Bookmarked by Reese's book Club is presented by Apple Books.

Hi, I'm Danielle Robe.

Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese's book Club.

Book Clubs and parties might sound like opposites.

One's about reflection and need, other ones about release, but they're really the same ritual dressed up in different clothes.

I think both ask the same question, what happens when we gather with intention?

Isn't that the same thing a writer does and a reader right whether it's over pros or prosecco.

Book clubs and parties have a lot of the same ingredients, a good theme, a strong narrative, art, and a whole lot of community.

The whole reason we wrote this book is because we notice how separate the world is feeling right now, and how lonely the world is right now, and how everyone's like staying home by themselves, just on their phones.

And well, yes, a party of one is very important, and you need everyone needs alone time.

It's also really important to gather with your friends, gather with your family, your chosen family, and I think the best way to do that is over a table full of delicious food.

We come to any gathering hoping to feel a little more alive, a little more seen, a little more connected.

So today we're talking with two women who know that recipe by heart, Bree Larson and Courtney McBroom.

You probably know Bree Larsen from your screen, all of the screens, actually, the Awards, the Blockbusters, the faces she's worn for all of us.

But what you might not know is that she loves to hoax, and in a way that says, come in, sit down, and stay awhile.

She's a maker of moments as much as movies.

And Courtney McBroom she's a longtime chef and recipe whisperer.

She understands that food is never just food.

He knows how to turn a kitchen into a language.

And together they've created Party People, a cookbook that isn't really about cooking at all.

Well, yes, there are delicious recipes in it, but more than that, it's about making memories and inviting people in, even when the candles burn unevenly or the ice melts too fast.

So if you've ever said I'm not a party person, congratulations.

You're wrong.

You are in the right place.

Let's turn the page with Bree Larson and Courtney McBroom Okay, Bree Courtney, welcome to the club.

Hi so happy to be part of the club.

Yeah.

So your cookbook Party People is like a big burst of joy.

And the food part, the cooking I get because you guys have shared hundreds of meals together.

But the party part I want to understand what kind of partier are you?

Because you guys named four archetypes in the book, which there's more.

I actually don't know.

I think there's like ten.

Yeah, so ye have that animal, you have the party animal.

You have the party pooper, which is an important party to archetype.

It completes the circle.

You can't have party animals without party poopers.

You have the no it all.

You got the.

Nostalgic one, the topper, the one with interesting booze, the helper, the helper, the host, the wamp womp.

What's the one?

The wampom is kind of like the energy vampire.

But we argue a very important part of any party guests, there's got to be a wampwomp for the party to be complete.

Exactly everybody's invited to the party is like the basic idea is even people who think, oh I don't like parties and like that's what you are.

A party person.

There is something for everybody, and what our book is more about is like that, there's lots of different ways to party.

I think to your point, people think that partying has to be this insane, high octane like bar crawl.

But I grew up with a mom who's an event planner, and so parties for me were more like Easter Olympics, or like glow games on the Fourth of July or having a really incredible dinner.

There's so many different ways to do it, and that's why the book is organized in that way.

By casual party, fancy party, tiny party, which would be for two people or just for one, which I think is maybe the most important party is a party that you throw just for yourself.

And so it's kind of holding all of that where we talk about the parties that are actually more like restorative, like relaxing karaoke, which is just like you wear pajamas, you put on sheet masks, and like every so often you sing like a slow song.

But it kind of flips the idea because people think, again, karaoke is like you have to be hammered in order to enjoy, and no parties can be restorative, they can be just purely celebratory.

That's the kind of party I want to go to.

Yes, thank you so much.

I love that explanation.

And I think you can tell a lot about a person by how they throw a party.

I think of Nora Ephron because she apparently had these really hilarious, honest, little chaotic parties, and that's exactly how she wrote.

So I'm wondering if I were invited to one of your parties, what would I find out about you that I wouldn't know through your work?

What do you think I think for me?

Because I am like a professional chef and have worked in kitchens, Like people always assume that.

They're very like chefs are like always very rigid and.

Very clean, which I am, but I'm also can be breeze seeing it like I make a mess, yeah, you know, and like you know, working in a kitchen, you're taught to be clean and all these things, and like I can do that, but I have such extreme ADHD that like it's just impossible for me to cook cleanly.

So I think that's one thing that you would find is like I am quite human and all over the place.

Yeah, and some would say human.

So yeah, I think like realizing that us chefs can be loose and fun too.

We don't have to always be completely I actually don't know what people perceive me as to be quite honest, So I don't really know how to answer that.

But I guess what kind of.

Host are you?

Are you a relaxed host?

Are you?

Yeah?

