeah, she's highly regarded in a lot of spaces, but then there are many people in those spaces that, , really are misunderstanding her work and go against the work that she does.

[00:13:37] Kelsey: And, , she's had, you know, threats on her life. , and she talks about these things like on her social media as well about the realities of like what her life looks like but She's so worth like following and keeping up with because she speaks so well to you the issues at hand and I've learned personally so much from her and [00:14:00] love and appreciate the work that she does and am able to bring it back into my own life and support myself in Navigating these difficult like racist situations.

Yeah, 

[00:14:13] Kelsey: I'm up against in my workplace or in my personal life or a family and so yeah, that's what her work has done in my life and Just something to highlight , as well, she's very much grounded in like the local and making sure it's like more about community and boots on the ground and that we need to be building community and, , I notice on her website, it's like the small things, right?

[00:14:42] Kelsey: Where an author might just link their book straight to Amazon or straight to, their publisher's, , page, right? But she has her books, linked to bookshop. org. And that specific place, , donates to, I think, [00:15:00] libraries? , local libraries or something. It's just, , one of those things where it's like, part of our work is not maintaining the status quo and supporting these big, , corporations because they're the ones upholding , this white supremacist culture.

[00:15:15] Kelsey: And so, , so anyway, I just wanted to highlight that as well. Yeah, that's 

[00:15:18] Amanda: great. 

[00:15:19] Kelsey: , and so, Mediocre specifically is the book that I am recommending and have read. And just a side note, when I was reading this book, because this book is more about history, and it's a non fiction book, , all of her books are I was calling it mediocre white men and my, my husband was like, it's not called that.

[00:15:40] Kelsey: I was like, yes, it is. It's mediocre white men and that's what it's talking about. And like, it literally is. And it's like, although it's, doesn't say mediocre white men, it can be reduced to that because long form, the whole title is Mediocre, the dangerous legacy of white male [00:16:00] America. And so I was calling it Mediocre white men. 

[00:16:03] Amanda: I get it. That 

[00:16:04] Kelsey: makes perfect sense. 

[00:16:06] Amanda: You're 

[00:16:07] Kelsey: just 

[00:16:07] Amanda: paraphrasing. Yeah. 

[00:16:09] Kelsey: And he just would laugh at me because, , yeah, essentially, that's what I learned out of this book.

[00:16:15] Kelsey: But, , basically it's through the last 150 years of American history and from the post reconstruction South and the mythic stories of cowboys in the West. To the present day controversy over NFL protests and the backlash against the rise of women in politics. , so Ijeoma exposes the devastating consequences of white male supremacy on women, people of color, and white men themselves.

[00:16:44] Kelsey: , mediocre investigates the real cost of this phenomenon in order to imagine a new white male identity, one free from racism and sexism. And , it is a really powerful book. And if you don't know that history, and even [00:17:00] if you do have an understanding of that history, she just goes so in depth with, , this understanding and she does have where she, , highlights Thanks.

[00:17:09] Kelsey: like Cowboys in the West and the violence that was created towards, , indigenous peoples, especially of that narrative, , around cowboys. And, , it's just. Illuminating. And, , is that the right word? 

[00:17:26] Amanda: I think, I mean, depending on what you're trying to say, yeah, very, like, illuminating and lightening, like, you just, like, shed light on things that You know, sometimes I, 

[00:17:33] Kelsey: , make up words, so I was just double checking.

[00:17:36] Kelsey: You were totally spot 

[00:17:37] Amanda: on with that one. 

[00:17:39] Kelsey: Sweet. , so So I just highly encourage people to go read this book and it was published in 2021 and , I thought I had the, , 

[00:17:52] Amanda: you have the rating is that what you're looking for? Yeah. Where did I put it? It's at the bottom. It's a 4. 4 rating. Oh yeah, it's right there.[00:18:00] 

[00:18:00] Kelsey: So again, like I said, her books have high ratings and she has a 4. 4 on Goodreads. , but again, her speaking out about these things. does have a cost for her and her life and her family. And so, I just want to highlight that as well as like this reality for her and her family. , because it is not easy and all she's doing is.

