Season 4 Recap

Kristy (00:00)
Welcome to Books I Make My Husband Read, a self-described hilarious and heartfelt podcast where I, Kristy, the devoted book lover, curate an unexpected reading list for my husband, Jon.

Jon (00:11)
And that's me. In each episode, we dive into lively discussions, humorous debates, and unexpected insights on all the books Kristy just has to make me read.

Kristy (00:21)
We're here to explore everything from your book club favorites to quirky hidden gems, challenging our perspectives and inviting you to join in on the fun.

Jon (00:30)
So settle in, grab your favorite beverage, and get ready for another literary adventure.

Kristy (00:44)
That's gonna make it in.

Kristy (00:46)
Hello listeners and welcome to season four, episode eight of Books I Make My Husband Read. I'm your host Kristy.

Jon (00:53)
for those that don't know me, I'm the husband, I'm Jon, I'm the one that Kristy makes read all of these books.

Kristy (00:59)
Yes, I do. And I'm not even a little bit sorry about it.

Jon (01:03)
No, you're genuinely excited about it.

Kristy (01:05)
Yes,

I am. ⁓ Well, today's episode is a little bittersweet because we are wrapping up season four with our seven books, multiple disagreements, and at least one identity crisis for Jon. And honestly, probably more emotional damage than I was expecting.

Jon (01:23)
Yeah, you and me both. was told this was a book podcast, not one that was going to become some like character analysis of my moral compass. Yeah, good grief. ⁓

Kristy (01:31)
Yeah, you're welcome.

Before

we dive in, we did want to let listeners know that this episode will be completely spoiler free. So if you haven't read our seven books from this season, don't worry, there won't be any spoilers. You'll just be longing to read all of them and then listen to all of our episodes afterward.

Jon (01:53)
Yeah, true. And don't forget, you can keep up with us and our podcast and everything else by following us on Instagram, TikTok, our website. And of course, you can email us at booksimakemyhusbandread at gmail.com.

Kristy (02:10)
Well, normally at this part of the episode, we would do our spoiler free book summary, but that is not needed for today. But can we just take a second to appreciate the range of books that we discuss this season? We had thrillers, classics, romance, literary fiction, and whatever category an emotionally intelligent alien rock falls into.

Jon (02:33)
Yeah, damn, that was all in one season.

Kristy (02:36)
Yes. So we did The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry, Regretting You by Colleen Hoover, Wear The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, and last but certainly not least, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

Jon (02:59)
That's a hell of a list.

Kristy (03:00)
Yes. and this season, unlike other season, all of these books had film adaptations. So was our theme this season. And the first few questions that we're going to discuss are, I want to focus like specifically on the book and not.

on the film. We'll have some questions later about the adaptations. looking across all of these seven stories, which one stayed with you the longest after finishing and why?

Jon (03:28)
Coming out with the big guns right out of the gate. I think the one that landed the hardest and stuck with me the most after would be People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry.

Kristy (03:31)
pew pew

Whoa, tell me more.

Jon (03:46)
Yeah,

I think what she was going through and her entire character arc and the struggles behind the romance in the comedy art were just so front of mind and just hit a chord that it stuck with me well after the book. And still does, obviously, because I'm just still talking about it right now.

Kristy (04:13)
Tell

me something that happened in the book that maybe a situation comes up in your, I don't know, life right now that you think about it and think about what Poppy would do.

Jon (04:27)
What would Poppy do? I think, I don't know if it's maybe, I don't know if it's a specific instance, but a lot of it revolved around like career path and career trajectory and.

how driven she was to reach a certain goal. And then when she reached it, she didn't really know what to do next. Like there wasn't really like what was out in front of her after that and trying to like find that next North Star or whatever. So I think that pretty much comes through in every day of my...

working life, ⁓ which sometimes includes the weekends lately. So I just I think about her character and the journey that she went on quite frequently. I don't know that answered your question specifically enough, but

Kristy (05:02)
Ha

Yeah,

See what happens when someone else picks a book for you.

Jon (05:20)
What happens? I'm emotionally damaged?

Kristy (05:24)
I mean, yes, you're welcome. But also I think that when you're only picking your own books. And I think we tend to pick up a lot of the same stories. that's not certainly true for everyone. I mean, I experience you different than you experience yourself. So

I knew that would be one that would resonate with you given some of the things you're talking about and you're going through career wise, but it would be a book that you never would have picked up on your own.

Jon (05:53)
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. mean, when I was... Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I'm reading it right

Kristy (05:55)
I mean, maybe now you'd be reaching for Emily Henry because of this podcast in the future, but when's the next Emily book coming out? I know you felt that way about Abby's new book.

Jon (06:09)
I yeah that's a good point I mean before we started this like my genre was thrillers and mysteries and like crime dramas and you know authors like Don Winslow and ⁓ I know because ⁓

Kristy (06:24)
She has so many downwind slow bugs.

