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

Hi, I'm Danielle Robe and welcome to Bookmarked by Reese's book Club.

On today's show, we're announcing the all new Reese's book Club pick, and we're getting all the juicy details from the author herself in her first interview on the day her book is released.

Okay, so we can all wish her a happy pub day together and later, the star of Mean Girls, the musical movie you may know her as Katie Herron and Gabrie Rice and her mom Kate are here to share how they reinvented a classic Jane Austen novel for a whole new audience.

They said it in Australia with movie stars and a gen Z heroin.

But before we try to make fetch happen, it's time to announce the August Reese's book Club Pick.

So you all know that I was a fan of Reese's Book Club before I started hosting this podcast, and part of what makes this so fun for me is that I now get the side scoop.

So we are going to talk about everything before everybody else knows about it.

And here's how it works.

At the beginning of every month, I'll announce the brand new Reese's Book Club pick right here, and then we'll kick things off with something really special, a release day conversation with the author herself, so she's coming here first, and then at the end of the month, we'll bring her back for a full deep dive, meaning we have all month long to read the book, mark our favorite passages, use our favorite highlighters, write our favorite notes in the notes app, and then get ready to unpack all the juicy details together.

And we have the Reese Witherspoon herself here to announce this month's Reese's Book Club pick.

Hey Reese, Hey everybody, I'm so excited.

Our book club pick this month is Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan.

How exciting, Thank you Reese.

Now.

Ashley Jordan is a debut novelist from Atlanta, and what a debut it is.

If you've ever dreamed of becoming a right she is an inspiration.

She wrote this novel during the pandemic while working in public health.

It started as fan fiction actually, and it turned into a love story for the ages.

Ashley, Welcome to the club.

Thank you so much.

This is literally a dream come true.

Thank you so much for having me.

Well, it feels like a dream for us to have you too, because your book is officially out in the world today.

So happy pub Day.

I'm so excited for you.

How are you celebrating.

I'm celebrating by crying a little bit, and then I can good ways, I'm happy crying.

And then I'm having a launch of it at one of my favorite bookstores, all the Tropes in Atlanta.

I'm so excited for it.

It'll be my first event.

So yeah, that'll be a really great entry into pub day.

Okay, So one time I had a new job at NBC and the general manager sent an email very early in the morning, and it was the launch of a new show, and he said, you never forget your first your first kiss, your first concert, your first car.

And so hearing you talk about your first book event, I almost have chills for you.

I have a feeling this is going to be one of your many books that you write.

Are you going to start some sort of pub day tradition?

Ooh, that would be great, I think, yeah, I think I would like to do that.

I don't know exactly what it'll be like, definitely want to have launch day events in my hometown.

That would be great.

And then I have to figure out some like fun little thing that I will do just like just for me.

Maybe I'll go buy the book at a certain place every time it comes out.

I think that'd be cool.

That's like when presidential candidates vote for themselves.

I love it.

Yeah, exactly.

You know.

I'm looking at your cover right now, and obviously the title is on it.

It says once upon a Time in Dollywood, and the tagline says Love is a roller Coaster.

So I have a little challenge for you if you're game.

Okay, don't sound so scared.

I'm not scared.

Go ahead, Okay, you have the length of a roller coaster ride at Dollywood to tell us what your book is about.

Yes, sure, okay, yes.

So my main character, Eve is fresh off of a breakup and she is estrange from her parents as well, and so she is going to Tennessee to Dollywood basically to go to her grandmother's house.

And supposedly she's there to write.

She wants she's a playwright and she wants to write her next play.

And she's going there.

She's pretending she's not having like a total life meltdown as she is, and so her cover story gets kind of complicated by the guy next door.

His name is Jamie Gallagher, and you know, he's this handsome, sunshiny single dad and he really throws all her plans for a loop.

She wanted to be alone and he's like, no, you don't, and so they kind of fall in like and then they eventually fall in love.

This is a romance, so that's not a spoiler.

And this is all much to eat sagrin.

I would call this a grumpy Shunshine pairing, but she's the grumpy one, and basically what starts as the fling really turns into something much deeper.

And what happens is they have a lot of baggage, they have a lot of scars, and so they are emotionally exhausted and kind of exhausting.

But if they could just sort of stop overthinking, they can figure out how to have their happily ever.

After a Grumpy Sunshine pairing.

I love that.

That's a trip that I think I could always get behind.

Yes, I think it's my favorite.