Yeah, I've been hosting, you know.

I grew up in a household when my mom was always throwing parties and hosting.

I would call her an advanced party person.

So I learned a lot from her of the dudes and the don'ts, and like she's still learning all the time too.

I mean she does more like weddings now and proms, like really big events that require a lot more orchestration than like us having a casual spelling be in my backyard, you know.

But she's the one that instilled in me that the point of the party is to create a memory, and so thinking through what those details are to go, is this something that's actually important to the memory.

Is it just causing stress and causing people to feel uncomfortable or like uptight, I guess would be the thing.

So I'm pretty comfortable with hosting people in my house, and I like to have fun.

I like to play a lot of games.

Games are a huge central part of parties I throw at my house because that's just what I like to do.

I'm not a small talk person.

I joke that this book is really like one hundred and one ways to not have small talk at your party, because that's all I Yeah, I don't do well with it.

So yeah, maybe does that sound surprising or no?

No, yeah, but I don't know.

I like that it's matching what my vision of you would.

Okay, that's good.

Yeah.

I think when you act to Breathe, one of the things that I notice is that it's almost like you're part of this old school way of acting that I miss.

Like you, you have these really simple gestures that almost let somebody in before the dialogue, and there's this silence that you use sometimes and you're like asking the audience to meet you halfway.

And important to me, thanks for noticing.

Yeah, it's palpable, but it's very understated.

And so when I was thinking of Brie as a party person, I was like, I wonder what kind of party person she is.

So it's cool for me to learn that you can be an understated party person.

Oh yeah, of course you can.

Yeah, yeah, that's kind of the point of this book.

I mean, And what you're saying if part of what I'm getting at with my work is like the meeting of halfway.

I want to make work that I'm not necessarily presenting what it's supposed to be or what a conclusion is.

I mean, I have my own path, my own thoughts about it, but really I'm trying to offer up questions for somebody else to think about.

That's what art is for me.

That's why pressed orders for movies are hard for me, because people got what do you want people to get at I'm like, I don't know what I want people to get out of it.

Just you tell me what you got out of it, and hopefully you got something and not you know, wanting your money back.

But that's all really, And so that's part of you know, I think for some people like, oh, how does somebody like that then make a cookbook and what's the point?

And for me, it's exactly the same.

It's offering questions.

It's saying, here's an outline for you of something that you can do that you get to make your own in the same way that I want Captain Marvel to be made its own for somebody else in their life.

So it's all the same.

All of it is like me making art that's trying in different angles and in different ways to get people to congregate, gather together, question life and existence, being communion like all of that.

Yeah, and that gathering feels more important now than ever.

I remember reading an article that went viral and it was like the end of partying, and I guess people were partying whatever like that broad strokes means seventy percent less than we were before, and so I'm kind of wondering if there's this gathering aspect that you were getting to also that there's like a different way to gather.

Absolutely like that.

Like the whole reason we wrote this book is because, and I think we all we notice that we notice how separate the world is feeling right now, and how lonely the world is right now, and how everyone's like staying home by themselves, like just on their phones.

And well, yes, a party of one is very important, and you need everyone needs alone time.

It's also really important to gather with your friends, gather with your family, your chosen family, whatever that is.

And to like look each other in the eye and be like, no, we're in this together, like we support each other like this.

There's we have hard times, we have good times, and we just need to be there for each other through all of it.

And I think the best way, and I think reagrees the best way to do that is over a table full of delicious food.

Yeah.

And I think parties, if I can just get on a soapbox for a second, they're doing, they're deeper to me than just like let's have a toga party and get drunk, which has its place in the world.

Don't get me wrong, I've attended those.

I've had great times, great memories at those.

But I think that parties are also opportunities to try different things on and the same way that I get the opportunity to try on different versions of myself when I play characters.

Being a host is like if you're not used to being a leader in your life, that's a really incredible moment too.

It's very vulnerable inviting people into your home.

It's very vulnerable saying this is what I've made, this is what I've made of my life.

It's deep and also, let's not forget that some people are just like, oh, don't oh it's nothing.

Oh it's nothing.

Oh yeah, I mean it's ataple thing.

Oh it's nothing, or it's my birthday, but don't say hapy birthday.

I'm like, can we talk about how we're doing that and why if that's like a conclusion you've come to that you're very comfortable with and you've thought it through and that's just you.

Happy travels to you on that.

But I think a lot of people are living their life with burnout, working extremely hard, and they're not feeling like they have the time or the space to say, hey, I did something cool that I like to celebrate and allowing your friends to be like, oh my god, we'll come over right now.

What can we bring?

Those are really important moments, and I think it's hard to do in a workplace.

