Readers Digress Mollie Fox & Kate Kiriakou

Buckle up, everyone, for a shocking tale about one of the worst families in American history! Kate tells Mollie about the book Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe, a riveting exploration of the Sackler family's ascent to power and their role in the opioid crisis. This impeccably researched book is an intersection of wealth, morality, and accountability. It leaves no doubt that the Sackler family was aware of and indifferent to the suffering their greed caused and were, in fact, huge sacks of shit.

Contribute to Kate's read-a-thon fundraiser, benefiting Open Books!
$25 can provide one child with a year of new books through our Imagination Library program
$50 can support a month of upkeep of our Little Free Library network
$100 can provide 30 new, high-interest book titles for our youth book granting efforts
$250 can fund supplies for one of our eight-week-long Early Childhood Literacy Residencies in at-home daycares

Wow, that woman's teeth are white.. what was I doing? Oh, right! Welcome to our first episode of 2024, where we tackle Sara Petersen's Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture. Join us for a discussion of parenthood in the age of Instagram, influencers, and cruel optimism.

It was nice knowing ya, 2023! Pop some champagne and start 2024 off right with Mollie and Kate as they share recommendations for enchanting and compelling winter reads.
Recommendations in order:
Mollie: The Heatwave by Kate Riordan
Kate: Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
Kate: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sarafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Mollie: Tamora Pierce's books
Mollie: The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Kate: Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal
Mollie: Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier
Kate: Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland
Kate: Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens
Mollie & Kate: The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Halloween may be over but we're still in spooky season mode, which gives us free reign to talk about monsters (albeit the less fun kind, because these are real). This episode, Kate recounts Claire Dederer's Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma, which wrestles with the question: What do we do with the art of monstrous artists? You won't want to miss this conversation about fandom, celebrities, notes-app apologies, and more.
Pop Culture Pairings: Wannabe by Aisha Harris (Nonfiction), The Stacks (podcast)

Autumn is here, and what better way to celebrate than by curling up with a good book about how to write a good book? Join us this week as Mollie tells Kate all about Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. They talk about the creative process, how hard it is to start from a blank page, and how to cope with jealousy in creative fields.