Is there a chapter you had the most fun writing?

Ooh, the most fun writing.

So I'm a little bit damaged.

So I love writing like the breakups.

I love writing the fights, keeping the angst, like anytime that they're arguing with each other.

Those went by really easily.

The fluff is a little harder for me, But I love a breakup.

Wait, what do you mean you're damaged?

I said what I said?

Well, I'm no, I'm not really damaged.

I love anks, That's really it.

Like all of my favorite things about TV shows or anything is when people are arguing and crying and things like that.

I don't know what that says about me really.

Wait what does that mean?

Like, can you give me an example?

Because my mind went to Real Housewives?

But I know that's not what you're talking about.

Oh kind of real housewives.

But also, like you know, I think, I say in my bio like Madman is my favorite show of all time.

So all of the anything that is like don draper angsty, I'm into, like absolutely so the parts where people are hurting, I feel like, and we're exploring the human condition and depression and all the things that make us cry and make us you know, have to get through life.

Not I love the good parts of life too, don't get me wrong, but the hard parts are where the things get interesting.

You know now that you're sharing that it's that tension that you also really share in your book.

Yes, and it's not often that I get to speak to an author before reading their book.

Usually i've read the book already.

Are there any breadcrumbs that you left for us in this story?

Are there any small moments or details that carry more weight than they seem to at first glance?

Asking for a friend, I want to know the easter eggs.

Well, there is one easter egg that probably will only apply to like a handful of people.

But this book actually started as fan fiction and it was for the Walking Dead.

So I left some little breadcrumbs for my rashwon readers, and I would tell them, if they're listening, look at the times on the text messages.

They mean something.

I love that.

If this book were a mashup of two TV shows, which would they be.

I remember when I pitched it, I said that it was Insecure meets Emily Henry's be Read.

But if I were to do two TV shows, I would say Insecure meats Shrinking.

Probably that's cool.

Do you have sort of a pie in the sky somebody that you really look to and admire in terms of writing.

Oh god, yes, there's so many, I think in this genre especially I can't not say Kennedy Ryan like she is the Beyonce of the romance writers.

So yeah, she is my north star.

Bolu Babilola one of the Reese's book Club authors.

I discovered her because of you guys, Beverally Jenkins.

Of course, like og romance writer Tony Morrison.

She's the reason that I ever aspired to be a writer, the reason that I know that black women writers are incredible like she is God basically, I mean I could go on like so many black writers that I just really look up to.

It's so fun to talk to writers who are fans of other writers.

That's how you write, is you have to read other writers.

Like you can learn craft in a way like the technicalities of writing, but how to say what you want to say.

You get by absorbing the world, absorbing other writing, even other forms of media.

I think that is really the way that you become a writer.

So aside from the fact that your debut novel is getting published as a Reese's book Club pick, I want to do like a silent cheered for you as I say that, what are you most proud of?

I think that I did it.

I still I'm like, even a lot of ways, I cannot believe this is actually happening to me.

Even when I wrote it, I didn't really know what I was going to do with it.

I just wanted to see it get done.

And so doing that, I did that while I went back to school, and that was very silly, but I did it, and so I'm proud of that.

I'm really proud of.

I think Eave's journey, she goes through a lot, and what I really wanted people to take away from her journey is that you don't have to be perfect in order to be like like, you can be a mess and you still deserve love.

And so I think that her watching her journey and her being the conduit for that message is my favorite part about this book.

She starts off and she's, you know, very guarded and very hurt by the past and even the present, and so seeing her open up and realize that who she can be is not who she's been told to be.

She doesn't have to be who she's been told to be, and so I love that message.

I love that message, especially for women, especially for black women to just understand, hey, you got this, be you, You're worthy of love regardless.

There is this mentality that you have to be like a perfect package before you can find your other puzzle piece.

Yes, and I agree with you.

I've never found that to be the case.

It's more about embracing the mess.

Was there a point in your life where that clicked for you, because I find oftentimes, particularly in creative professions, that the thing we give the world is the thing we actually most need to hear.

Wow.

Yes, yes, for sure.

And I think because I wrote this during the pandemic and I was going through a lot of personal things.

Like I said, I went back to school partly because I just needed a distraction, and so yes, I think that I definitely needed to be reminded that who I am is Okay.

Am I going to cry right now?

No?

But yeah, I think sometimes, especially in relationships, you start to internalize the criticism instead of you know, the better parts of it.