It might be hard to do if you're dating or in a relationship.

But a party is a place where you can try on some of these things and it should feel easy.

It should feel like maybe a little nervous thing that you can get over because a party will end.

I have never thought of that.

That's brilliant.

I planned a birthday party for an ex boyfriend.

It was his thirtieth birthday years ago, and it was the first party I'd ever planned, and I felt so proud after because it was so much work.

I had gone into something totally new, and I never understood what that feeling was till you just shared.

Yeah, I'm sure now you can think about it and realize a lot of things that it's now that we've had this book out in the world.

There are certain questions that we get asked basically every single day, and they all, when you boil it down, come into this vulnerability of self and that is an amazing thing.

And that's part of why we made this book is to be like, if that's like getting in touch with your vulnerable is like my full time job, Like that's what I love to do.

And so if this can be another pathway for people to kind of take some steps in a direction of understanding themselves and like getting to know the people around them, that's kind of what brings us all together in touch with ourselves, makes us in touch with others.

Yes, yeah, And if you're cookings in particular, you're giving a part of yourself to people and like watching them eat it.

Like I always get I don't care how many times I've made something.

Anytime I cook something and feed it to someone else, I'm just like in the wings, just like watching and being like are they smiling after their first buy?

Like how do they like it?

And it is extremely vulnerable, like it's so like from your heart, Like if you're doing it right, you're giving it from your heart.

You know it's made with love for so the universality of this.

I want to touch on that because the epigraph of this book says something that you mentioned earlier, which is this book is for anyone who's ever felt like they weren't invited.

I read that and I kind of exhaled, because I think that is everybody.

We've all not been invited.

And the more that I live in La, the more I realized that it like Hollywood is high school, and there are still people that are not invited.

It's wild.

And I think the book is so playful, but that's actually kind of a very profound, sweet, soulful message.

When you wrote that, were you guys thinking of a particular experience or just touching on the universality of that.

I mean, I always feel like I'm not invited.

There's always something happening that I'm like, I wasn't invited, and I think that is universal.

You know, it's universal, you know when you're feeling that that like, okay, this is something that literally everyone feels and that's.

Okay, And like, I think it's okay to not be invited.

Just because you're not invited to something doesn't mean you're not loved, doesn't mean you're not liked.

Sometimes that's just sometimes not getting invited is a God send.

Yeah, that's you know what is that God's rejection is God's protection or something something like that.

You know, it's so real, and like I don't I literally don't get invited to things as well, Like it's everybody has that.

But I think it's more universal too, in that this book is an invitation for the people that don't think that this is for them.

As part of Why and the Archetypes, we include the party pooper because people love to skirt out of this conversation by being like, I don't really like parties.

I'm like, there is a party that you like, I don't love going to a super club.

If I go to a place so the music's really loud and I can't have a conversation.

That's not the kind of party that I want.

But I have friends that love that kind of party, Like that's there, that is like their outlet.

And so there is something for everybody, and we're just here making a book offering up a different way of looking at it.

This is so cool for me to hear, because at first glance, the book is so much fun.

But there's actually a lot more depth here too.

M h.

I mean that's really thought about it.

Yeah, I can tell, I really can.

Yeah.

There's tips and there's essays, and there's so much more in this than just recipes.

And that was on purpose that the recipes are part of the tips.

It's like, the recipes are the way to make this easier so that you, as the host, get to enjoy the party too.

And these are the easier waste.

These are easier recipes to do, Like doing a roast or a casserole for a sit down dinner is just fundamentally easier than trying to do fried chicken for five people.

So here's how to do that.

I wouldn't that's good.

Yeah, so that's here exactly.

I know because I did it.

I have people over and I thought, well, I'm going to do a fried chicken night, And I was in the kitchen over a vat of oil the whole night and was like, Oh, I guess this is a kitchen party, which is everyone's going to come to the kitchen, which is fun.

It's just it's not the same thing as I sit down dinner because that's it was hard for me as one person frying chicken for six people to get it all out at the same time.

So here's an easier way to do it.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And also we note which things can be made in advance, so like you can make it the day before or three days before, so like on the day of, you're not stuck in the kitchen the whole time.

You can actually just throw the casserole in the oven and you're good because you already made it.

You're just reheating it.

It's almost like I'm learning from your party fails.

What is all wisdom if not that.

Decades of party fails in my belt at.

This point, So you are party people were a book club.

If you guys were throwing a book club party, set the stage for me, what are we eating for appetizers?

What music is playing?

Give me the vibes.

Okay, okay, I'm gonna say first, I'm thinking, is this day or night.

I'm almost thinking that this is kind of a day to night kind of situation.