[00:18:22] Kelsey: Yeah. And, , it's so devastating to hear that, like, that's how people respond. Yeah. And I'm sure she would say something like, yeah, it's not surprising, 

[00:18:32] Amanda: you know, like. Of course not. No, because those truths are like challenging. And like you said earlier, the status quo and the systems that are currently in place to uphold certain people in positions of power and privilege and the people in those positions don't want that system to be.

[00:18:44] Amanda: Dismantled or 

[00:18:46] Kelsey: exactly. 

[00:18:47] Amanda: So it 

[00:18:47] Kelsey: makes, , yeah, so I highly recommend her works in general. And not only that, like following her on social media, because she really puts out great information and, , constantly [00:19:00] is on social media kind of spreading like, , truths about various things happening in the world.

[00:19:06] Kelsey: And, Just is very clear in her message. And so, , if you're looking for, , more content like that on social media, I absolutely, , just following her and then especially reading her book, Mediocre. So enjoy. 

[00:19:21] Amanda: Thank you. I knew about her first book. I'd never heard of Mediocre. So I also need to like Mediocre white men.

[00:19:28] Amanda: So we also need to add that to my, , TBR, but I think he made a really good book. point when you were talking about like, yeah, these books are well received and that they have these high ratings, they might've even won awards, but it kind of ties into the performative nature. I think of certain individuals when it comes to social justice issues, like it's one thing to like read a book and give it a high rating because it doesn't cost anything and it doesn't really.

[00:19:53] Amanda: , disenfranchise you in any way. It doesn't force you to take any steps that would make you feel any form of discomfort. And it's [00:20:00] very different when you're actually like, okay, well, I read this book and then putting it into practice. Right. And so I think you highlighted a really, , key issue there, , especially in a place like Seattle where I think there's a lot of formative, like social activism, activism.

[00:20:15] Amanda: Yeah, exactly. And it's like in reality, , When this shit hits the fan, like people don't want to go through with it. Okay. Well, , shifting gears a lot, I guess

[00:20:27] Amanda: we're still focusing on women, but we're going to, we're going to take it back several decades because I have, of course, 

[00:20:33] Kelsey: of course, a 

[00:20:34] Amanda: historical fiction novel. for you. , the book that I'm recommending is codename Helene by Arielle Lajon. And I've read two of her books, this one and the frozen river, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

[00:20:46] Amanda: , I'm not going to spend too much time on Ariel herself, mainly because I just couldn't find that much information about her. , a lot of the authors that we look. at for these episodes, generally have like a Wikipedia page or like their own website and she doesn't. And so I was [00:21:00] kind of just pulling blurbs from here and there to stitch together a narrative for her.

[00:21:04] Amanda: But, , in a nutshell, she is a New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction. And at this point has written seven books. , and they have been translated in numerous languages and are all around the world. , her books have been really well received. She hasn't necessarily won any like huge literary prizes, but her books have been selected for like the Good Morning America Book Club, Library Reads, One Book One County, Indynext, Costco, the Amazon Spotlight, and Book of the Month.

[00:21:34] Amanda: , so her books are, , highly regarded, even if they're not necessarily like super highly awarded. , and she currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her family. And I think they have like a cute little dog. , so that's like a little bit about her. , but the reason why I chose this particular book isn't just because it's historical fiction.

[00:21:51] Amanda: I chose it because it is focusing on a real. woman who lived and had a huge impact in [00:22:00] World War II. And we all know that, especially when we're talking about, , the military and, , you know, women's roles in wartime, they often are diminished or overlooked. And so I loved that Ariella Hahn. Took this woman who will get to in a second and did a really great job of I think bringing her to life for a contemporary audience So again, the book's name is codename Helene.

[00:22:23] Amanda: It was published relatively recently in 2020 So not that long ago and is again a very highly rated book on Goodreads It's got a 4. 41 rating and it was nominated for readers favorite historical fiction in 2020 on Goodreads It's 451 pages And it tells the story, the real life story of Nancy Wake and Nancy Wake was this Australian expat who, , was living in Paris prior to World War II.