And so yeah, I think that there was a point where I definitely needed to remind myself you're doing fine.

If someone isn't on board with that, that's okay.

They weren't for you, and you will find somebody who is.

So Yeah, it's a really nice message for all women to hear over and over and over again.

Repeat it.

It's a mantra.

Okay, I'm about to ask you an impossible question because I know that you're a huge Beyonce fan.

Yes, so which version of Jolene would you pick?

Is it Dolly's or is it Beyonces?

This is so hard.

I feel like I'm about to shock myself and say Dolly's version.

I love her vulnerability in that song, and I love Beyonce.

I love that she don't play.

But I'm also like, I wish I sorted.

I don't fully wish this, because I totally get her version and why it works for her, but I wish we had lean into the vulnerability a little bit more in her version.

I think.

So I appreciate Dolly's a little bit more.

Can you say more about what you mean in terms of why the Beyonce version works for her?

Well, because she's been on this journey through you know, we have Lemonade and we know what she went through, and so at this point, she is no longer like I'm accepting what you're doing, Like she's just like I'm not doing this anymore.

Stop playing with me, Stop playing with my man, And that makes total sense for her as a black woman.

She's not going to be like begging someone to stop playing with her.

She's saying, stop, You're not going to play with me anymore.

And so I totally understand where she's coming from and why she did it that way.

And maybe if it had come earlier, like maybe Feels on Lemonade, it would have made more sense for her to do a more dolly version.

Actually, I'm having so much fun talking to you.

I don't want to let you go, but we are going to have our full interview again at the end of the month.

So thank you for your time today and a huge congratulations.

Thank you so much.

This is amazing.

I cannot wait to talk to you again.

We'll be right back with the mother daughter duo behind the young adult Pick of the Summer, Don't Go Anywhere, Hungary, Kate, Welcome to the club.

Thank you so much, Danielle.

Thank you for having us.

I am so excited that you're here.

I've been prepping for this interview.

You guys have something in common with an entire castle in France.

Okay, you also have something in common with a Las Vegas high roller wheel and a homemade jet pack and a life size room of chocolate.

Any guesses about what it could be?

I love all of those things.

Were they all invented by mothers and daughters?

Angourie, you're sort of a genius.

It's not quite that, but the fact that you even caught on is incredible.

So it's all things that were built in thirty days.

And you two wrote this book in thirty days.

I didn't realize that.

Well, the first draft was thirty days.

I still have that first draft, all of the notebooks.

It was all handwritten.

So that was my next question.

How did you write?

Did you write separately?

Did you write together?

Because I kind of imagine you living under the same roof, having a coffee in the morning together and then going somewhere fabulous to write sort of.

I mean, we were it was summer holidays for us.

It was during COVID, so we couldn't have any visitors and we were at our a family beach house that we have, so there was literally nothing much to do apart from go for a swim and go for a walk.

And we had already plotted out the whole thing, so we knew.

We had a very very detailed chapter breakdown, and then every day one of us would write a chapter, and then the next day we would read the chapter from the day before and then write the next one.

So, you know, it was actually it was a little bit like have you done yours yet?

Because you know, I'm ready.

You know, it's a bit.

Like that, And who came up with that plan?

How did you decide to set that in motion?

So the definitely the rule that I had was just write it and don't cross anything out, And certainly when you're reading the other person's chapter, you couldn't cross anything out, but you could add things.

Yeah, I think the structure worked well.

And also just having someone hold you accountable was really good.

We were also working from a chapter plan that we'd come up with over the past sort of two months that we'd been thinking about this idea.

We had written this chapter plan and that helped, so we knew exactly what we were doing.

There was no confusion about what story we were trying to tell or where it was going.

That was actually my next question, because it seems easier in my mind to write nonfiction with somebody than it is to rape fiction.

Just because there's so many nuanced moments in characters that play out later in the book that seem like it would all get jumbled when you're writing with two people.

Kate, I see you shaking your head.

How did you navigate that?

Well?

We talked through the story a lot, and we had a genius showing us how to do it.

You know, we had Jane Austen's original texts, so we were able to, you know, whenever we had a problem, we were able to go back to that and go, well, what did she do?

How did she do it?

And we were never freeforming.

We were always following a very strong thread.

And Kate, you've been a play right and so you're not new to writing in any way.

Ungari.

What things did you learn from your mom's breath of experience?

My mom is probably one of the smartest people I know.