Yeah, like a late afternoon on a Sunday.

Yeah, I see that.

I also feel like you could make this a window in time, like this doesn't have to be everyone arrives at six o'clock unless this is a book club discussion, which we've also had.

We've thrown that party as well.

We had a book club for a specific book in every chapter each week we'd meet up and discuss it.

That was very fun.

That was But I'm thinking of this as just getting together to read, like be that coziness.

We're in the same room, but you're not doing the same thing.

I'm thinking it's like day to night, but you're gonna end probably early evening.

I'm immediately thinking our pizza.

Pockets, absolutely pizza pockets.

Maybe some of the jalapeno poppers yep, I like that too, delicious.

I think a casse role for sure, castrole for later in the evening.

Maybe some This isn't in the book because you don't need a recupe before it.

But I love bar snacks, like just like those little picky things, crunchy things.

Have some of that out maybe like are maybe like a dip, yeah, like the Buffalo cauliflower dip.

And then for decor, I would do lots of blankets, like as many blankets as I have in the house.

This would be me running around going through every closet finding every spare blanket I have that I've stashed because I'm I am a girl.

Okay, there's a blanket on me in every room.

This is a crover cold cozy.

If I had time and a bit of a budget, I might just order a big pack of like fuzzy socks for everybody that they could wear and everybody gets a different color.

That's fun.

Music.

She's the playlist queen.

But I think if it's going to be like a book club where we're reading and being cozy, then like like soft like almost like classical music, atmospheric, and you know what else would be cool.

It's like bookmarks.

Like maybe it's like everyone gets a blank bookmark and they can.

Like draw on it or do whatever with whatever they could.

Do they want one.

Yeah, I see that.

You'd have like a light craft moment.

Yeah, a light craft moment exactly.

Yep, journals are welcome.

Look, every welcome.

Yeah, everyone brings their favorite book and then maybe like beforehand, everyone's like says, this is the book I'm reading, this is what it's about.

And then after everyone's like, this is what I learned from the book or I liked it or I didn't like it or whatever.

Like a quick just like five minute discussion.

We didn't talk about drinks.

That's the only other thing.

I mean, I'm so biased and I'm like party people punch forever.

Yeah, it's so nice because it goes.

I feel like that can be day or night.

And also you can at fizz or not, and you can ad alcohol or not.

Yeah, it's you know, to which we haven't done yet, shockingly, because I'm feeling like this is like a cozy fall book club moment.

H like a sight or like a side hot punch.

Yeah, I feel like it would be good.

I'm down to try that later.

Yeah, let's do Okay, I just understood in the last two minutes how you guys became friends.

You rip off of each other.

Yes, so beautifully.

Did you meet on the set of Lessons in Chemistry?

No, we were friends for like years before that, or like eight years before and throwing parties together the whole time.

And so when when Bree started doing.

Lessons and Kim, she was like, hey, I think you might Actually She's like, I'm looking for someone to help with the food, and I think you're actually the perfect person.

Because she was the one.

She had never done it before.

I knew that she.

Because my love for vintage cookbooks.

Yeah, just and it was great.

It was so fun and it was a very important role, Like her role in this in less It's in chemistry meant so much.

It was the first time I had to think outside of the normal ways that you express a character outside of just like my emotions, which is hair and makeup, wardrobe, maybe their apartment or their house, and then like their car, which sometimes it depends.

Sometimes you don't even have control over that.

Somebody else does that stuff for you.

They just let you know what the house will look like.

But because I was a producer and developed this from the beginning, I had a lot.

I had a lot of say and how everything was ide eating and I knew that the food was such an important part of the book, and it's such an important visual representation of who she is, and I knew that Courtney would nail it.

And that's why we have this book is working together realizing how much we enjoyed it and how we could we enjoy riffing off of each other.

And also when there's moments of chaos and we don't have a moment to talk, we fully trust each other to make the decision.

Like I never had a moment where either one of us had made a choice and we're like, oh, I wouldn't have done that.

Same, We're the same.

So it makes things really perfect and easy, and we just enjoy We've always enjoyed hosting.

We throw really weird, funny parties, we love cooking, we have great friends.

So all of that felt like we should If we can figure out how to put this together in a book that feels like cohesive and make sense and worth entering into the world, in a world of so much content, then we should do it.

And that's brought us here.

You mentioned that the food is almost like another character in Lessons in Chemistry.

How did working on that show change your relationship with food?

Well, I loved cooking before, which is part of why I wanted to make the show.

In the first place and understood the power of it and the empowering nature of it.

But the main thing that shifted for me after that show is I became Elizabeth, my character in the book and in the show.