[00:22:55] Amanda: And so as like war is breaking out through a series of events, [00:23:00] she finds herself. So I'm not going to necessarily spoil the story for you, although it's history, so it's kind of already been spoiled for you. But, , the reason why it's called Codename Helene is that , over the course of the war and her involvement in it, she had different code names that she used for the different roles that she had.

[00:23:21] Amanda: So, , one of her names, and I'm probably going to mispronounce this because it's French and I don't speak French, but it's, I think, Lucienne Carlier. And that was the name that she used when she was like smuggling like documents and people out of France to help them escape the Germans. , when the Gestapo found out that there was a woman who they couldn't figure out who was, but someone, some female was like smuggling people like out of France.

[00:23:46] Amanda: , they called this person the white mouse. So that was the name that was given to her by the Gestapo because she was like really good at evading capture and they couldn't find her. And then when she went to Britain, After all this, she goes to Britain to [00:24:00] train with, , the special operations executives.

[00:24:02] Amanda: They gave her the codename Helene, and after she completed training in Britain, she was sent back to France to be a leader of the French resistance. And in that role, she was Madame Andre. And so the book is organized around the four codenames that she used during the war. And so like each section of the book is connected to like that.

[00:24:25] Amanda: part of her, , wartime experience. , I found it incredibly fascinating. Wildly informative and, , Ariella Hahn, which is something I love about any historical fiction author, like she did her homework, like she understood the assignment and so much of what she recounted in the book is true to life.

[00:24:45] Amanda: So there wasn't a whole lot of like artistic license, , taken when she was telling the story. And actually. Nancy Wake wrote her own biography, so I, it's hard to get a hold of at this [00:25:00] point and I've tried to, , but she wrote her, her story and so of course, , Arielle used that to inform her writing of this book.

[00:25:07] Amanda: So it's quite accurate. , , Nancy Wake ended up going on to become one of the most decorated women of World War II, which is such a. Accomplishment. Yeah. And, and of course, you know, in, in the story itself, it touches on themes of love and like adventure and heroism and just reading about some of the things that this woman did, it just, it'll blow your mind.

[00:25:27] Amanda: And the way that she was able to both , obviously stay calm under pressure and some really incredibly life or death situations, but also the fact that she was in. Almost all of these situations. And especially when she was a leader of the French resistance was like the sole woman , that was ordering around troops of men and to be able to do that at that time.

[00:25:47] Amanda: And to, , one, like not lose your shit, but also like not take shit from anyone and be able to maintain the level of power and control and authority you would need in order to like pull off a successful operation. I just found that. So [00:26:00] impressive. , and so yeah, if you're looking to learn more about an incredibly accomplished, courageous woman who a lot of people still haven't heard of, I highly recommend this book because again, I think she does a really good job of, of telling her story well.

[00:26:14] Amanda: And accurately, and then of course, at the end of the novel, at the end of the book, she has all of her notes and like, so here's where I, you know, changed a couple of things. Here's what actually happened. And I love again, when authors do that historical fiction authors, , because there's that, that element of like education that's happening as well.

[00:26:30] Amanda: So yeah. Yeah, that was, that's my first one. 

[00:26:34] Kelsey: That sounds intriguing, actually. 

[00:26:36] Amanda: Yeah, it's great. It's so good. 

[00:26:39] Kelsey: I might have to pick that one up. You might have to. That sounds great. , now I'm going to shift us in a completely different direction. Like ping pong all over the place. Yeah, we're kind of going all over the place, and we went all over the place with these , recommendations, and Initially, I was thinking [00:27:00] that I was going to highlight did, did you ever read the bastard of ensemble?

[00:27:05] Kelsey: I think I shared that 

[00:27:07] Amanda: on my list. I just, I 

[00:27:09] Kelsey: was thinking about highlighting that one, because , people describe it as kind of this joy luck club, , where it's like these different generations of women. , and it talks about their story. And so I. I highly recommend that. But, , I, I didn't cause I was like, Oh, but is it American?

[00:27:28] Kelsey: I was like, whatever. So 

[00:27:31] Amanda: international women's day is a part of women's history month. So there we go. 

[00:27:34] Kelsey: We're yeah. I just remember I made that mistake. And so I didn't want to make that mistake again. And I was like, God, dear God. So watch Penn Coles, probably not even American. To be like, who knows? No, we know she's from Texas.