I had grown up just like wandering around the house hearing the keyboard tapping, hearing her talking out dialoge out loud.

So to actually be in that process as opposed to just like hearing it in the house was so fun and so nice.

I think there were so many things Kate taught me, but mainly she taught me about just getting it down without fear, like really just committing, and the handwriting of the first draft really helped with that.

Also, the advice of people never say what they mean.

I think that was really clever too, especially in dialogue.

I remember there was one scene where I originally wrote it.

The character was really annoyed, and he showed that in his dialogue and Kate said, let's to rewrite it in this time.

Everything he says is exactly opposite to how he feels, and that just creates an extra layer of nuance and reality to characters.

I think I really like what you just shared, and I'd never thought about the idea that people don't actually say what they mean.

It's so true.

So even though you two had this roadmap that you set forth, were there any parts of the plot or the book writing process that you struggled with?

Yes, I think that's going to come along in any writing process.

Yeah.

I guess if it's too easy, it's maybe not good enough, or something that you really need to push yourself to come up with the best possible story.

And in adapting, we already had Jane Austen's framework of pride and prejudice to work from So that was great because she'd already thought about a lot of plot things before us.

But in adapting, there are certain things that don't work for the present day, and that was challenging to sort of find how can we make these characters and make the audience feel the same, but in a context and situation that is completely different.

So Jane Austen is prolific and writers seem to really love Jane Austen, but if you ask middle school children, they sort of side I because they think of Jane Austen as homework.

So I'm going to ask you a funny question.

If you can take Jane Austen out of the classroom, can you sell her and her work to someone who was born two hundred and fifty years ago, to a gen Z reader who's never read Jane Austen?

Why read her for fun?

Part of the answer to that is the book we wrote, Like, read that and then you'll get into it, I hope.

Look.

I mean, the thing about Jane Austen is that her characters, because her world is deliberately I mean, you could could describe it as small, I mean, but it's family and friends, and that is the world that we still live in.

We still live in family and friends, and the issues and the characters that come up in her world of family and friends are so well observed it's really hard to believe that these characters are not present day characters.

They all feel like people we know, even though they speak in sort of you know, long words and long sentences, their motivations and their obsessions.

I mean, there's there's a characters that character in in Northanger Abbey, but you know how you know your dude might be really into cars and just talk about cars all the time.

There's this dude who just talks about his carriages in the same way.

That's funny.

Yeah, I would pitch it too, as like if someone between the ages of twelve and sixteen came to me and said, why should I read this and how should I read it?

I would sort of say that treat it like a fantasy book, because young readers are so good at understanding new worlds, at picking up on, you know, these whole complex magic systems.

And really the difficulty with Jane Austen is the language and the understanding of the social customs.

I think that's what the barrier is.

But if you treat that like learning a fantasy world, understanding the vocabulary, how people talk to each other, address each other.

I think that's your sort of gateway and your access to this really wonderful, rich story.

Kate, what do you think makes Jane Austen's work so perfect for modern remixes?

I think in a way we are all still living in Jane Austen's kind of Well, she was just the first one to really really examine it and with a very, very genius.

I I think too, because she's she is a real champion of of clever women, and you know, we're in the age of women really coming into their own in a way and telling in telling their stories.

So I suspect that's got something to do with why, particularly now kind of in the last twenty to thirty years, that she's had such a big, big revival.

Well as a foil to clever women, there's also some men that behave badly in Jane Austen stories.

Mister Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, he has his moments.

He insults Elizabeth to her face.

He's a little emotionally clueless at the beginning.

His first proposal is definitely insulting.

What kind of behaviors did you have to change for a gen Z audience in order for a mister Darcy type character to resonate.

I mean everything that we had to change, like so much of it just translated directly really.

But the things we had to change were around women as property because they couldn't, you know, women couldn't earn their own money.

They were part of a family headed by a man.

So that was kind of the main thing, and that did have to be reflected very much with our mister Darcy journey.

Well, because you know, in Prime and Prejudice he swoops in and saves the day and for Elizabeth, and we wanted to maintain that feeling of him being perfect for her without her being completely disempowered.

So she now is in our version, she is much more empowered and she does, to a certain extent, save.

Her own day.

Yeah.

I think too that mister Darcy is someone who he's not particularly charming.

He's quite awkward, and it's about sort of hitting that awkwardness.

What does awkwardness today mean?