She makes these really gorgeous lunches for her daughter, and they're very precise and luscious and gorgeous, and they look great in real life because Courtney made them.

And what inspired me from that is I realized that one of the things that's very difficult for me on set is how little control I have over basically any aspect of my life.

I'm playing another character.

I'm not wearing the clothes that I necessarily want to wear when I want to wear them.

I don't wake up at the time that I want.

I don't go to bed at a time that I want.

I can't go to the bathroom sometimes at the time that I want.

Everything is in service of this character, and I'm so happy to do it.

I'm here to be of service.

But you lose touch with yourself.

And so I was very used to like, okay for five months, breeze on the back burner, and then I'll take a break afterwards, and I'll like rediscover who bri is now, that's still part of it.

But I realized that if I make myself a lunch, I pack a lunch for myself, it's like a part of me is calling back to me.

And I've been trying as I'm getting older to actually be in character for as little as possible.

When I was more starting out and I felt like I had so much to prove, I just didn't know how to go in and out of character.

When I did room, I didn't know how to go in and out and it really wrecked me.

It was not a correct way to do it.

I didn't go to school for any of this, so you know, I didn't know.

I didn't have technique, and so something as simple as a sensory lunch that just you open it up and it's like a gift for yourself and you're like, oh, yeah, that's me.

It really helps, It really grounds me, and it's become a very big part of my life.

So thank you, Elizabeth, thank you Bonnie for that.

It's sense memory.

But I would have never even thought of that.

I hadn't either, you know.

And it's it's interesting how as you get older, and I think a party is actually part of that too.

Which is it's or waking up really in exercising, there are certain things in your life that you're like, well, that's more effort.

That shouldn't give me enough to make me want to do it.

It's like, I'm already at my limit.

I'm not waking up early to exercise, and I'm like, dang, but it actually makes me feel better to do it.

Same with the lunch, it's like, oh man, sometimes you're like, oh, I don't want to get out of bed, but I know that if I like do even the simplest thing.

I make kitchery my instant pot, and I have that for lunch the next day.

I'm so grateful to myself that I did that, cause it's it's way easier for me to go the extra mile for everybody else in my life, for the project that I'm on that it is for me to do it for myself, and I'm trying my best to notice how I can put myself first.

That's something we're talking earlier about Untamed.

It's something that Glennon Doyle taught me.

I don't even remember the situation, but I remember I called her.

I was having like a difficult time, and I said something like I'm just worried about letting people down.

And she said, oh, honey, you have to let down as many people as possible every day so that you don't let down yourself.

And I was like, what, And that's what some of the stuff is.

That's what making a lunch for myself is.

Not that I'm letting anybody down by making myself lunch, but it's a way of putting myself first.

I totally understand what you mean.

And I think there's also this element of hosting that in history felt like it was a woman's job, it was required, And I think your book is flipping it on its head, which is it's actually empowerment when you think about it in this way.

Yeah, yeah, it can be, or it's at least an option.

Like sometimes I'm empowered by delivery and sometimes empowered.

I'm empowered making food.

You know, it's empowered choice.

I'm empowered by delivery a lot.

Yeah, we're empowered by frozen pizza.

It's all of it, but it's like not letting any of it rule your life completely.

And like if the book, we talked about it early on in the book, If all the book does is inspire you to throw a party where you just order pizza.

Then we did our job.

Like it doesn't have to be that you have to do it our way and like make our recipes.

It's more of just giving you a general feeling.

We want to inspire people to party.

It sounds so simple, but it's actually not because of the vulnerability espect.

Yes, absolutely, the recipes in the book are really fun, and I think the tone matches it.

It's like subversive and funny and warm.

It feels very YouTube now that I'm sitting here with you.

How did you develop a cohesive voice?

Like, talk to me about the collaboration process where you writing separately and then coming together.

The writing is like a lot of us sending voice notes back and forth.

Yeah, really like I did most of the writing because I'm a food writer and like have written cookbooks before, but so many voice notes where really like would talk about how ritz crackers are the new croissants of America.

Basically, I was like in the bath, I was doing a play in London, or you know, I'm filming on other jobs, and I would be like in the Bath or I do all my best work.

And I was like, Courtney, I've realized that we need to stand for the ritz Cracker.

Ritz Crackers America's Chroissant was like an eight minute voice note about it, and she would just save all of these and be like, Okay, well, I'm definitely writing an essay about that, or.

Can you please release that voice note?

I have it on my phone.

Yeah, we could be like Taylor Switch like things from the vault.

We actually should that.

Yeah, that's a great ideation session because that's so funny.

Yeah.