[00:27:52] Kelsey: So anyhow, , that is also a great recommendation. , I personally didn't like it, 

[00:27:58] Kelsey: It was hard for me to get [00:28:00] through it because it was like more slow in my mind, but like, it's a great story around like that family and, , it has some twists in it too, which is nice anyway to the main event. My second recommendation is going to be from the author, Penn Cole, and it's going to be Spark of the Everflame, , trilogy.

[00:28:21] Kelsey: We've heard about this 

[00:28:22] Amanda: podcast. 

[00:28:24] Kelsey: And we will be highlighting it at some point. I will have Amanda reading this book because Burn, the fourth book is coming out this year and I am so excited. So whatever month that is. , we will have, we will highlight Spark of the Everflame because why not? 

[00:28:42] Amanda: Yeah. 

[00:28:45] Kelsey: Yeah. , so Penn Cole, , there's not too much like in depth information about her.

[00:28:52] Kelsey: She was an indie author until very recently in 2024 when she was picked up by Simon and [00:29:00] Schuster. I actually have her, , original indie published Spark of the Everflame, and my friend actually gave this to me, , for a birthday present , and it's so funny, whenever I get birthday presents, , they end up, being my favorite books for whatever reason.

[00:29:18] Kelsey: Like, friends have really good taste, and so, , I picked it up and I was like, oh my god, I can't stop, and I just, like, read it all the way through. And this is the shortest book. Oh, I know. Yeah. The, the, one of them, , is like a thousand pages. And so 

I, that's, that's 

[00:29:36] Kelsey: what happens with indie books, is that, , they end up being longer because they don't have a publisher to help them narrow things down.

[00:29:43] Kelsey: Like edited. Yes. But you know what? I love the books. all the same. , and I'm curious how different because all of the books have come out now, , where it's Spark, I think it's, Glow, and then Heat, , those [00:30:00] have now been republished, , since she joined, , Simon Schuster. And so now we're just waiting on the burn release, , which is the final book.

[00:30:09] Kelsey: So anyway, , Pen Cole was born and raised in Texas, like Amanda said, and she has grown to some privilege and has moved to France. I believe with her husband. It must be so nice. I'm like, dang, like. Yeah, like, Oh, I'm just like sitting in France or like writing books.

[00:30:30] Kelsey: Like my imagination can go wild. Like, I don't know if she's like in the countryside or in Paris or what, but like, that sounds like a great time writing life. , and she's just excited to, , be an author and has always loved, , reading and writing stories. So, Spark of the Everflame was published in 2021 is.

[00:30:55] Kelsey: It's about 438 pages, depending on [00:31:00] the, , the version you get. So this is that version and, , has a 4. 2 rating on Goodreads. Oh, 

[00:31:06] Amanda: okay. All these highly, highly rated books today. 

[00:31:10] Kelsey: And like I said, , was an indie published author. When she began, but now in 2004, 2024 was picked up by a formal publisher. And, , yeah, when I got this book and started reading it, I started reading it in the summer of last year and July was actually the last time.

[00:31:31] Kelsey: The other books, all of her books were going to be on the shelf until they were re released from the formal publisher. I don't know if people understand like that's what happens. , they take them off the shelves because they're no longer going to be selling them. And so people buy them up so that they can sell them to people while people wait.

[00:31:49] Kelsey: And so I was desperate and I had no idea when the next books were going to come out. And they only recently came out. So I would have had to wait months. For [00:32:00] it. So I went online and I bought glow and heat and I remember I paid like 70 for one of them. 

[00:32:07] Amanda: And 

[00:32:09] Kelsey: yeah, I mean it's like double 

[00:32:11] Amanda: it is literally double, 

[00:32:13] Kelsey: like double what you normally would pay.

[00:32:15] Kelsey: So who cares? I didn't care. I was like, whatever. I really want this book and it was absolutely worth it. 

I have no, have 

[00:32:24] Kelsey: no regrets. 

[00:32:26] Amanda: No 

[00:32:27] Kelsey: buyer's remorse. Yep. Exactly. No regrets at all. , and I gobbled them up so quickly, but, , yeah, I'm going to have Amanda read these books and I know already what you're going to say.