Is it the same as it was two hundred and something years ago or is it slightly different?

Also?

I think maybe for Jane Austin, it was really easy for mister Darcy, or not easy, but there were so many social rules around how to behave that I think it's quite pointed in her novels when people don't follow those social rules and what that says about who they are.

So I think in our version two, when we might consider our contemporary, our day to day having less social rules, it's about sort of showing how someone can still sort of operate within within society, either breaking those rules or bending them, and what that says about their character.

Angourie, this isn't the first classic adaptation that you've been a part of.

I didn't realize this Mean Girls is a retelling of Julius Caesar, and so did you.

You're looking like you didn't know that either.

I didn't.

I didn't know that.

I know it makes sense though it does, doesn't it?

Well?

When I learned it, I thought, Okay, Gretchen Wiener's monologue saying we should all just.

Jill Caesar stab Caesar.

Yeah, we should not Sta, She's like, makes much more.

Yeah, Bruce is smarter.

Didn't see Brunce is work?

Yeah, Oh my god, please just recite for the rest of the podcast.

That was fun.

I wish, I wish I had it all?

Do you still do you ever think of Katie Heron's lines?

Are they to to like the tip of your tongue?

Ever?

No more after playing her than before, like even like before I got that job.

Mean Girls was always a part of my vocabulary.

I think that's true for a lot of people of who grew up with that movie.

It's just it's just in your vocabulary, and me playing her as I don't know, it's maybe made me actually say that her lines and lines from the movie less because I feel a bit like, I don't know, calling attention to the fact, and I don't want to do that.

I know you're so humble.

My like claim to infamy is that Tina Fey wrote the movie about my high school and we had all those lunch tables.

She was so spot on with almost it was very funny.

So Jane Austin really was so prolific.

She had drafts of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility all written by the time she was twenty three years old.

And she's also known for coining a bunch of these phrases that we still use today, like dinner party or dirt cheap.

If anybody's ever said dog tired, you can thank Jane Austen.

I feel like some of these phrases could have been gen Z slang at the time.

Are there any gen Z slang terms that you think will stand the test of time?

And Gari, do you use anything like riz or crash out or skivity, anything that's going to sustain and endure.

It's so funny you say that because I was reading a book trying to remember which book it was, but it was a book from the mid twentyth century.

It would have been from like maybe the forties or fifties that use the term crash out in the exact same way that we are using it today.

What And I read that, I thought, this has just come back around.

That's so interesting.

So I wish I could.

I wish I could cite my source, but I don't remember.

I just remember thinking that, Yeah, I think, I mean, I don't think everything will stick around, but I think things do come back around.

So I don't know if the slang will necessarily be present forever, but it will it will return.

I mean, that's something interesting that we wanted to do with our book too, is we made it sort of a conscious effort to not include any slang because we were worried about it aging.

So we wanted to create sort of new things, new insults, new terms of phrase that were not slang, that we're not swearing, that could sort of exist in our little fictional world.

Clueless did that mean?

Girls did that with fetch as well.

And then also when I think about when I think about Jane Austen, I'm sure there are words in there that were slang at the time that we don't even recognize.

But also all the all of those phrases she coined which I didn't even know about, but you know, that's that's her also forging ahead.

That's her not using the slang at the time.

That's her saying, we don't have a word for this or a phrase for this, let me describe it this way, which I love.

Do you have any favorites from your book?

Ah, there's something in there about him having as many arms as an octopus and just as slimy or something that's cute.

Did that make it in Also, because we as well as not using any slang, we also didn't want to swear.

We wanted to be able to say, there's you know there's no swearing, so yes, we talk about Dorian having a stick up his potato.

Yeah, stick up his potato.

I think that's hilarious.

Still, that's the thing.

It's like, I don't care if nobody else likes it.

That makes me laugh.

Well.

Also, one of my really good friends is Australian and she has the funniest terminology.

I just asked her to describe things to me, because you guys have all these funny terms that we don't have in America, and so I feel like there must be so many in the book that we don't even know that are inspired by some Australian terms.

You've got tickets on yourself?

What does that mean?

That means you think you're pretty good.

You've got tickets, you know, I don't know, like you're for sale or something.

I love that.

That's a good one, Kate, and wake up Australia.

It means, you know, stop stop dreaming, snap out of it, wake up Australia.

There were also there was one in there.

I don't remember what it was, but I think I said, I don't even know what that is.

You have to take that out.

That's funny.

