Ep. 118: I Took Sips

[00:00:00] Welcome to Ink Drinkers, a literary tea party podcast where we discuss books and drink tea.

[00:00:30] How are you feeling? Are you sleep deprived? A little. Yesterday was a good night. I had like a, I don't know, maybe a three hour stretch which is good. Nice, nice. That's like a nap for me on a regular day.

[00:00:46] Yeah, and my parents, my mom was going to come tonight and she's like, dad's going to come to the night too. And they did it one other time. My dad never did that with Lucia, but I think he just, you know, like, being with them. We don't have an extra room or bed, so they're like sleeping on couches and like holding him.

[00:01:03] It's a little unfortunate, but it is. But they just like, they like love it too. Like we just just like looked at him for like an hour and dad's like my little guy or whatever he calls it. He's just so excited to have a grandson.

[00:01:19] I don't, he's not a person that's like grandson. So no, he just, it's just grandkids in general. He just like, he's a loves Lucia and Lucia. Lucia loves him so much. I think that she's the person that loves him most out of anyone else in his entire life.

[00:01:38] And so he'll like, he'll come home from work and mom's like she, she's like, puppy, puppy, like run to the door to greet him. And mom's like, she loves you so much. And he's like, thank you. Like as if she didn't. She's like, I didn't do anything. That's all you know.

[00:01:53] Oh, sweet. But he's just definitely a baby whisperer.

[00:01:57] Yeah. Well, it was good to have a baby whisper in your family.

[00:02:01] Yeah. And have an aunt too.

[00:02:03] Who's also nice.

[00:02:04] We didn't know. Well, now you do. And I had to leave and shoot my mom was watching him for a few hours. And my aunt happened to like stop by when I got back. She was still there. And mom's like, Kathleen's been holding him this whole time he hasn't made a peep. He just looks at her and then he falls back asleep. I don't know what she's doing.

[00:02:22] Was that the aunt who was there when I went to pick up the tea?

[00:02:24] Yes. Okay. Yeah.

[00:02:28] Should we tell everyone my big news?

[00:02:30] Yeah.

[00:02:31] That we have learned that I am a soul star.

[00:02:35] I was like, I'm not exactly sure what news but I want to know.

[00:02:39] I'm a soul star.

[00:02:41] And I'm just apparently this means I'm at the highest shocker level.

[00:02:47] Are you going to explain anything? You're just going to leave that there for people.

[00:02:50] And my purpose in life is to clean the bad energy from the earth as a soul star. I'm basically divine is what it means.

[00:03:04] You're like the best vacuum cleaner on the market, essentially.

[00:03:09] And I am.

[00:03:11] Are you going to put this in there?

[00:03:12] I'm honored.

[00:03:14] Without any explanation?

[00:03:16] What am I supposed to say?

[00:03:18] Don't say any of it. Take it all out.

[00:03:20] Okay. All right. Fine. I'll see you go there.

[00:03:22] You can do it. I thought it was funny.

[00:03:23] No, leave it. Leave it. And then just let people be like what?

[00:03:26] That's fine. I'm good with that too.

[00:03:29] Okay.

[00:03:30] They don't need context.

[00:03:32] I explain what it means.

[00:03:34] They can Google it.

[00:03:36] Okay. That was silly.

[00:03:38] But anyway, deep breaths there Marissa.

[00:03:42] We are not meditating.

[00:03:44] Okay. I'm tired.

[00:03:46] I'm sorry.

[00:03:48] All right. Well, you know what?

[00:03:50] Yeah. It is my fault.

[00:03:52] You know what? Then let's just jump straight into our books

[00:03:54] so that we can just get this over with because you're so tired.

[00:03:57] Oh my goodness.

[00:03:59] That was real passive aggressive.

[00:04:01] I really didn't mean it to be.

[00:04:03] Let's just get this going so that you can leave since you're having such a terrible time.

[00:04:08] We'll just, yeah, we can just hurry up and get it going.

[00:04:11] So you can leave.

[00:04:13] It did sound super passive aggressive.

[00:04:15] And I didn't mean it that way.

[00:04:17] I'm not a passive person.

[00:04:19] I'm on a higher level than passive aggression.

[00:04:22] All right.

[00:04:24] Am I telling you about my book?

[00:04:26] Yeah, why don't you go ahead and go first?

[00:04:28] Okay. I really liked my book.