[00:32:40] Kelsey: It's gonna be fun. 

[00:32:40] Amanda: Yep. Okay. I'm fine. I'm just, yep. Okay. Alright. Oh, are you done with, with that? That is, that is my recommendation. Did you want to like tell people what it's , about? Oh yeah.

[00:32:56] Amanda: I was like, oh my god. Also, I, I don't even [00:33:00] know if I need to say it at this point, but yes, we are recording this after work once again. Yes. So, if you couldn't already tell. 

[00:33:08] Kelsey: Yeah. 

[00:33:09] Amanda: Sam, what the heck is Spark of the Everflame about? I 

[00:33:12] Kelsey: feel, that's hilarious. , okay. So Spark of the Everflame is, , based around the main character DM, which I really also loved the names in this book.

[00:33:25] Kelsey: They do feel, , a bit more creative than the ones that we typically see. , there's been many jokes made about like fantasy book names where like, they'll just like. Randomly type things and then, and then carve them out and be like, yep, we're going to put a vowel there and a vowel there. Perfect. The bird is his name.

[00:33:44] Kelsey: , so it's centered around DM and she is a healer actually, and born without powers and she is human. And, , she lives in this realm called Amarian, and they have different territories, and if I [00:34:00] remember correctly, there's about eight different territories, , and it's kind of situated like a circle, like this is the land where my hands are, and then in the center is like this sacred little island, , that only the rulers go to, and so all of the land is , , Around that major sacred circle, but then in between there's all this water.

[00:34:22] Kelsey: Okay. And so each land has its own like powers and ability. And, , some people don't have powers at all. And some people do. And the most powerful are the ones who become the leaders of each of those sections of the realm. There is this uprising happening in , her portion of the realm and her and her family are kind of on the poorer side and live in what would be deemed as the slums of the city and it's not well kept.

[00:34:56] Kelsey: , and things are. kind of run down a bit [00:35:00] and you know, people, people live there, but , it's just not as high quality of his life as like a royal. And so , her mother ends up. going missing at the beginning of the book. And so we're, we're experiencing the part of her life where her mom has gone missing.

[00:35:17] Kelsey: And it's not the first time in her life where her mom has gone missing and then comes back, but her mom has been gone for quite a long time. And so they're kind of losing hope that she's actually going to return or that she's actually alive. And so, , DM is taking care of the family. She's a healer.

[00:35:33] Kelsey: That's how she makes a living and also, you know, supports, , just in general, the community. She's well known in the community. And then eventually she is called to her mother's duties, which include going to the royal palace and serving the people in the palace and the royal members of the family.

[00:35:56] Kelsey: And so that kind of sparks her journey. Spark of the [00:36:00] Everflame. And, , propels the story forward. And so that is kind of the very, very condensed version of the synopsis of the story. And, , yeah, so I'm not going to give too much away, but that is the premise. 

[00:36:18] Amanda: Okay, awesome. Yes. It's, you , you know, it's funny because it sounds I can already hear the tropes even in the synopsis, like they're just so evident already.

[00:36:30] Amanda: And I'm like, Oh, I can see why Kelsey would like this. I can see a lot of the fantasy and romance tropes I've encountered already. So, 

[00:36:36] Kelsey: and there's also a slow burn. 

[00:36:38] Amanda: , that tracks also I think with the name, , all right. Well, thank you for giving us a little blurb about what it's 

[00:36:45] Kelsey: about.

[00:36:46] Kelsey: Yes. , thank you for the reminder at what now? 7 30 at night. So yes. This makes sense. All right. Well, we 

[00:36:54] Amanda: will do my second book so we can wrap things up for you guys before it gets too much more off kilter. [00:37:00] So my second book is by an author I really love and this book that I'm recommending, I personally gave it.

[00:37:07] Amanda: Five stars, even though it does not have a super, super high rating on Goodreads, but it is ghosts by Dolly Alderton. , Dolly Alderton, she's fabulous. , she is a British author, journalist, screenwriter, and podcast host. , her parents are British and Canadian. She considers herself half Canadian, , but she was born and raised in England and that is where she still is today.