Jon (06:28)
Yeah, I can't even remember half of them anymore because it's been so long since I've picked my own book to read. ⁓ But it's true. Like there's so many throughout this podcast journey that I never would have been exposed to. And so

What about you, going back to the original question on which of these books landed with you or stayed with you the most afterwards?

Kristy (06:48)
It's a little bit of a tough question because my gut says Project Hail Mary because that story is very new to me and something I just read for the first time as for the podcast episode. But Shawshank is a story I think about a lot have over the years, but it didn't necessarily have

maybe the impact in the moment because I had read it before, I had seen it before, like all those things. But Project Hail Mary is one that like, it's the first time it's entered, my brain and I'm sitting with it and I'm thinking about like what those characters, you know, are doing now and...

Like, yeah, what's going on there? just think that that's one I don't know, it's lingered. I'm literally contemplating reading it again during the break because I was so excited about that story.

Jon (07:43)
⁓ right on. I did almost, did, I mean, consider picking that one for my answer, but I also think partially because like recency bias and it's like front of mind. But when I look at the whole list and I think back through the whole season, I'm like, no, People We Meet on Vacation, that one stuck.

Kristy (07:55)
Yeah.

Yeah.

And I remember having a very similar conversation during the podcast episode and then after you had finished it.

Jon (08:13)
Yeah, so if people want to hear how emotionally damaged that book really made me, just go listen to episode four of this season and you'll hear all about it.

Kristy (08:16)
You

Well, since part of this podcast is to get more husbands to read, accessible for someone who doesn't read often?

Jon (08:31)
This is an interesting question because there are a lot of different genres in this short little list that you threw at me this season. So I feel like I could answer this a couple of different ways. feel like I could say Project Hail Mary because it's so popular. And so there's like a ⁓ FOMO almost where it'd be like,

you know, this book, this story is everywhere. Like, let's be part of what's going on and read this. ⁓ Don't miss out. But there's a lot of science to it. And there's like a lot of things. So like, I think that could be a turnoff for, for someone who's not really like used to reading, it could like, just fly over their head. So through that lens, I think the way I would answer

Kristy (08:56)
Yes. Yeah.

Don't miss out.

Jon (09:18)
I'm, I realize I'm stumbling through this question. I think I would probably say Shawshank Redemption. I think that's the one I would probably recommend out of this list from this season specifically. And I say that because the movie is so well known. I, I'm projecting and assuming that a lot of husbands and partners have probably seen the movie, heard of the movie or,

Kristy (09:36)
Yeah.

Jon (09:45)
something to that effect, maybe not even known it was a book actually talked to a couple of people this past week when I was on San Francisco for work that didn't know was also a book.

Kristy (09:52)
Yeah, we talked about that on the

show that a lot of people don't even know what to book.

Jon (09:56)
Yeah. I think I would just pick that but I like put a little asterisk next to that. And I might also, yes, it's also short. True. Good point.

Kristy (10:03)
It's also short. Add that.

Jon (10:08)
but I think my runner up to that might actually be The Housemaid,

Kristy (10:13)
my gosh, are the two I was going to say.

I don't know what you're going to say about The Housemaid, but I can only guess that for very similar reasons, but continue. That's just, of course.

Jon (10:28)
Of course, we're not married. We haven't spent years of our lives together. think the reason is it's a fairly easy read. It's in a genre that feels approachable, like a who done it kind of thing. There's not a lot of like sex or romance that could feel like.

Kristy (10:30)
No.

Jon (10:46)
scary to some who maybe aren't comfortable reading that. And it's a good page turner. So it's not an overwhelming read and it was just kind of fun. So if those are your two options, I might assume that they're reversed order, but tell me your reasons behind why you would choose either of those two.

Kristy (10:49)
Thanks.

necessarily think they're reverse order. I would say they're probably the same order. Like Shawshank is a short book. It's novella length. It's a story that's popular. It very much follows the same story as the film. And a lot of people are familiar with it. And it's a good story. You know, it's a really good story. So I think that there's that. think the writing, I mean, it's by Stephen King, the writing is good. And then,

The Housemaid is a thriller. A lot of people enjoy that genre, but it's also...

Jon (11:44)
genre.

Kristy (11:48)
the chapters are really short. So I think it feels like you can read it really quickly and you're not like slogging through these really long chapters, which I think is a turnoff for people who aren't readers, to be honest. or, know, yeah, don't identify as readers. So I think that there's that, it makes you want to turn the pages.

Jon (12:02)
Yeah, I can attest to that.

Kristy (12:12)
Just the way with Frida's writing, like she does a really good job of ending a chapter and you're like, damn it, damn it, I have to read the next one too. And then you finish that chapter and you're like, damn it, I have to read the next one too. So there's a lot of that and it's a good story as well. I think it's probably, you know, her best story and yeah, I just think it's a really, like you said, a really approachable book that

Jon (12:17)
With a hook. Yeah. One more. Just one more.