[00:04:30] It was good.

[00:04:32] It is called Ready or Not by Karabastone.

[00:04:34] It came out in February of this year.

[00:04:36] Okay.

[00:04:38] I've never read anything about her.

[00:04:40] No, I don't know that author.

[00:04:42] But I really liked the, it's like they're strolling in New York.

[00:04:45] Yes. I have seen that cover recently because I was like, oh, I love all the leaves.

[00:04:47] It was, it's a pretty cover.

[00:04:49] But the story was really great because I obviously just had a child and it centers around that type of topic.

[00:04:55] And so I was like, oh, maybe I'll enjoy this.

[00:04:57] And it was just the characters were so great and just rich.

[00:05:01] Yes.

[00:05:03] She was funny, but in like a witty way, not over the top.

[00:05:06] And whoever the narrator was was just really, really great.

[00:05:11] Alex Finkie.

[00:05:13] Alex Fink.

[00:05:15] Anyway, I loved her.

[00:05:17] I'm not married or either.

[00:05:19] Yeah.

[00:05:21] So the main character is Eve Hatch and Eve lives in New York.

[00:05:25] Her best friend is Willa and they've been best friends since they were young children.

[00:05:31] They live somewhere in the Midwest and they moved to New York together like years prior.

[00:05:38] And at the beginning of the story, Eve finds out that she's pregnant.

[00:05:44] And she's not in the relationship.

[00:05:47] She actually hasn't had any type of sexual relations with anyone in at least over a year.

[00:05:54] She went out prior to getting pregnant.

[00:05:58] Sorry.

[00:06:00] Oh, okay.

[00:06:02] I was like, so she's the Virgin Mary.

[00:06:04] No, sorry.

[00:06:06] I'm sorry.

[00:06:08] So prior to getting pregnant.

[00:06:09] And then she goes out with, who happens to just got out of like a 10 year relationship with his girlfriend.

[00:06:15] And it's the night that he moves into Will and her husband's house.

[00:06:18] And they're like, let's go out.

[00:06:20] Eve never goes out.

[00:06:22] She doesn't do really anything.

[00:06:24] She's a real homebody.

[00:06:26] She doesn't have a lot of relationships.

[00:06:28] They go out.

[00:06:30] She has to go back into the bar that they were in for something after Willa and Shep leave in a cab.

[00:06:33] Did she leave a scarf?

[00:06:35] Cause that's what happened in the last book that you told me about.

[00:06:36] And I can't remember why she went back in.

[00:06:40] She starts talking to the bartender and she ends up going home with him and like have like a one night stay with the bartender.

[00:06:46] Okay.

[00:06:48] I thought you were going to tell me that it was Shep's baby.

[00:06:50] Nope.

[00:06:52] So she knows for a fact that it is the bartender's baby because she hasn't had sex in over a year at this point.

[00:06:58] She's trying to figure out what to do.

[00:07:01] She knows she wants to keep the baby.

[00:07:02] The sad part is Willa and her husband have been trying for a baby for a long time and haven't been able to conceive.

[00:07:08] And so she thinks that Willa's still going to be her person.

[00:07:12] And like, even though she's sad about it, she's going to, you know, she's her family.

[00:07:18] Yeah.

[00:07:20] And Willa's pretty upset.

[00:07:22] Yeah.

[00:07:24] Not upset with Eve.

[00:07:26] Right.

[00:07:28] And during that time that she tells her she kind of backs off a little bit just because she's upset.

[00:07:32] Because I think she's so hurt herself from not being able to have a child of her.

[00:07:38] Right.

[00:07:40] So Shep at this point is still living with Willa and her husband and has really no, he has like a really good job.

[00:07:48] He's like super smart, but he has like no real thought of him getting his own place.

[00:07:52] He's like, yeah, I mean, I think Willa and her, they like me being here.

[00:07:55] Willa was like, he needs to move out.

[00:07:56] Yeah.

[00:07:58] So anyways, it's just this really cute story of her trying to figure out like the nine months of pregnancy.

[00:08:06] She ends up telling the bartender Ethan and getting his reaction.

[00:08:10] And we kind of see how their relationship develops.

[00:08:12] And there's some, there's some stuff going on there, not necessarily.

[00:08:17] I don't want to say it's romantic or anything like that.

[00:08:20] There's just some interesting things that play out.

[00:08:22] Yeah.