[00:37:30] Amanda: And she actually, Dolly is not her given name, her given name is Hannah, and she decided in her teenage years to change her name to Dolly, , which is a curious choice, but I think it suits her. , and I loved finding out this information about her. So she. So. Studied and got her, , undergrad degree in drama in English, which is essentially what, funny, I got my degrees in mines in drama, kindred spirits and creative writing.

[00:37:54] Amanda: So we were kindred spirits. It probably explains why I love her book so much. , and then she went on to get her master's in [00:38:00] journalism and it was actually, she started off her writing career as a journalist. So she, . , in 2015 started, , a, or not started, but wrote a dating column for the Sunday times and did that for several years.

[00:38:14] Amanda: And then eventually went on to, , become an agony aunt, which I had to just double check what that meant. It's essentially like an advice columnist, right? And, , She has her own column or had her own column called Dear Dolly, where people would write in and be like, Oh, this is what's going on in my life, what should I do?

[00:38:33] Amanda: And I think having read her books, I think you can very much get that sense from her writing and from the things that she talks about in her novels. But her very, very first book was a memoir called Everything I Know About Love that was published in February of 2018. I also read that book. Also give it five stars.

[00:38:52] Amanda: In fact, if you are on our socials, you will see that it is one of the Valentine's day book recs I posted. , and it's, it's amazing. I [00:39:00] won't get into it here, but I highly recommend that book. 

[00:39:02] Kelsey: You can talk about books for hours. I know. 

[00:39:06] Amanda: , but that book, it was shortlisted for the national book award and for the waterstones book of the year.

[00:39:12] Amanda: And was actually, they just found this out as I was researching for the podcast. It was made into a TV show in 2022. , it's currently on Peacock. I just started watching it. I'm so excited to get into it. , again, I absolutely loved that memoir. , and in total, she has written four books. Her most recent book is good material, which I've.

[00:39:34] Amanda: Also read, didn't love it as much as ghosts and everything I know about love, but, , it's also a good read. And generally her books are looking at like love dating, female friendships, basically like being a millennial woman. Right. And it's cool because she and I are only a couple months apart in age. And so I feel very.

[00:39:54] Amanda: scene when I read her books. And I think that's why they hold such an attraction for [00:40:00] me. And it's why I wanted to highlight her and her books for this particular episode, because, you know, we're celebrating women's history month. And I think as millennial women here in 2024, like we've got. a lot of a lot going on, right?

[00:40:13] Amanda: There's a lot of challenges being, you know, a woman in this day and age and even more so as women of color, which she is, she's not a woman of color, but just in general, I think a lot of the topics and themes she touches on are pretty universal for the female experience for the female millennial experience.

[00:40:29] Amanda: So specifically her book. Ghosts. This was her first novel. So her first book was a memoir. So this was her first novel it's 320 pages long. It's not quite as highly rated on Goodreads as some of the other books we mentioned, , today, but it has a 3.

[00:40:45] Amanda: 87 rating. So not bad. And essentially it tells the story of this millennial woman. She's 32 years old. Her name's Nina Dean and she's like crushing it at life, right? For the most part, like she has a successful career as a food writer. She's just bought a [00:41:00] new home and she's just met like this amazing guy, like absolutely amazing guy named Max on like an online, you know, dating.

[00:41:09] Amanda: And, , that's kind of how the book starts and you're like, Oh, this seems great. This is like a cute little rom com. Yay. But then Max ghosts her, even though he tells her he loves her and wants to marry her, like he ends up ghosting her, hence the title of the book. , and essentially what happens over the course of the novel is that you see her like.

[00:41:27] Amanda: Navigating the dating role, navigating life, you know, as we're, as we are aging, our parents are aging. And so her dad in this story, , is starting to show signs of dementia. And so she's shifting, into a role of like a caregiver and watching her parents age, which is a really hard and challenging.

[00:41:43] Amanda: thing to go through and a big life shift for all of us. , she also has a lot of shifting relationships with her friends, right, as they're getting married and moving off to the suburbs. And, you know, again, as a millennial woman or a woman in general, like. Watching that happen as we get older and your friends that, you know, went to [00:42:00] college with, et cetera, you know, suddenly they're having babies and getting married and buying homes and you're like, Oh my gosh, what is life?