My grandfather is quite well known for making up phrases.

Yeah wait really ah, yeah, that's that's true.

I grew up with him saying all sorts of bizarre things.

I just find I find nothing funnier than someone bungling a turn of phrase, so saying like, oh, you know, we'll we'll jump off that bridge when we get to it, which is when we say, or like whatever floats your goat or something.

I just find that I find that so funny.

Whatever floats your goat is really good.

Yeah.

So Jane Austen was also known for illuminating little corners of our social and cultural lives the way you described And Gary, what did you want to illuminate in your own retelling?

Well, I think initially we were thinking about how do we translate mister Darcy who is young and independent and rich today, and that's famous people, movie stars, influencers, musicians, so I think, And so that came as an easy answer to us for two reasons.

It really matched Jane Austen's sort of framework of someone who's wealthy and independent, But it also matched our special experience and maybe a unique perspective that we had to tell as me being an actor and Kate having chaperoned me until I was eighteen, so we both had a sort of a perspective on Hollywood and the industry that we wanted to talk about because I think also in creating a character who had gotten famous at a young age was interesting to us and sort of talking about what fame means for someone and what it does to someone, and also how drastically it affects how you interact with the world, and we see that in Dorian and his friends, and we wanted to explore that.

I think for me, I was also really interested in the in legacy in mothers and daughter's families.

Why do we culturally hold on to certain things?

What are we ready to let go?

Are we destined to repeat the mistakes of our parents?

You know?

So this this is a retelling, but it is also the next generation, which was very important to me.

I wanted it to be about what happens next in the Prime and Prejudice story.

It feels particularly apropos writing this as a mother daughter do O, Kate, did you come to your own conclusion about any of those questions?

Yes, well, I mean sort of.

My hope is that each generation gets a bit better Like that, if you're conscious about it, Like the default position is always going to be to fall back into whatever you grew up with, but the conscious decision to improve is something that we can all do and go Okay.

It was like this for my mom.

My mom was like this, I'm not going to do that.

I'm going to do this.

And that's in the book and I hope in our lives.

It's really powerful.

And I like the idea of what you want to keep and what you want to change, because I think we all feel that about our family legacy in some way.

So Stuck Up in Stupid is marketed as a book for a generation of teens who are definitely not looking for love.

I have to tell you, I was astounded reading that.

What do you mean they are not looking for love?

What is so unique about gen Z's approach to romance?

Please school this millennial?

I am confused.

Oh so, I think that's a particular reference to Lily, our main character.

She's not looking for love, and I think that's that is reflective of how she feels about her mother and how her mother has, throughout her whole life sort of depended on men and romance to make her feel happy and validated.

But I don't know.

Maybe, I mean, I don't know if I can speak to everyone born two thousand and one like me, But maybe there's this sort of idea of like, maybe there's a healthy sort of independence, like I don't need this to complete me.

I am whole as myself.

A relationship is nice, but I can be on my own in this world and be okay with.

That, which is just which makes me so happy because I spent my entire teenage years and twenties going where's the one who's going to complete me?

And I was literally writing that in my diary, going where's the guy?

Where is my you know and your other half?

Where is my other half?

I'm useless, I'm nothing without a man like I was very much of that mindset, And it makes me so happy that my two beautiful gen Z children don't feel that and feel quite content in themselves and are happy to bring that to a relationship if it happens, and if it doesn't, that's also fine.

That's really cool that you feel that way, Kate.

I think a lot of parents still want their kids.

They put a lot of pressure on their kids to find love.

Do you think that our perception of love has changed.

Do you see it differently within your daughters?

And I know you just mentioned that they feel whole, but do you see how they go about things?

Is it different than you did?

Well, that aspect is certainly different because I was always looking constantly, So it's great that they're not all the time.

That's good.

I don't know, maybe, I certainly think.

I mean, the other thing that's really changed attitudes to love, obviously is the whole internet thing that now it seems it's kind of a bit uncool to ask somebody out just out of the because you don't know if they're looking, because they're not on an app declaring their lookiness.

But obviously I can't really speak about any of that, but that is the big shift.

From when I was young and Gari, do you see it with your friends?

Are there?

Do you have certain friends who are like a little bit more obsessive about finding love than others or do you find it truly that it's a generational difference.

Hmmm.

I guess it changes from person to person.

I think I gravitate towards people in my life who make me feel happy and special and excited about being a person in the world, and so I think that means I'm gravitating towards people who feel that way about themselves as well.