Usually what I'll do is like i go into like a fugue state and I'm just like at the computer and like da da da da da da da, and then get it into a place and I'll send it to Breathe like hey, just do you agree with this, and she's like yeah, and then you'll be like, oh, change this part and mean it that way.

Or like whatever it is.

It was really easy, Like we didn't There was literally no point in the making of this book where we really disagreed on anything, from the writing to the photos to the fonts, all of it.

We were like very much aligned.

Writing recipes feels so hard and you're balancing being precise while also allowing for like the perfection of imperfectness.

What do you think is the trickiest part of the development process in writing recipes?

Interesting, I think honestly letting it go.

So at some point, like I will rack my brain about Okay, this baked in thirty minutes in my oven, but like everyone has different ovens and so there's only so much.

I can do.

You know, someone else might have an oven that bakes in twenty minutes, and so me being like, Okay, the recipe is written, I've tested it as many times as I can.

It's been tested by other people as well, and now it's in the book, it's out in the world, and someone in Minnesota is going to make it in their oven that may or may not be the same as mine, and I just have to trust that a they'll be like, oh, it's actually been twenty minutes, but this is done, and they're not going to be like.

Whoever wrote this recipe is awful at their job.

Like that's my biggest fear, are the recipes not working, So like just letting that part go, Like you can't account for every single different thing.

You know, I've never thought of that that is very different.

That's all I think about.

Yeah, I mean, because we've been there.

It's also like remember when we baked the cast role in Big Bear and it was like a different elevation.

Yeah, so like cooked in a different time and you're just like, oh my god, this is our recipe that we've cooked a billion times, but like depending on the climate, I mean, yeah, that's the deal.

Or like the things like heat this over medium low, Like what's my medium low versus this person's medium low?

Like, ah, it's wild.

Yeah, there's only so much you can there's only so much you can do.

So recently I learned that people read cookbooks as books, and per my therapist, when I feel critical, I get curious instead because.

I was like, who's reading a cookbook?

And then I open your cookbook and I'm like, oh, I get it.

This is a book book.

It's filled with memories and feelings and pictures and fun.

Did you intend that?

Yes?

Very much?

So yep, because like how else?

Yes, cookbooks full of recipes are fun, But like we really wanted people to like get to know us and understand why we wrote the book, why we created the book, and it's for so many reasons, and you're not going to get that.

You're not going to get that just by reading just straight recipes, like we wanted to include the personal essays, the introduction, like how we got here, why we're doing it, it's all so important and beyond like the essays and like the introduction, we also included fun games like are you a party Person quiz and like the party people archetypes, and like the pledge that everyone should sign so when they see that they are a party person.

We wanted it to be fun and interactive beyond.

Just a cookbook, and some of it, like having a quiz where you should feel free to actually circle yes or no, was part of the beginning of encouragement that like, if you're using this book right, it's gonna get messy, Like you're gonna spill something on it.

You're gonna maybe tape a photograph in it from your own party dog.

You're the things that you've done, do little marks like do like let it live with you, let it be.

We wanted it to feel like a scrap book of our last you know, ten years of throwing parties together, and now it can be yours where you can add on to it.

That's really fun.

So before we had to break, I want to ask you what you've bookmarked this week.

It can be a text that you've sent each other, an Instagram quote, What have you bookmarked?

What's on your mind?

I bookmarked a DM that we got from Ritz Crackers where they have fully acknowledged themselves as America's croissant.

So amazing.

I'm feeling pretty good about that.

That is really good.

That's that's a good one.

I didn't bookmark it this week, but I do want to bring up you mentioned Nora Efron.

Yeah, and I have been rereading Heartburn, and I love her the way.

That she writes.

I love how she is like it's a great story, but she also includes recipes in such a nonchalant way, like the way that she writes about mash Potas.

That didn't happen this week, but like in the past few weeks, I have been rereading it and it's a book that I go to all the time.

It's one of my favorites.

You've said before that you love disappearing into a character.

But as you mentioned, this book is inviting people into you, to your life.

Were you nervous at all to show a different side of yourself?

Oh?

Of course, you know.

I am a risk taker and when I have that feeling of like, oh, this is really vulnerable, this is kind of scary.

I'm like, ooh, that's where I want to go.

I get kind of things get stale to me very quickly.

It's why I like to jump between genres and play really varied characters.

So this isn't that different in that world for me.

I think that I'm just now at a place now that I have the ability later in my career to have opportunity to develop my own things.

Like lessons in chemistry is really one of the first things that I like developed all the way through and that took like three years of my life and it was.

Like your first time doing it and it was so good.

Producing something like it was, I mean, excellent, thank you, thank you.

I'm just kind of you know, I'm just really focused, Like I get really tunneled in on something that matters to me, and I just will work sixteen hour days.