Totally.

Kristy (12:37)
if you don't currently read that like would be easy to finish quickly and it's not overly long either.

what you expected going in?

Jon (12:50)
Probably,

either the Great Gatsby or Regretting You, I think would maybe be my answer to the question. Probably regretting you. think if I pick I'll say regretting you because I had no idea I had no context really, of what that book was about. I've only read one other Colleen Hoover book, I think. And so that storyline and everything was just

Kristy (13:02)
Hmm.

Jon (13:15)
took me in a direction I just wasn't anticipating. So probably say that one. What about you?

Kristy (13:21)
I, hmm, this is a tough one

I guess maybe I'm going to say The Great Gatsby because I think if you read The Great Gatsby at a surface level, it's not really about what people think it's about. And we talk about it. I'm not going to go into it here. We talk about that in depth on that episode. And I think even yourself, and I might even have a question that this might be your answer to is, I felt like you walked away with a different understanding of the novel after our discussion than when you finished it.

Jon (13:53)
Absolutely.

Kristy (13:54)
So I think that there's just a lot of depth there. There's a lot of your favorite symbolism. And if you read it and you're like, okay, this is just like a story about the roaring twenties and this guy who was like dangerously obsessed with this woman from the past, then you're not getting at what the story really is about.

Jon (14:15)
Yeah, yeah, actually hearing you say that, might change my answer to that. Cause I did, I went into, ⁓ okay. Nevermind then. I'm stuck with it. No, I just going to basically repeat what you said that when I went into that book, I really, thought it was more about the roaring twenties and maybe even just a love story. And yes, after our conversation and wasn't necessarily after reading the book, it was after our conversation that my ex or like my point of view changed on the story.

Kristy (14:20)
No backsies. No, go ahead.

Jon (14:45)
but I'll stick with my OG answer.

Kristy (14:50)
Okay. Who is your favorite character this season?

Jon (15:00)
There's, there's a few but I think if I stay true to my answer to the very first question of what books stuck with me most, I think I'd probably say Poppy. Her character resonated. I thought she was just a well crafted character, funny.

Kristy (14:58)
I know there's a few to choose from.

Jon (15:18)
And yeah, I think I'd say Poppy. I mean, there's plenty of others I could choose, but if I picked one, I'd probably say that. But there's so many. There's so many. You, can you pick one out of all of these characters from all these good stories?

Kristy (15:29)
Yeah.

No, I mean, I will. I'll probably pick Rylan Grace just because.

I really like smart people, smart people, and have an admiration for people who have that type of intelligence that he portrayed in the book, but also balanced it with this humor. I found myself quite frequently laughing out loud during the book. So I really appreciated that, but.

Jon (16:07)
There was a humility to his intelligence and stuff too that I thought was like very compelling as a character.

Kristy (16:13)
Yeah. And also, I mean, he's a character who's getting his memories back as the story along. I think there's like this intrigue to his character as a story unfolds that like we don't know. And then, you know, as you learn more, you just appreciate him in a different way. And I feel like feeling shift, maybe not change, but shift about him.

And again, we talked about that in our episode and won't spoil it here, but I really, I really enjoyed his character in the book.

Jon (16:46)
Do think we could blend those two characters and make a different story with Poppy and Rylan Grace? I wonder what that would be like.

Kristy (16:51)
Hmm

I don't know.

Jon (16:56)
It was probably copyright infringement somewhere in there. yeah. There you go. Perf in all of our free time.

Kristy (16:58)
yeah, I mean we can write fanfic.

Yep.

Jon (17:06)
Hit me with your next shot.

Kristy (17:09)
Which book do you think we understood differently from each other?

Jon (17:12)
Meaning like we took something different away from the story or we like understood characters differently and interpreted. Yeah, that's right.

Kristy (17:18)
Maybe interpret it. Yeah, any of that, any of those things.

Yeah. You left with something different maybe than I did or, and I know we already touched on The Great Gatsby, but.

Jon (17:29)
Yeah, definitely that one. My memory may not be the most up to date with this answer, but I feel like our...

Kristy (17:39)
You haven't

backed up to the cloud yet.

Jon (17:44)
Yeah, Yeah, I'm still buffering.

Kristy (17:47)
My memory's not up to date.

I haven't backed it up lately. I'm not on, I'm not running on the latest iOS. That's coming people, that's coming.

Jon (17:53)
I had another moment like it is going,

had another moment like that this week actually. It was Wednesday after like two full days of just like on-site working sessions. And I sat down at my desk and I was just like staring at my screen and the VP came up to me and he's like, are you okay? I said, yeah, I'm just rebooting.

Kristy (18:19)
Me?