Like, that's something I really admire about so many of my friends, is how how they show me independence and power and like, my friends make me want to be a better person.

And I think that is that's linked to Yeah, this sort of strength in independence and better this for yourself and your community.

I think that's the other things.

It's I feel really empowered by my friends to sort of create a strong sense of community and that if I don't need anything, I just can ask.

Yeah, that's really beautiful at your age.

I don't know that I felt like that until I was in my thirties with my girlfriends.

So I think that's pretty cool.

Will the two of you be writing another book together?

Yes?

You know what's funny?

Is Kate not at a quick yes, and I didn't hear anything from Angourie.

Yes, Yes, the answer is yes.

I always get I'm always like thinking about the thing after that, so yes, absolutely and also maybe yes again but not sure but.

Yes cool, So yes times two potentially.

Well we do.

Yes, there is one very much in the works, and then there's another one that we're still kind.

Of yeah, but as per our rule, we cannot say anything until it's done.

You know what, I'm not going to fight you on that.

That's totally fair, and I leve a full circle moment in an interview, so I'll take it.

I do have one question about it, which is is it a classic retelling?

Again?

Is there a story you would want to adapt or is it an original work?

Well, there is another classic that I do want to adapt, but with Angourie, no, we're doing new things.

Yes much also for young for young readers, or a sort of yeah, this similar audience to Stuck up and Stupid, but different story, different world.

I love asking our guests what they've bookmarked this week.

It could be a weird fact, a fun quote, something you've saved on Instagram, something you texted your best friend about.

What have each of you bookmarked?

Well?

I have this book that I just finished called Saplings by Noel Stretfield, and I have been bookmarking this a lot and I just finished it last night.

Because there are so many fabulous terms of phrase in here, like, for example, this, I feel this is an occasion for masterly inactivity.

Just kind of loved that, Like, what an elegant way of saying, leave it alone, don't do anything.

I also liked this one.

Missus Oliver and her relations seemed to exist on the spin of a coin.

I really liked that everything that happened to them was caused by passing under ladders, meeting black cats, tripping over dropped nails, and the arrangement of tea leaves in their teacups.

I love that idea that if your life is dictated by luck, you're living on the on the spin of a coin.

But yeah, this is a book from nineteen forty five.

Nol Stretfield wrote Ballet Shoes, which was a classic I read and loved growing up.

It's about a family who is dealing with the fallout of World War Two and sort of how that changes a family in England.

And it was published just towards the end of World War two, so when she was writing this she didn't know when the war would end.

So it's a really interesting perspective on children dealing with the war.

So that's my book mark thing.

Oh, Angourie, that could be one of the best ones we've had.

That is so good and I loved I love that turn of phrase too.

It is it feels so precise.

Yes.

Yes, there were a lot of things in this book that I loved, and I like collecting sentences like that and writing them down and not copying them or stealing them hopefully ever, but just sort of just that creativity of thinking about something in a new way.

Yeah.

Do you write them in your phone or do you have a notebook?

I have a little Yeah, I have a little notebook that I am writing my writing quotes down in.

I have mine here.

This is my folder of quotes.

Oh, Kate, okay, let us know what have you bookmarked.

When I read a book.

Don't tell my librarians from high school or primary school, but I do, dog-ear them.

I literally book mark the pages where I find things that I love, and then I cook them and I put them in here in alphabetical order so that you can find them.

But the ones in alphabetical order, how do you even organize that?

Yeah?

Alphabetical order of the author?

My author?

Yes, so.

My favorite most recent ones are from My Friends by Frederick Bachman, which is out now.

All about art.

Great art is a small break from human despair, and art helped me cope because art is a fragile magic, just like love.

And that's humanity's only defense against death.

That we create and paint and dance and fall in love.

That's our rebellion against eternity.

Do you know?

I also read that book and I wrote that quote down in my book too.

That's so cute, Like mother like daughter.

Why did it strike both of you?

I mean, for me, art is a bit like a religion.

Art is what gives my life meaning in many ways.

It's how I process everything and makes it more than just you know, waking up and getting through the day.

It connects us, It connects us to each other, and it connects us to thing bigger than ourselves.

So art is everything for me, and to have it explained so beautifully in such a short, beautiful sense, yeah.

I think also for me art like it functions on so many levels.