[00:08:24] There's interesting stuff with Shep and some things that come to light there.

[00:08:26] And so she has all of these really great relationships with these people who love her so much.

[00:08:35] And I think in her mind, she knows that, but she feels throughout this process that she's kind of on her own.

[00:08:41] Yeah.

[00:08:43] Until she really starts to think back on all the times that people have come to her aid when she needed them.

[00:08:46] And it's just like a really feel good situation.

[00:08:47] She doesn't think that she's going to be able to do it on her own.

[00:08:52] And then she realized she does have a village of people.

[00:08:55] One thing about her, so she's, I don't know, like 14 years younger than her oldest brother.

[00:09:02] Like she was like a, I think an accident baby.

[00:09:05] Her parents had passed away when she was in college as they were older and they both ended up passing away pretty close to each other.

[00:09:11] So Willa and Shep really are her family.

[00:09:14] Right.

[00:09:15] And their mother had passed away in the last year and I think that was another mother to her.

[00:09:20] So it's kind of like she had all these people pass away.

[00:09:23] She's trying to figure out her life.

[00:09:25] She doesn't feel like an adult.

[00:09:27] And then now she's thrown into this situation where she's going to be a parent.

[00:09:29] And it's just laugh out loud funny.

[00:09:31] The situation she gets herself in, especially as she's like growing in pregnancy or just amusing in the thoughts that she has in her head.

[00:09:37] It's a lot of her talking to herself.

[00:09:39] And it's just really, really funny.

[00:09:40] And it's not a romance necessarily, but there are romantic elements obviously.

[00:09:48] I guess it's like women's fiction.

[00:09:51] But I really, I know I'm not like describing as anything super interesting, but it's just.

[00:09:57] It sounds really lovely.

[00:09:59] It was just a really lovely like, like a walk in central park type situation.

[00:10:02] And it sounds like an easy quick read.

[00:10:04] It was where I'm like, I can just throw this in in between, you know, some other books.

[00:10:11] It was, I just, yeah, I liked all the characters.

[00:10:14] I felt like they were all really well developed.

[00:10:16] I really liked everyone's relationships with each other.

[00:10:18] The ending was great.

[00:10:22] Yeah, the narrator fantastic.

[00:10:25] So just all around.

[00:10:27] Wonderful.

[00:10:29] Okay. Awesome. That's perfect.

[00:10:31] I can't wait to read this.

[00:10:32] Okay.

[00:10:34] I, as you know, before we started, couldn't really decide which book I was going to tell you about.

[00:10:39] So I'm going to tell you about one, but I'm also going to tell you that I finished.

[00:10:44] I'm not going to tell you about the book, but I finished just for the summer by Abby Jimenez.

[00:10:49] Okay.

[00:10:51] Thumbs up.

[00:10:53] I mean, as you can imagine, like I don't understand how just from like the very moment the book begins,

[00:11:00] I just feel completely immersed and like, these are my people.

[00:11:05] You know what I mean? She does such a good job of that.

[00:11:07] It wasn't my favorite of hers, but it was so good.

[00:11:11] Okay.

[00:11:13] So just letting you know that I read that and it's out there and you should read it soon.

[00:11:17] Okay, I will.

[00:11:19] But the book I am going to tell you about is a little unorthodox because this is the seventh in a series

[00:11:24] and normally I wouldn't say like, go read this book.

[00:11:27] Is this the first one you've read in a series?

[00:11:28] No, I've read all of them.

[00:11:30] Okay. This is the Cormorant Strike series by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling.

[00:11:35] Yeah.

[00:11:37] But this was 35 hours long.

[00:11:39] Holy cow.

[00:11:41] So you did one a long time ago?

[00:11:44] Did I?

[00:11:46] Yeah, because I remember doing the social media for it.

[00:11:49] Oh, I don't even remember that.

[00:11:51] It was the cover has like a girl with a clock tower in the background.

[00:11:54] I have no idea which one that is.

[00:11:56] Okay. I didn't know if it was so is it?

[00:11:59] Hold on.

[00:12:01] Is it a continuation of the same?

[00:12:03] Yeah, so it's not separate stories with separate.

[00:12:05] It's all same characters.

[00:12:07] It's the same characters, but there's like a new case.

[00:12:09] The cuckoo's calling.

[00:12:11] Yeah.

[00:12:13] Okay.

[00:12:15] Well, I didn't know I did that one, but anyway, the whole series is absolutely excellent.

[00:12:18] Like definitely read all of them if you're into like their private investigators.

[00:12:24] Right.

[00:12:26] But this one was particularly fun, I guess, because it involved a cult.

[00:12:32] Ooh, fun.

[00:12:34] Yeah. Okay.

[00:12:36] I know we're both into cults which is super weird, but you know whatever.

[00:12:39] So basically Cormoran and Robin who are the two main detectives, main investigators,

[00:12:46] they have a client come to them and the client says that his son has been in this cult for the last few years.

[00:12:56] And they haven't really been able to communicate with him.

[00:13:00] They've only seen him once or twice and they really want to get him out.

[00:13:05] His mom has just died and like it's been enough time.

[00:13:10] They need to get him out of this cult.

[00:13:14] The way that she, JK Rowling, like builds the world of this cult was just incredible to me.

[00:13:23] Like she created this whole religion with the drowned prophet and all of these things.

[00:13:30] And I'm like, how did her mind come up with this stuff?

[00:13:33] It was just amazing.

[00:13:35] There was this whole canon of the way this cult operates.

[00:13:39] So anyway, they have to get him out of this cult, but the only way that they feel that they can really do that is to ingrain someone,

[00:13:47] someone within their agency in the cult to be able to get close to him to try to like talk him down.

[00:13:54] So Robin decides that she is going to go join the cult and see if she can get close to Will,

[00:14:02] who's the guy that they want to get out and see if she can get him out.

[00:14:08] And it's pretty messed up.

[00:14:11] I'm not gonna lie.

[00:14:12] There was some crazy stuff that happens and she goes in for a couple months

[00:14:18] and like goes through the whole process and like goes to the farm where they are.

[00:14:23] It kind of screws her up a little bit.

[00:14:25] I mean, as you can imagine, like it's a straight cult and they're doing bad stuff.

[00:14:32] So yeah.

[00:14:35] Oh man, it was, um, it was a little hard to read at times just because it was pretty dark.

[00:14:42] But it was fascinating.

[00:14:44] Sure.

[00:14:46] And it was such a good story.

[00:14:49] Can you read it alone?

[00:14:51] Good question. You can.

[00:14:53] There is some backstory between Cormoran and Robin and some of the other investigators that you may not necessarily understand,

[00:15:01] but it's okay.

[00:15:03] I mean the main point is the case that they're investigating.

[00:15:08] Right.

[00:15:09] So all of them are like that they're standalone of a case that they're working on.

[00:15:13] Yeah, it's usually one or two cases.

[00:15:15] It's like one main case and then I'll have a few side cases as well.

[00:15:19] Um, but yeah, like so 35 hours long, I mean, I listened to it for like a week.

[00:15:25] But um, I never felt like, okay, this is dragging what like did this part really need to be in there?

[00:15:33] Like every single piece of it, I was like, oh man, I want more.

[00:15:36] Like I want more.

[00:15:37] That just tells you a lot about her writing.

[00:15:40] She's an incredible writer. I know there's some issues with her out there in the world.

[00:15:45] I'm not judging that.

[00:15:47] I'm only judging the work that she's done and I think it was pretty awesome.

[00:15:51] Yeah.

[00:15:53] And if you're into cults at all, then check it out.

[00:15:57] It's one to read.

[00:15:59] For sure.

[00:16:01] Cool.

[00:16:03] Talk about the tea?

[00:16:05] Yeah.

[00:16:06] Can I say something about it?

[00:16:08] Yeah, please do.

[00:16:10] So I took sips initially obviously cause I'm almost done with it.

[00:16:13] And the sips that I just took recently are a little more bitter.

[00:16:16] Are they?

[00:16:18] So it was delicious prior.

[00:16:20] We should take the bags out.

[00:16:22] I'm just letting you know in case you don't love it, it was real, real good.

[00:16:25] No, I have been sipping it and it's been good.

[00:16:28] Do you taste the bitterness now?

[00:16:30] Let me take another sip.

[00:16:32] A little bit.

[00:16:34] It's a little after.

[00:16:36] I'll get more bitterness.

[00:16:38] But I really liked it.

[00:16:40] So just a heads up for those who are wanting to drink this plum deluxe sweet spot black tea.

[00:16:46] Take the tea bag out so it doesn't get bitter.

[00:16:49] But I picked it because it said butterscotch on it and I was like, I think I'm in the mood for that.

[00:16:57] Especially because, oh, I have to tell you something that I did.

[00:17:02] It's a good thing not like a...

[00:17:04] Okay, let me talk about the tea first.

[00:17:06] So it's black tea, cacao nibs, apple pieces, rose hips, calendula, vanilla and butterscotch essence.

[00:17:13] And it's delicious.

[00:17:16] So I picked butterscotch because I have been listening also to the Harry Potter books on audio.

[00:17:24] Did I tell you what I did with those?

[00:17:25] Okay, so here in America, we have the Jim Dale versions of the audio books and I don't love his versions.

[00:17:33] What does that mean?

[00:17:35] He's an narrator.

[00:17:37] In the UK, they get the Stephen Fry versions.

[00:17:41] You know who Stephen Fry is?

[00:17:43] So like British comedian.

[00:17:45] Well, I've always wanted the Stephen Fry versions.

[00:17:48] But we can't get them here in the United States.

[00:17:51] I know it's like a regional thing.

[00:17:55] It's weird.

[00:17:57] It's ridiculous, but it is what it is.

[00:17:59] But I decided I'm just going to trick the system.

[00:18:01] So...

[00:18:03] You changed your location?

[00:18:05] Yeah, I did a VPN in London.

[00:18:10] Only you?

[00:18:12] Created a new Audible account through audible.co.uk instead of audible.com.

[00:18:19] And then it made me put an address in there, like a billing address.

[00:18:24] So I just literally opened Google Maps and picked a random business and put that as my address.

[00:18:30] You should have picked a bookstore.

[00:18:32] Well, you know, I just... That did not matter to me at the time.

[00:18:36] Are they going to get a bill in the mail?

[00:18:38] No, because nothing's going to go to that address.

[00:18:41] How funny would that be?

[00:18:42] And so the only thing was I couldn't purchase the books with my credit card because the billing address for my credit card is in the United States.

[00:18:51] So instead, I gifted from my original Audible account, I gifted myself six credits to the UK Audible account.

[00:19:00] Oh, my Jamie infinite wisdom.

[00:19:02] I know. I know. It's pretty brilliant, right?

[00:19:05] I am fully aware how ridiculous all of this is.

[00:19:09] Oh my gosh.

[00:19:10] I love it.

[00:19:12] However, it has been so one like the Stephen Fry versions are freaking awesome.

[00:19:19] Wow.

[00:19:21] Wow.

[00:19:23] It's like everything I imagined in my head when I was reading the books as a kid, he just nails it.

[00:19:28] It's amazing.

[00:19:30] So worth all of the hour of work that I went through to get them.

[00:19:33] Anyway, all of that to say that Harry Potter is on my mind. They drink butter beer and Harry Potter. I saw butterscotch. That's what I wanted.

[00:19:46] Connection.

[00:19:48] Yeah. There you go.

[00:19:50] Well, it was delicious. What a great connection. Thank you.

[00:19:53] You're so welcome.

[00:19:55] I know you really wanted to hear all of that information.

[00:19:57] I mean, I'm I'm impressed.

[00:19:59] It's impressive.

[00:20:00] I think Harry is very clearly being facetious right now.

[00:20:03] No, no, no.

[00:20:05] If you can't see her face.

[00:20:07] It's so impressive. No, no.

[00:20:09] That's how do I make my face genuine?

[00:20:12] I think that's amazing.

[00:20:15] I do.

[00:20:18] Anyways, only you though.

[00:20:21] Yeah. Who else would go to such lengths for an audio book?

[00:20:26] I don't know.

[00:20:28] Seven audiobooks.

[00:20:30] You're a standalone.

[00:20:32] I'm one of a kind.

[00:20:34] Yeah. Soul star that I am.

[00:20:36] Correct.

[00:20:38] Okay, well thank you for talking books with me.

[00:20:41] Of course. Cheers.

[00:20:43] Thanks for listening.

[00:20:45] Be sure to check out the show notes for the full list of books we discussed today.

[00:20:48] You can find that in your podcast app or on our website, IntrinkersPodcast.com.

[00:20:54] And please support us by subscribing anywhere you listen to podcasts and leaving a review.

[00:20:58] You can find us on Instagram and on Twitter at IntrinkersPod.

[00:21:03] Cheers.