And you know, Courtney and I are very much the same.

It's also part of us works so well is because we both like are maybe to others like caring about details that we don't quote unquote like need to care about, but we do.

And it's like all of it matters.

I'm more of the mind that like, if these things don't matter, then nothing matters, and like I can't go there.

It's like this is my life and I really care a lot.

So this time in my life, I've been more interested in developing.

I felt like Lesson's and Chemistry was also very exposing, and the lows are really low for something that you're making yourself, but they're also really high.

Like when we got all of our Emmy nominations, it was like out of this world happiness because you know how much work went into it, not just for myself but everyone else around.

And so similarly with this cookbook, it's like, Okay, I'm asking people to see me in a completely different arena, to trust me in this arena, which I don't take lightly at all, and I don't think anybody who's like, why the heck is she doing this?

I mean, fair, fair, you know, but I know that I know where I'm coming from, and I know that this is like one of the true re forms of myself, so you know, the risk is worth it to me.

And I also have felt like for the longest time, like if I think about the women that really inspired me, they weren't the ones that did everything pert Like there's nobody I can think of that's done it all perfectly, but they're the ones who tried really hard and cared a lot, Like kar an embarrassing amount and I just care an embarrassing amount?

Yeah, care an embarrassing amount is such a good mantra.

Yeah, And I'll just added that, Like we've had this conversation before.

We're like, Okay, the book's about to come out.

It's like we're gonna find out if people like it or not.

And you know, I keep saying like, if for some reason it doesn't do well, it will not be from a lack of trying on our part.

And I think you know, when you make something from.

Your heart and put it out into the world, it's not yours anymore.

It's the world's.

And it really feels like you just like you're just walking around with all your skin peeled off.

You just feel so exposed, and you're like, ah, but like to be brave enough.

To do that.

Anyone who does that, anyone who creates anything, whether it's books, movies, paintings, music, food, it's one of the bravest things anyone can do.

And I think it's beautiful, So I'm proud of us.

It's a Brene Browns man in the arena well, which is really Teddy Roosevelt, but she popularized it.

Yeah, it's absolutely that.

And you learn so much about yourself and like, what am I going to do live my life?

Being like, oh, I don't want to do the thing that makes me wake up excited in the morning because I'm worried that like someone's gonna be crabby about it a year from now.

Like definitely not No, you know every party in life?

Yeah, exactly, you get it.

Courtney Bree called you the playlist queen, and you have these really cool Spotify playlists for different foods like jalapeno poppers, chocolate cake, crab rangoon.

I don't even know what crab rangoon is.

Oh yes, I'm gonna name.

Some dishes and party people, and I want you to tell me which song matches the vibe.

Oh okay, this is probably the hardest.

Ca Wow, Okay, let's I need a shot of espresso or vodkast okay, yeah, or party people punch okay, rits cake rich excuse me, ritz cracker.

Putting on the roots, putting on the Rit, right, perfect vitamin C salad.

Oh, isn't there a song by Can Vitamin C?

We remember that?

Oh, but what about that's Can.

There's a song by.

Can like bump bump boom.

That's exactly how it goes.

Both of you.

That was phenomenal, cheesy jango bread something about games.

I was thinking like upsad down, But you're telling me like something we're like kind of giving the top.

Okay, yeah, yeah, like I learned from me, just like lean to the pun of it.

Yeah, that's what the playlist is.

My love is like, oh roller coaster?

Is that a song?

Right?

It's your song?

You should just do all.

I can't seeing Brit has a really good voice, so we'll.

Just of it.

It's true getting glimpses of it.

Okay, Dueling roast chickens, what about like the theme.

Song to Rocky I was thinking the same thing.

Yeah, good, Okay.

My last question is about connection and parties because I went to a party one time and they had note cards on the table.

So the host asked everybody to email them a fun fact ahead of time, and she wrote them on the note cards with their name on the other side of the note card, and they were laying on the table with the fun facts, and as everybody entered, they had to choose one and you had to find that person at the party.

And it made good, I know, it made sure that you would connect with at least one new person and talk to them.

And honestly, we all ended up talking to so many people because you had to find out by the fun fact.

Yeah, is this yours?

Is this yours?

So my question for you is when have you felt most connected at a party?

You know, that feeling like at the end, like say, like you're sitting at a dinner table and the food is all finished and like the places are still there.

It's like a messy table, and like you just kind of like everyone's had like a couple of drinks.

Everyone's full, and like technically the night's over, but everyone's still lingering and there's just like that energy in there that you can't really describe.