It can be as simple as if I feel in my head and sad about anything, Art is the best way to sort of get outside of yourself, to create is to It's sort of like gratitude is the best killer of jealousy or despair.

It sort of functions in that same way for me, And then it can also be as grand as like art is what we leave behind, like that's our legacy when we think about how we connect to how we connect to people in the early eighteen hundreds where reading Jane Austen, that is how we are connecting to people through history, and so it feels so big in that sense.

What was it like to grow up with a mom who has such reverence for art?

It was amazing.

I mean, I feel so fortunate for so many things.

Like if I were to pinpoint something that I think illustrates how I grew up, maybe, or like, oh, now you're worried, now you're nervous, don't be worried, don't be worried.

So I grew up with a lot of books in the house.

We have an amazing bookshelf, and my parents would read to me, and they each had their own stories that they liked reading.

So my dad liked reading us more sort of adventure stories and stories from his childhood about animals going on adventures, and that was fun.

I mean, Kate had some favorites as well.

But I remember I remember Kate reading us The Happy Prince, which is a short story by Oscar Wilde, And she's laughing now because she does what I was about to say.

But Kate can't read that book without crying.

So I remember listening to this story as a kid and being so moved by it because it's a really sad story, and also my mum being moved by it and crying and sort of just seeing that connection between like what stories can make you feel and what they're thought.

They're there to make you empathize, They're they're to make you connect with the world, and yeah, just showing emotion and response to art is natural and a beautiful, wonderful thing.

Is that a good story about you?

That's beautiful, that's beautiful.

I thought you were going to say something along the lines of you know that I wouldn't let you have my little pony stories because I would say it's merchandise.

It's not.

I love.

That's a difference, Kate, there is I do.

I do remember, and I think this is this is actually very clever, and now I appreciate it.

I remember you saying I'm not going to get you much because then you become free advertising for whatever thing you love.

And I think that's very that's very smart.

It is.

I really really appreciate and admire your reverence for art, both of you, So thank you for creating it and thanks for sharing some of your art with me today.

Okay, Well, we're going to end on something fun, which is called speed read.

Here's how it works.

We put one hundred and twenty seconds on the clock, sixty seconds for each of you, and we're going to see just how many rapid fire literary questions you can get through.

So I'm going to do it popcorn style.

Kate, I'll ask you a question, and then Angari, I'll ask you the question.

Are you ready?

Yes?

Yes?

Okay?

Three?

Two?

One?

Kate, what's one literary trope you would ban forever?

She led out a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

Nixt Angourie.

One that you'll defend with your life.

Enemies to lovers always.

Agreed, Kate.

What's a book that you wish you had written?

Fortunes of Richard Marney by Henry Handel Richardson Angourie.

What is your favorite book to recommend?

Ooh, I love recommending depends what it's for, but I love recommending Station eleven by Emily St.

John Mandel because it's about a pandemic, but it's also about art and the resistance of art.

Ooh, I have to read that Okay, your favorite page to screen adaptation Kate.

Oh nineteen ninety four Pride and Prejudice, Angourie.

How about you that I would say the same, But I also love Clueless as an adaptation of Emma by Jane Austen.

Okay, what is your favorite Jane Austen work.

Pride and Prejudice and also Emma Hungary.

How about you the same, Kate.

What book do you wish you could read for the first.

Time again alone in Berlin by Hans Falada Hungary.

Which fictional character do you secretly think you're most like Emma?

Emma from Emma by Jane Austen Unfortunately if you've read it.

Yeah, yes, unfortunately, Kate.

If you could vicariously live through one fictional character, who would that be?

Oh, Elizabeth Bennett once she becomes missus Darcy, She's got a good.

Life, Angourie.

Last question, what book shaped the way you see the world?

Oh?

My gosh, every book, every book I've ever read.

Is that an answer?

No, it's true, that is an answer.

I love it.

Guys.

This was really fun.

Thank you for this, but thank you so much.

Thank you so much guys for having us.

This is lovely.

Yes, thank you thank you.

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.

And who knows, you might just hear yourself in our next episode, So don't be shy.

Give us a ring, and of course, make sure to follow Bookmarked by Reese's book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your shows.

Until then see in the next chapter.

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

It's executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and me Danielle Robey.

Production is by Acast Creative Studios.

Our producers are Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Sarah Schleide and Darbi Masters.

Our production assistant is Avery Loftis.

Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder are the executive producers for Acast 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.

Tim Pellizola is our showrunner.