[00:42:06] Amanda: Am I getting left behind? And so there were so many times reading this book where I literally just had like pause for a second and be like, she literally took the words out of my mouth. She took the thoughts out of my head and put them on paper. And it was kind of freaky, but then like a really.

[00:42:20] Amanda: Great way in that I felt really seen So, you know, I mentioned earlier this book as with all of her books It focuses on themes of you know, dating relationships friendships, and then those shifting friendships family memory aging you know being a woman in the 21st century and I You know, I think finding a contemporary fiction novel that can speak to the female experience is just important.

[00:42:44] Amanda: And it's, it's important. Again, when we talk about, we've talked about this before with like windows and mirrors. And for me, and I think for a lot of women, this book would be a mirror where you're like, okay, I'm not crazy. Like these thoughts that I'm having, or these fears that I'm dealing with, or these uncertainties that I have, like, [00:43:00] I am not at all alone in this.

[00:43:02] Amanda: And the other reason why this book is called ghost, because it has Multiple meanings, like, yeah, she gets ghosted by this guy, but, as we follow her through the story, you can see that, Because her friendships are changing, right? There's the ghosts of what those relationships used to look like and how like Those friends maybe are not so close anymore.

[00:43:21] Amanda: Maybe they don't spend as much time together Maybe they're not even friends anymore because of those life changes, you know, her parents are shifting and changing and so she's remembering how her dad used to be right kind of the ghost of her father and then how he Is now as he's you know?

[00:43:34] Amanda: Sinking further and further into dementia. And so it has a lot of symbolism throughout the entire novel. So I would say in general, you can't go wrong with picking up a Dolly Alderton book. She is also hilarious, especially everything I know about love. , she's just really witty and very like tongue in cheek and can be sarcastic and self deprecating at times, but in a way that feels really relatable.

[00:43:55] Amanda: So if you. , I have never heard of her. I haven't checked out any of her books. [00:44:00] Definitely. Ghosts is a great place to start. , everything I know about love for sure. And yeah, I think you'll just end up if you're, if you were a fellow millennial woman listening to this podcast, I think you'll pick up that book and be like, okay, great.

[00:44:13] Amanda: I'm, I'm not crazy. I'm not alone in this. And I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the way that she articulates how we're all feeling. So 

[00:44:22] Kelsey: nice. So we had quite an array of choices. Quite an array. 

[00:44:29] Amanda: So many. Do you want to quickly recap your two that you had 

[00:44:33] Kelsey: come through? Yes. , my two recommendations were Mediocre by Ijeoma Olu and the second one was Spark of the Everflame, really the series, but I talked about the first book, , by Penn Cole.

[00:44:49] Kelsey: Thank you. 

[00:44:50] Amanda: Yep. And then my two were Codename Helene by Arielle Lajan and Ghosts by Dolly Alderton. So yeah, if you do end up checking those [00:45:00] out, for sure, let us know. If you've already read them and are like a big fan as well, obviously let us know too. And if you have your own recommendations for Women's History Month, please send them our way and we will feature them on our socials, , at the end of the month with all of the other recommendations from our listeners.

[00:45:16] Amanda: We'd love that. And it gives us Like, lots of good things to read, too, so we really appreciate it. Yeah. Do you wanna do socials, Kelsey? 

[00:45:24] Kelsey: Yes. Let's see. Can I do it? Can you do socials? At 7. 40 at night, when I normally mess up in the morning. Okay. So you can find us on Instagram at Lit Vibes Only underscore podcast and on TikTok and YouTube at Lit Vibes Only podcast.

[00:45:45] Kelsey: And we would love to hear from you on any of those platforms. , and you can also email us at Lit Vibes Only podcast at gmail. com and, , yeah, get in touch with us any way you would like. 

[00:45:59] Amanda: All the ways [00:46:00] are totally accepted and we would be thrilled. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for hanging out with us guys.

[00:46:06] Amanda: We hope that you enjoy these book recs that we have from you and we'll see you next Monday. See you Monday. Bye.