Currently Reading

Season 8, Episode 31: Book Festivals + Revisiting The Currently Reading Press List

March 9, 2026

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • The hosts revisited the 'Currently Reading Press List'—a collection of books they previously recommended highly—to reflect on how their reading tastes have evolved over time. 
  • Kaytee announced plans to attend the Tucson Festival of Books and invited listeners to join her for a dinner gathering on March 14th. 
  • The hosts celebrated the return of the Australian book podcast, *The Diving In*, after a long hiatus. 

Segments

Hosts Introduction and Banter
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(00:00:10)
  • Key Takeaway: Meredith and Kaytee introduced themselves as bookish best friends who offer strong opinions and keep conversations spoiler-free.
  • Summary: Meredith is a CEO in Austin, Texas, and Kaytee is a homeschooling mom of four in Arizona. This episode is Season 8, Episode 31. They prioritize book talk over chit-chat and promise spoiler-free conversations. The hosts briefly exchanged seasonal observations, noting the rapid transition to summer-like weather in Arizona.
Deep Dive Topic Reveal
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(00:01:53)
  • Key Takeaway: The main deep dive segment involves revisiting the ‘Currently Reading Press List’ compiled from the first four and a half seasons of the show.
  • Summary: The Press List consists of books the hosts felt strongly enough about to ‘press into your hands’ weekly. They are re-evaluating these past recommendations to see if they still stand by their choices. This segment was inspired by a listener email suggesting a time capsule review of the list.
Bookish Moments of the Week
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(00:03:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaytee is preparing for the Tucson Festival of Books and organizing a listener dinner on March 14th, requiring RSVPs via email.
  • Summary: Kaytee is looking forward to the Tucson Festival of Books (TFOB) and hosting her annual listener dinner on Saturday, March 14th. Listeners attending TFOB who wish to join the dinner must email Kaytee at [email protected] for details and headcount. Meredith shared her excitement over the return of the Australian podcast, The Diving In, after a year and a half hiatus.
Current Reads: Kaytee’s Picks
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(00:06:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaytee highly recommends Wreck by Catherine Newman as a character-driven, slice-of-life follow-up to Sandwich, focusing on family dynamics.
  • Summary: Wreck by Catherine Newman centers on the character Rocky navigating menopause, family additions/losses, and a local train accident, similar in style to Sandwich. The book is short (under 250 pages) and benefits from the audio narration, focusing on womanhood and motherhood. Readers should start with Sandwich first, as Wreck carries through some plot points from the previous novel.
Current Reads: Meredith’s Picks
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(00:09:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton is an exceptional, real-time thriller set during a lockdown at a rural English school that focuses on character and human response rather than graphic violence.
  • Summary: Set over exactly 180 minutes, Three Hours weaves together multiple perspectives, including a wounded headmaster and a Syrian refugee student. The book is praised for its beautiful, non-overwrought sentence-level writing and its exploration of courage and sacrifice in a high-pressure scenario. It is noted that despite being about a school shooting, it avoids being ’trauma porn’ and is manageable for mothers to read.
Current Reads: Kaytee’s Nonfiction Pick
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(00:15:06)
  • Key Takeaway: The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande is a brilliant, lyrical 2012 memoir detailing the author’s traumatic immigration journey from Mexico to the US.
  • Summary: The memoir follows Reina Grande’s childhood in Mexico, her father’s departure to ‘El Otro Lado’ (the US), and her eventual dangerous journey across the border at age eight. It covers themes of abandonment, co-parenting with siblings, abuse from her father upon arrival, and navigating immigration while learning English. The book is lauded for bringing humanity to the broader immigration narrative.
Current Reads: Meredith’s Spicy Pick
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(00:18:50)
  • Key Takeaway: Moonblooded Breeding Clinic by C.M. Nascosta is a spicy, lighthearted monster romance featuring a werewolf photographer and an interior designer seeking unconventional fertility treatment.
  • Summary: Set in the Cambrick Creek world where monsters and humans coexist, this book utilizes the ’transactional romance’ trope where the leads catch feelings despite their business arrangement. It features complex family dynamics among the werewolf brothers and includes explicit content, including the author’s first foray into ‘knotting.’ The book serves as a valuable, low-commitment palette cleanser for readers.
Current Reads: Kaytee’s Historical Fiction
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(00:25:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Love and Fury by Samantha Silva is a five-star historical fiction novel narrated by a midwife focusing on the life and death of feminist icon Mary Wollstonecraft.
  • Summary: The novel alternates timelines between Mary Wollstonecraft’s life and the days surrounding the birth of her daughter, Mary Shelley, who was born just 11 days before Wollstonecraft’s death. The narrative is framed as the midwife telling Mary Shelley about her mother’s legacy. Listeners are encouraged to listen to the You’re Dead To Me podcast episode on Wollstonecraft for added context.
Current Reads: Meredith’s Second Five-Star
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(00:28:28)
  • Key Takeaway: The Once and Future Queen by Paula Lafferty is a highly recommended feminist time-slip novel comparing favorably to A Curse So Dark and Lonely.
  • Summary: The story follows 22-year-old Vera, who is transported from Glastonbury, England, to Camelot, where she is told she is Queen Guinevere, despite having no memory of that life. The central tension involves Vera navigating her relationship with Arthur and the dying magic of the kingdom without a roadmap. The book is the first in a trilogy and features a visceral physical assault trigger warning.
Deep Dive: Press List Reflection
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(00:34:22)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts analyzed their extensive ‘Press List’ and noted that their reading tastes have diverged over time, making it easier to distinguish between their individual recommendations later in the list’s history.
  • Summary: The list, containing hundreds of books, serves as a time capsule reflecting their reading tastes from the show’s early years. They acknowledged that some early picks, like Matilda by Roald Dahl, are complicated by the author’s later reputation, though they still love the book itself. Books like The Shop on Blossom Street highlight the need for a less universally pressing recommendation category, which they now use in other segments.
Before We Go: Friend Posts
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(00:50:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Bookish friend Sue introduced the concept of the ‘sigh of contentment’ as a personal metric for deeply immersive or satisfying reading moments.
  • Summary: The ‘sigh of contentment’ is the feeling experienced when finishing a book, like The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lyon by Beth Brower, or when having to pause a highly engaging book. This moment of satisfaction or immersion helps readers learn more about their own reading preferences and what truly captivates them. Listeners are encouraged to pay attention to when they experience this feeling.
Before We Go: Curiosity Segment
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(00:52:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaytee is currently curious about tracking upcoming 2026 releases, inspired by Laura Tremaine’s Substack newsletter detailing pre-orders.
  • Summary: Laura Tremaine’s Substack provides listeners with curated lists of upcoming releases, making it easy to add highly anticipated books to one’s pre-order list or TBR. Kaytee mentioned several highly anticipated upcoming titles, including Kin by Tayari Jones, Whistler by Ann Patchett, and Land by Maggie O’Farrell. This segment encourages listeners to actively track future releases from authors they admire.