Jon (18:22)
Like I just needed a restart. Anyway, ⁓ so if I'm trying to recall that, we covered a lot in this season, but I feel like the episode on regretting you, there are a number of conversations that I felt like we took away different points of views or scenarios from that book differently from the characters. But I can't like, I'm not.

recalling right now what exactly those were but I feel like that episode we had a couple of like I had a point of view where you were just like, Oh, I I didn't take it that way or hadn't thought about it that way. I mean, that happens to all the time with you is basically our entire episode on the great Gatsby. I was like, I didn't think any of that shit. So what so any of those either of those two books?

Kristy (19:00)
I'm sorry about that.

You're like, what?

The green light.

Jon (19:14)
Yeah,

there was a green light. thought it would just meant like, look, there's, there's a place over there. It's the house.

Kristy (19:21)
The Emerald City.

The one that specifically I remember is from people we meet on vacation where I said he fell first and you like disagreed with me. You're like, no, she fell first and because they want different things. And I was like, no, he's, what was his name? Tom?

Jon (19:43)
⁓ Poppy and sure. Let's go with Tom. That sounds like a good white guy's name.

Kristy (19:47)
It's not dumb.

Sean.

I have to look it up.

you

helix.

Jon (19:56)
So close.

Kristy (19:58)
Tom and Alex, okay, Poppy

and Alex. So was like, no, Alex has been in love with her for years. Like that is why him and Sarah actually keep breaking up. So, and you were not, I don't think you're still convinced that that's true.

Jon (20:13)
That's right, I do remember that conversation. yeah, I'm blurring the lines, because those two stories were back to back, people meet and regretting you, so maybe I'm like blurring the lines on those two a little bit, but I'm sure there was conversations and regretting you, because those characters are pretty complex too, the daughter and the mother and the dynamic there, and so ⁓ I remember us taking some things differently there.

Kristy (20:22)
Yeah.

⁓ I mean, well, not.

Not the complexity, but the nuance of the situation. mean, the layers of things that are going on there made that story really complicated. So...

Jon (20:49)
or complex.

Kristy (20:51)
Yes.

All right, so we've danced around this a little And again, we don't want to provide any spoilers, but let's kind of shift the conversation because with every book that we discussed this season, we also watched the film adaptation. So let's kind of transition our conversation to think about the film as well. So which story do you feel like translated best from page to screen?

Jon (21:23)
This is, I feel a little biased in this answer because it's one that I saw before the book and it's such a fucking classic. It's Shawshank Redemption. Like just there is no other answer.

Kristy (21:31)
It's the right answer. It's 100%. There is no other answer. There is no other answer for the seven that we read. There

were some ones and we can discuss those that were good, but this is the correct answer for this question.

Jon (21:51)
Yeah.

Kristy (21:51)
Give me your thoughts why though.

Jon (21:53)
I was surprised at how true to the book the film was. And I think what I mean by that is we talked a lot this season in film adaptations and the different mechanisms that are needed to tell like an internal dialogue on film that it doesn't in the book. But the way Shawshank is written,

just worked so perfectly for the book too. was narrated, was Red's point of view and just and it's just such a great, it's just such a good I can't, I don't even know. I'm just speechless. The movie's so good. This is terrible podcast episode.

I'm just rambling. I'm just rambling because I can't like formulate my thoughts as to why it's such a clear and obvious answer because I feel so biased by the film because I'd seen it first and I'd seen it dozens and dozens of times before the anyway, what are your

Kristy (22:57)
Yeah.

Jon (23:02)
thoughts on why this is the only right answer.

Kristy (23:05)
I think that the fact that most people don't know it's a book just show how good the movie is.

And

I have, I've wondered this, is it just Morgan Freeman's sweet, sweet voice that we feel why, yeah, why, why his, you know, voiceover in the film works? Like if it had been someone else, we think it didn't work or

Jon (23:21)
Such a connection.

Kristy (23:33)
are we so ingrained in like, this is how the film is that it translated to us fine in the book versus we read a book then see the film and we're like, wait, it's not supposed to go like that.

Jon (23:47)
Yeah, it's a good point because I provide some thoughts on a couple of others where I was like, it shouldn't be a one for one for the book because it doesn't work the same way in the film. But the way that book was, it was almost like the book was written for film because it was just so it just translated so perfectly to

capturing that point of view and that narration, that story of Andy Dufresne and just so good.

Kristy (24:22)
So which adaptation felt the most different in tone from the book?

Jon (24:28)
Regretting you. That movie was terrible. It was so bad. It just missed the mark on so much emotional complexity from those characters. was, yeah, it just really, it's unfortunately felt flat. I don't, I can't remember the last time where I paused to maybe just to get up to the bathroom. I'm like, this is so bad.

Kristy (24:30)
yeah, that was terrible. You're right.

Yeah, it was so cheesy.

Both of us were like, this is terrible. It was like hard to watch.

Jon (24:59)
How we push through.

Yeah, was that kind of cringe.

Kristy (25:05)
Because the book

is good and it was hard to watch.

Jon (25:09)
Yep. Yes, it was. So to answer your question, it's definitely that one. Did you have a different answer before mine or what would have been your answer before I answered?

Kristy (25:15)
Yeah, you're absolutely right. Yep.

I was thinking The Housemaid because I didn't like that adaptation. It just didn't, it felt flat to me compared to how...

crazy the book is and how, you know, I can, like my, I don't wanna say my heart was racing, but there's like a lot of moments in the book that I'm like, holy crap. And then on film, I don't know, it just didn't feel the same. I know some people like it, I just didn't care for it.

Jon (25:52)
Yeah, that was actually a runner up, think, in my answer to this one. Well, no.

Kristy (25:59)
You have another one?

Jon (26:00)
Most of them, think most of the film adaptations actually fell flat to be completely fair. Some were decent, but most of them were just like, just couldn't capture the of dynamics as what the book delivered.

Kristy (26:02)
Yeah. Yeah. ⁓

Jon (26:17)
yeah. Moving on.

Kristy (26:17)
All right, let's move on though.

Which story had the most memorable characters overall? You can't say Poppy again. You'll carry her in your heart forever.

Jon (26:26)
No.

What's that from?

Kristy (26:31)
Nothing. just said, I just, have original thoughts.

Jon (26:32)
you just read that? Just

the way you said it, sounded quotable. Or that it was a quote. ⁓ Most memorable character.

Again, maybe with a twinge of recency bias, but I might say Rocky from Project Hail Mary the personality Andy gave it me think a little bit

how Pixar could inanimate objects, personalities and characteristics and things like that. probably say Rocky is most memorable. Amaze, amaze, amaze. You would agree with that?

Kristy (27:03)
Yeah.

I would agree with that. Amaze, amaze, amaze. Fist my bump.

I think, yeah, I think that's my answer. I almost said like there's only one correct answer again, but I wouldn't agree with that. I I think Red and Andy Dufresne are very memorable characters and I don't know if that's, it has to be why partly that film is so good and has stood the test of time. But I mean, Jay Gatsby's a memorable character too.

Jon (27:44)
True, for different

reasons, but yeah.

Kristy (27:45)
Yeah, yep, yep.

And then you can give Poppy a nomination.

Jon (27:52)
A little nod to Poppy.

Kristy (27:55)
I'm excited for this question. Which one would you turn into a series instead of a movie?

Jon (28:04)
Ooh, I could probably answer that with a couple of them. I would agree.

Kristy (28:07)
I think there's a couple. I think there's some that

are good as films, but I think that there's a couple that should be series.

Jon (28:14)
I agree. I think the one probably that would have benefited the most from being a series would be The Housemaid. And I'm pretty sure we said that as soon as we walked out of the theater, we were like, this could have been a series and been able to spend a little bit more time developing

Kristy (28:21)
100%. Even a mini series. Yes.

Jon (28:36)
back stories to some of these characters that played such a critical role in the decision making moving forward. So I'll stick with that one. ⁓ I'll say The Housemaid. What other ones would you have on your list?

Kristy (28:38)
Yep.

Yes.

would say Where the Crawdads Sings could be a series. And I'm gonna say Regretting You, even though I think it could be a film, it just needed different actors because I don't think that their performances were very good and better directing, yes.

Jon (29:04)
better directing.

Kristy (29:08)
But I do think that there's a lot of stuff that happens within the story. There's so many moments and complex things. I think they...

I think, I don't want to say change the story, but added some things on film to make like to.

to make you wonder and think what you were feeling in the book, in the film or series, which I don't think you got by watching what was produced. Does that make sense?

Jon (29:37)
I think so. I'd want to ask you to clarify, but I clarification would bring in spoiler potential. So let's not go there.

Kristy (29:42)
Yeah, I just think

I'll say that there's.

I think that in order to get some of that like internal dialogue, they could have played out more of the scenes that happened in the book in different ways. And I think they probably would have had to embellish them differently than are in the book to translate it to film. But I think they could have done that, especially some of like the things that happened in the past.

There's none of that in, there's not a lot of that in the film. Yeah.

Jon (30:13)
in the film. Yeah.

Agreed.

Kristy (30:19)
Which adaptation did you like the least?

Jon (30:23)
regretting you. I don't think there's a question about about that. Sorry. Because I'm sure Colleen Hoover is listening to this podcast and I love the book. That's true. That's true. That's a great point. ⁓ Yeah, I think hands down that one. But I was also really disappointed by

Kristy (30:28)
I mean, was our bad guess. You could say whatever the fuck we want. Get out of here. Yeah, no, I really don't.

Who knows, she might not like it either.

Jon (30:52)
⁓ Great Gatsby. Well, Housemaid, but I was gonna say Great Gatsby. But again, because I wanted something different from that movie.

Kristy (30:54)
Housemaid? ⁓ yeah. We yeah

we are in the minority on the Housemaid because they're making book two into a film also.

Jon (31:08)
I know.

I know.

Well, I mean, just because it made a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean everyone walked away enjoying it. So.

Kristy (31:17)
That's true. That's true. Although

I did a fair amount on Bookstagram and Booktalk that people really liked it. I'm like, When you see the same film.

Jon (31:29)
Yeah, I do think though that it's probably, I gotta imagine that there's a ⁓ decent percentage of the viewers of that film hadn't read the book and so they didn't have, I mean, we talked about it all season. just like, it's so hard to decouple when you've read the book and then go watch the movie. You can't not draw comparisons or conclusions or.

Kristy (31:46)
Yeah.

Jon (31:51)
look for flaws or gaps or things that were different. And I think people who maybe just went to see the movie to see the movie probably had a very different experience. So, so there's that component to it too.

Kristy (32:00)
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay, favorite book this season and favorite film this season.

Jon (32:13)
Okay, I'm going to tee this up by saying I'm just going to put Shawshank over on the shelf because that one doesn't even really count. That's been ⁓ a favorite film of mine for a very long time. So like, I can't even put that on the running. It doesn't feel fair. So I'm just like.

Kristy (32:26)
You can put it in there running.

Okay.

Jon (32:28)
No, I'm just like, I'm crossing this one out of this,

this question for me. so I think I would say then that.

They can't be the same, right? They can't be the book.

Kristy (32:41)
mean,

they can, but mine aren't the same. Just tell me your thoughts.

There's no right answer on this one.

Jon (32:53)
I think I really loved Project Hail Mary, but the book and the film. But I also I really enjoyed People We Meet On Vacation, the book, not necessarily the film.

So I think I would answer this question by saying like, if they had to be different, I'd say I enjoyed people in Unification the book and Project Hail Mary the movie out of the options this season. That's not to take away from how much I enjoyed Project Hail Mary the book. just, I'm trying to make it different.

Kristy (33:28)
Yeah.

Jon (33:29)
Is that a fair answer?

Kristy (33:31)
Why would it be unfair?

Jon (33:33)
I don't know, I'm just looking at your face.

Kristy (33:36)
I'm just saying that this is our fourth season.

And I'm pretty certain that I've asked you this in three of the four seasons, or sorry, four of the four seasons, in three of those times you've picked a romance as your favorite book of the season.

Jon (33:55)
That's not true.

Kristy (33:56)
Yeah

I'm pretty sure it's true. No! So, so manly! ⁓

Jon (33:58)
Fine, I changed my answer, Project Hail Mary, all the way. Book and film.

Kristy (34:08)
No, the romcoms make you feel the things.

Jon (34:12)
It's a genre that you have a certain perception about, especially as a dude. And then when you read it and you realize that there's so much more to it than just like, at least the ones you've had me read, than just the romance and like the...

Kristy (34:27)
Yeah.

Jon (34:30)
the relatability of the characters and real life scenarios and tough topics that a lot of them are going through. Like those are the things that stick and feel because they feel relatable. So.

Kristy (34:42)
Yeah.

As the youth would say, different.

Jon (34:49)
It hits different.

Clock it.

⁓ my God.

Kristy (34:53)
I don't even know I'm doing that right.

would say my favorite book is Project Hail Mary from the season and then my favorite film is Shawshank.

I don't need to put on a shelf like you did. So.

Jon (35:08)
I mean.

I get it. totally like it just feels like such a no brainer that and it's in such a league of its own that I just needed to take it out of the equation or none of the other films would even have a chance. feel like so. it's so good. was very good. to Shawshank.

Kristy (35:25)
I mean, I think Project Hail Mary, the film, is really good.

But shushing is just

a different type of story. I just don't know how, like there's, there's so much there.

Jon (35:40)
Yeah. And Project Kilmeri, the film, it's a very close, it's next to Shawshank, it's the best adaptation out of the season. Like, not even a question.

Kristy (35:49)
I agree 100%. Yeah, no, not even close.

All right, if you could only recommend one book from the season, what would it be?

This is hard because are you recommending it to?

Jon (35:58)
Project Hail Mary. It is.

Right, yeah, exactly. You have to kind of know your audience, but I think in general, if I'm looking at all of them, would probably say Project Hail Mary, which I acknowledge contradicts my answer to what was my favorite book out of the season, which one would assume that I would recommend my favorite book from the season. So.

Kristy (36:21)
don't agree with that at all.

I have read books that I have adored and have been my favorite books of the year and I would not recommend them to everyone. And I definitely wouldn't recommend is like everyone needs to read this because there are stories that I really like and

often those require some open-mindedness that not everyone has. And I don't want someone to poo poo on what I think is wonderful and come back and like dislike it. So I just, don't agree that like your favorite book has to be the one that like you would definitely like recommend.

Jon (36:41)
you

That's fair, that's fair.

Kristy (37:01)
I mean, I think Project Hail Mary is my favorite book from this season. I think that it'll probably be a favorite book of mine from the year. And I'll probably honestly read it again before the year's up. But I probably would say The Housemaid because I think it's just one of those. It's like easily digestible. I think thrillers are something that a lot of people enjoy. It's short chapters. Freida's writing is very approachable and easy.

things like that. So I would recommend that one because that.

Jon (37:33)
Yeah, that's true. And you have. I mean, you've said before, too, it's you recommended that book quite a bit, especially from her.

Kristy (37:41)
Yep. Okay. What are you looking forward to in season five?

Jon (37:42)
Right on.

break in between season four and season five. ⁓ damn it.

Kristy (37:49)
No, that's not what the question is. That's the next question.

Jon (37:56)
don't know, maybe like another healthy mix of genres like this season was I don't think I fully until you listen them out at the top of the episode on how many different things you put in my hands this season. ⁓ And I really enjoyed the varying lengths I enjoyed like a classic mixed in there. So maybe a little bit more of that.

Kristy (38:18)
Do you want to read Pride and Prejudice next time?

Jon (38:20)
I do not.

Unless we want to cut the season to three books. Unless we want to cut season five to like three books because that book is so long.

Kristy (38:26)
No, thank you, good sir. Nonetheless, what?

⁓

no, Pride and Prejudice isn't long. Crime and Punishment? Yeah, that's like thousand pages. Hey, it's not like you haven't made me read a thousand page book, because you have.

Jon (38:36)
What am I thinking of then? Yes, that is what I'm thinking of.

I mean, I didn't really make you, I just strongly suggested you should.

Kristy (38:52)
Just like I strongly suggest you should read these books and do this podcast.

Jon (38:58)
Yeah, something like that.

Kristy (39:02)
Okay, so what's on your reading list during the break?

Jon (39:05)
The only thing I have, which is another book that you've strongly suggested I read is Abby Jimenez's most recent release. So what?

Kristy (39:14)
Okay, okay.

I know that we are probably gonna cover that in season five because we've done the last three from her.

Jon (39:21)
Yeah.

but.

Kristy (39:27)
But you wanted to read that one. Didn't admit it.

They're like, honey, when's the next AVI book coming out? Did you get it yet?

Jon (39:43)
Also, three copies sitting on the table with different covers. ⁓

Kristy (39:51)
I'm not that,

I mean, I know that there's, I'm not judging people who have multiple, but actually I don't do that. I just, I just need one copy.

Jon (39:59)
Wait a minute, time out, time out. I'm pretty confident that The Will of the Many, there were like 14 different versions that cycled through this house based on the cover that you wanted to have on your shelf.

Kristy (40:08)
together.

Okay,

that is correct sir. There were two, not 14, but it's because they changed the cover when the second one came out. So I got the updated one and I returned the other one. So I did not pay for two. I have one on my shelf and one and two match each other because I cannot have unmatchy things. And if you are a book person with a bookshelf, you...

Jon (40:15)
You

making a point.

There it is.

Kristy (40:39)
understand that and you are on my side on this one. I know it.

Jon (40:44)
All right then. ⁓ What was the question?

Kristy (40:49)
What is on your reading list during the break?

Jon (40:51)
yeah.

So Abbey Jimenez's latest, the night we met, which I'm in the thick of right now. And I, yeah, that was a great talk about a series. That was a great series. I don't know. I don't, I know that song, but the song from the series of ⁓

Kristy (41:02)
Take me back to the night we met.

That was a song.

Jon (41:16)
The one with the teen suicide. ⁓

Kristy (41:22)
13 reasons why? Okay.

Jon (41:23)
Yep. That's it. That

was one. I don't know. I don't know what else I might not read much more than that. ⁓ we'll see what the next books in season five are, and then I'll probably read one of those during the break. So I know, I know maybe, maybe we'll see. Maybe I'll pick something I want to read. That's been on my TBR for before we started this podcast and pick that up.

Kristy (41:38)
Boring.

Jon (41:51)
What's on your TBR during the break, dearest?

Kristy (41:56)
I already said I'm thinking about rereading Project Hail Mary again already because I just wanted to revisit it. And I did recently read The Martian, which I said I was going to do. So maybe I'll read his other book, Artemis, which isn't rated as well, but it's rated really well on Audible. So maybe people just enjoyed the audio more than the physical copy, but I'm going to read Paige Harpison's

new novel that comes out in the summer and I have a copy of I'm excited about and

I think I want to reread the Will of the Many and the Strength of the Few. ⁓ I know what I want. I need to catch up on or I need to reread the ACOTAR series because the books six and seven are coming out in October and January respectively. And it's been a couple of years since I read those and I need to dust them off.

Jon (42:55)
I think you should also read Dune so we can go watch the series, the movies.

Kristy (42:58)
yeah. Yeah.

I actually, that's actually a really good idea. Cause I said last episode that I do really love science fiction. I just don't feel like I know what to read. yeah, I don't read enough of it. Cause I feel like I don't know what to read. And I think that that's one that obviously is very popular that I would, I think I would enjoy. So.

Jon (43:21)
Yeah.

I'll redo it with you. If you read it during the break, maybe that's one I'll read to you. Okay.

Kristy (43:28)
Okay. All right.

Any final thoughts this season? Something you wish we had done differently?

Jon (43:35)
No, I actually really enjoyed that we watched it added an extra element to everything this season, but I enjoyed that we watched the film. think I mentioned in the last episode, like I would class for myself as more of a film person than a book person. And so I liked that component coming into this podcast and talking about.

the two pieces. So we did something like that again down the road, I would be open to that. But as far as the season goes, appreciated the mix. I think it was a lot of fun to in a classic in there as alongside some of like the current stuff that's out. And

Those are my thoughts. Would you have done anything differently?

Kristy (44:22)
I'm glad to hear you say you enjoyed the film piece of it because it did feel like extra work after there were a couple of times where like we have to record. We haven't watched the film yet. You just finished the book. So there were a few episodes where it felt like we were scrambling. I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it because it did feel like an extra layer of complexity. And then also the length of our episodes, there's a lot of

Jon (44:29)
Extra work.

Kristy (44:47)
extra recording that will never see the light of day because we just didn't want our episodes to be an hour and 20 minutes and we had to cut a lot. But essentially we were talking about two components. You know, we're talking about the book in length and then we're talking about the film in length. So those episodes got really long. And I think that if we were to do another adaptation or maybe we do a series, we do a season where we do books that have

Jon (44:47)
almost an hour.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kristy (45:14)
been adapted to series, which is that's going to take a while too because now you're talking four to seven episodes of something.

Jon (45:20)
Yeah.

Kristy (45:24)
And that could be a long episode too.

Jon (45:30)
Okay. So if that's what, if those are thoughts on this past season, what's on the list for the upcoming season in your brain? I'm sure you are.

Kristy (45:39)
Hmm. Well, I'm glad you asked.

I'm just

kidding. I have actually no idea. I know we will definitely do the new Abby book because I loved it. I think it's my favorite book from her to date. this doesn't mean anything. Zero spoilers. I think that, I mean, you said you're halfway done with it. I think you're enjoying it, but I think you'll continue to enjoy it. And we have just had really good conversations with her last few books that we've had.

Jon (45:55)
Spoiler alert.

I know.

Kristy (46:11)
And there's a couple authors that we've done in the past that have new books coming out this year that I think will be good for season five in the fall yeah, I'm going to keep everything else close to us for now.

Jon (46:27)
So basically what you're saying is you have no idea. ⁓

Kristy (46:30)
⁓ no, I didn't say that. I didn't say that at all.

There's always a few that I have that I want to do. And then there's a few that I'm looking for books that are going to be released in the fall because ultimately they're just, people are talking about them. People are excited too. Yeah, exactly. So.

Jon (46:35)
you

The timing, yeah.

Makes sense.

Maybe one other on that point, maybe one other thing I'll add to something that I liked about the season is that there were different new authors thrown into the mix of this season. ⁓ Like Emma and Henry, I know we've done before and Frida, but Stephen King, ⁓ new author for us covering. So maybe keep that in your mind as you think of books for the upcoming.

Kristy (47:13)
I mean, this is the first Colleen Hoover book we've done too.

I've made you read other ones, but this is the first one we've talked about on the podcast. Yep.

Jon (47:18)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And Andy Weir is a new author for me. So that's always fun discovering a new author.

Kristy (47:22)
Yeah. Yep.

Yep. Well, we want to remind everyone that we will be taking a break, but we will come back to you in the late summer with season updates and possibly some bonus content.

Jon (47:41)
Woo, bonus content.

BTS behind the scenes. Don't forget that a free way to support our show is by leaving us a review, rating us on Apple podcasts or Spotify, wherever you're listening. But also if you don't feel like rating us, cause you just that not that kind of person, that's okay. But if you maybe you have a question for us or you have a book that you're like, I'd love to hear your thoughts on XYZ. You can run it through Kristy by emailing us at booksimakemyhusbandread at gmail.com.

Kristy (47:46)
there.

It's really not.

Jon (48:13)
⁓ And we would love to hear from you with either recommendation or feedback on the show.

Kristy (48:22)
Yes, we would. Well, I guess that's it.

Jon (48:25)
Indeed, that is another one in the books and another season wrapped up.

Kristy (48:31)
Well, who knows, maybe this will be the one your husband reads or listens to or watches.

Jon (48:35)
Which one? We talked about seven of them.

Kristy (48:41)
Take care.

Jon (48:42)
Okay,

see ya later, folks. Bye.

Kristy (48:45)
See you next season.

Peace out, Billy. Fist my bump.

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