You can feel it, and everyone's just like yeah and this and like laughing and telling jokes and people are just on Like that happens all the time, you know, Like so it's not just like one party where there's like one thing that happened, but just I feel like the natural progression almost always leads to that.

It's like the end of the night feeling where it's done, but it's almost just getting started in a way.

You know you can't leave early because you gotta get to that thing exactly.

I love that.

Similar to the example you gave, I went to a wedding where they had a pre party.

It's like a destination wedding, and when you got your name card, it had another person's name on the back, and so you would put the person's name on you so that they would come find you, and then when they found you, you would take the card out in it, it had a conversation start.

It was like, Hey, I really want you guys to talk about and mine was like this woman and it was like ree talk about how your favorite food is baked potatoes and caviat and this one was like that's my favorite food.

And it was just such a sweet way of making this.

I think it was like one hundred and fifty people at this wedding feel small and get you talking about something that's different than just like where do you work?

Oh, how do you know them?

You know the bride in the group, Like those are all the typical things and it kind of kicked it off, I being like, we really want people to connect here, and it was such a smart way of doing it.

It made a fun little scavenger hunt.

Everybody's looking for each other.

It was also a self expression party, so you got to dress up in whatever you wanted.

Whatever made you feel like you is what you wore to the party.

I feel like weddings, and you know, my mom does weddings, so I know like it's something that she really talks about and works towards all the time.

Is like making it up about the people and about the love, and that was a great way of setting it up so that it went that direction.

I was just at a wedding too, my our friend Aaron's and Liza's wedding, and they stood up and they it was a tiny wedding, there's like twenty people.

Instead of us toasting them, they toasted each of us like they had everyone stand up and they said, like the thing.

The reason why you're here, why we love you so much.

It was really special and cool and we got to hear cool things about each and every person who attended the wedding.

It was so lovely sweet, it.

Was I loved you.

Yeah, Okay, one more game for you.

It's called speed Read.

So we're going to put sixty seconds on the clock and see how many rapidfire literary questions we can get through.

Okay, testing Is.

There a literary feast from fiction, memoir, or mythology that you'd love to recreate in real life?

Hunter S.

Thompson's favorite breakfast.

I'm trying to think of what I've read recently that has a meal in it that I would want to eat.

I just remember reading like a Tropic of Cancer, like Henry Miller and he like I feel like he talks about like butter for like six pages and it like opened my world.

I was like, Oh, you can really spend time like really digging into like food and the details of food and like the luxury of food.

Okay, one literary trope that you would ban forever.

I'm really just over like this female character is being broken but beautiful when it's like, oh, she's beautiful but she doesn't know it.

And yeah, I was gonna say also along that same line, female characters being angry and crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is there a book that shaped the way you see the world.

So many geez oh, the power of Now by Eckart toolet wow, so how you say it?

Yeah, that's changed my life.

Well, I mean I brought it up earlier, but now it's just like so top of mine, but like untamed really did?

Yeah?

Okay, last one, what's your red flag reading habit?

I will skip like long descriptions and just read the just read the stuff in the quote.

Sometimes I'm like, I don't need to know all that.

That's why I love him ingway, He's like very clear and concise.

I love I don't like to watch trailers or read the descriptions of books before I read them.

I just want to be handed them and be surprised.

But I want to know nothing about what it is.

Do you choose it by its cover?

I either choose it by its cover or recommendation.

Oh I love that, but I don't want to know anything about it.

Okay.

I have never considered myself a party person until now.

Yeah.

It's Courtney Ray.

Thank you so much.

I think you're bringing us so much joy at a time when we need it.

Thank you very thank you.

Thank you for having us.

This was so fun.

And if you want a little bit more from us, come hang with us on socials.

We're at Reese's book Club on Instagram, serving up books, vibes and behind the scenes magic and I'm at Danielle Robe.

Roba Y come say hi and df me and if you want to go nineties on us, call us.

Okay, our phone line is open, so call now at one five zero one two nine, one three three seven nine.

That's one five oh one two nine, one three three seven nine.

Share your literary hot.

Takes, book recommendations, questions about the monthly pick, or let us know what you think about the episode you just heard.

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Until then, see in the next chapter.

Bookmarked is a production of Hello, Sunshine and iHeart Podcast.

Its executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and me Danielle Robe.

Production is by Acast Creative Studios.

Our producers are Matty Foley, Brittany Martinez, Sarah Schleid.

Our production assistant is Avery Loftus, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer are the executive producers for a Cast Creative Studios.

Maureene Polo and Reese Witherspoon are the executive producers for Hello, Sunshine, Olga Cominwa.

Kristin Perla and Ashley Rappaport are associate producers for Reese's book Club.

Ali Perry and Lauren Hansen are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts.