✌️ A Chill Treatise on Mood Reading — 17 Recs with Rachel Ropeik
Hello, and welcome to pleasure reading. I'm your host, Amelia Hruby, and this is a podcast about the pleasure of reading, where I share curated reading lists, author rankings, chats with my bookish friends, and more. If you too take pleasure in reading, I hope that you will subscribe and share the show with a friend. Cheers to your next best book. Hello.
Amelia Hruby:Hello, and welcome to Pleasure Reading. I'm Amelia Hruby, and on this podcast, I share curated book lists on a variety of themes as well as occasional conversations with my favorite bookish friends. If you're an astute listener, you may have noticed that it has been, I think, over two months since our last episode. And that was for many reasons. A lot of stuff was happening in my personal life, but one of those reasons was also that in May, I hit a reading slump.
Amelia Hruby:Now, do I think reading slumps are a real thing? I am not so sure. I feel like they're very overhyped in the bookish community, or they, like, tie our reading to productivity in a way I don't like. I want to be on the record to say that I think it's super normal to not read a book for weeks or months or maybe even years, and we don't have to call that a slump. I think reading slumps can be defined, like, by our personal relationships to reading.
Amelia Hruby:So for me, there were almost four weeks in May where I did not read a single book. I don't even think I read part of a book because I couldn't get interested in anything that I picked up, and that is extremely abnormal for me. So I'm calling it a reading slump. And the way I finally moved out of that was that over Memorial Day weekend, I did a bit of mood reading. So what is mood reading?
Amelia Hruby:Well, today, I am joined by a very wonderful guest to talk about mood reading, reading based on the vibe, and how we find books that suits our very specific moods. Let me introduce you to my guest, and then we'll dive in. Rachel Ropeik is a cultural catalyst and pirate who works with equal parts wisdom and whimsy.
Amelia Hruby:From navigating the halls of the Guggenheim, the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA, and more, to setting sail as a consultant changemaker, she blends thoughtful disruption and playful innovation in work with both cultural organizations and individuals. Rachel guides people towards surprise, equity, and productive encounters with the edges of their comfort zones.
Amelia Hruby:She leads adaptively, empathetically, and with refreshing directness and humor. Rachel is many kinds of nerd, fueling her work with omnivorous reading, dancing, baking, and global adventures. Antarctica is her only unvisited continent for now. And today on the podcast, Rachel and I are gonna talk about a few things. So we're gonna share some books we love and the exact mood that they are perfect for.
Amelia Hruby:We're gonna talk about how we find books and where we get book recommendations when we both don't really use social media. We're gonna talk a tiny bit about how we approach the books we're not enjoying and when we DNF or just, like, put a book down and don't finish it. So I'm super excited for this conversation. Hi, Rachel. Welcome to Pleasure Reading.
Rachel Ropeik:Hi, Amelia. Thank you. I feel like mood reading is, like, the only way that
Amelia Hruby:I read, so I'm really excited to get into this with you. Yes. Yes. So as a bit of backstory, you and I know each other from some online business things, and you sent me a really lovely email a few months ago now, essentially saying in my own words, like, Amelia, I also love to read. And I'm noticing that I do not read based on curated lists and projects like you do.
Amelia Hruby:Would you wanna talk about that for the podcast? And I was like, let's do it. So I'm so excited for this conversation. I'm curious if you wanna talk a little bit about, like, what does mood reading mean to you? Because I don't even think you used that phrase when you reached out to me.
Rachel Ropeik:No. I think it was your phrase, but I really like it. I feel like it is a really good phrase to encapsulate the way that I read. So I think, like, as you said in my bio and I say to people many times, I feel like I'm many kinds of nerd, which means I read a lot of weird random books, like nonfiction, fiction, like all different genres. For a while, I was trying to, like, read a book in French every so often to not get totally rusty.
Rachel Ropeik:That's fallen off. But, like, if you look at my bookshelf, it's like, here are, like, nerdy academic press, you know, deep academia nerd books about at the moment, it's a lot of pirate nerd books, but it's been a bunch of things. And then it's like, oh my god. Like, what's the new romance novel that I can read in, like, three seconds and just, like, be immersed in that world and, like, everything in between. And I would also say that part of mood rating for me is, like, when I finished a book, what mood am I in for the next one?
Rachel Ropeik:So it's a little bit what mood that book has left me in. And then do I wanna stay in that mood? Do I want a really different mood? Do I want, like, a new mood, you know, to stay in that family. It was just it was really interesting to think about it in that way, that I'm not necessarily always kind of picking a mood first and then picking a book to meet it.
Rachel Ropeik:But I am thinking about what mood am I in, what kind of book do I want for that mood.
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. I definitely think that I often similarly, like, reverse engineer the mood sort of, or it's like I might pick up a few things and then I realize like, oh, this is it right now because I'm feeling this way.
Rachel Ropeik:I would also say that I think sometimes I guess this isn't even mood. I don't know what the term for this is. It's like library waitlist reading.
Amelia Hruby:The mood is Libby.
Rachel Ropeik:Exactly. Right? It's the mood is what is available. I get a lot of stuff from the library. I actually try to only buy books that I've already read that I might want to read again because I have a tendency to buy books anyway, and so that's a helpful limit.
Rachel Ropeik:And so I'll try to get it from the library. And a lot of times that means that what I'm reading next depends on what is available from the library.
Amelia Hruby:Absolutely. I'm definitely really motivated by books being due back to the library. And most often, like, I am much more likely to read a book I got from the library than a book I bought because once it's on my shelf, it'll just be there forever. So I can just read it whenever I want. And somehow that means I never read it.
Amelia Hruby:It's like this really broken conundrum. It's kind of like if I buy a book, either I'm gonna read it within seventy two hours of entering the house, or it's gonna take me, like, two years to actually read it.
Rachel Ropeik:Yeah. I think you did an episode that was, like, wanting to read books that you already own. That was very relatable, Amelia.
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. And now that I'm saying this, I'm like, this is hilarious because of the books I'm gonna talk about today, two were from the library, and one is a book that I bought and read within twenty four hours of bringing it into my house. So the habits are still the same. Alright. Well, let's talk a little bit about some of the books that we wanted to share.
Amelia Hruby:And the idea I had for this essentially was that we would each bring, like, three books and talk about, like, the mood that they are perfect for or the mood we were in that got us to read them. So I'm gonna share three books that kind of helped me get out of my reading slump in different ways because they suited different aspects of the mood that was keeping me from reading. I know you're also gonna share three books that you've read recently and what mood brought you to them. So I'd love to pass it to you first. Could you tell us about your first book?
Rachel Ropeik:Sure. So the first one that I will say, which I just finished recently, is the antidote by Karen Russell. Kind of magical realism in relatively modern and contemporary times. That's kind of the vibe that she gives. And The Antidote, it's set in the dust bowl.
Amelia Hruby:In Nebraska. Right? It's set where I live. That's the only reason I've heard of this book.
Rachel Ropeik:It is it is Amelia's hometown. Well, not your hometown, but your home state. So it's set in the dust bowl in the Middle Of America, and it does have a magical realism element because one of the main characters that you follow through is a prairie witch, which is a type of person that goes around to mostly small towns. And in essence, the townspeople can go and pay the prairie witch to confess a memory, which could be a positive memory or a negative memory. And then the person who has that memory no longer remembers it.
Rachel Ropeik:And the idea with the prairie witch is that the prairie witch's magic means that they don't know the memory, but they hold the memory. So they're kind of holding it in their body without being consciously aware of it, and then the customer can come back at some future point and withdraw their deposit. And they're talked about as vaults. So there's this really interesting kind of idea about, like, what do traumatic memories do to our bodies and how we consciously remember or don't. And then there's the whole plot line about, like, a teenage girl who is playing girls basketball, which was like a real thing that was happening at the time.
Rachel Ropeik:And that's going on at the same time. And there's also a whole storyline about kind of how did these mostly European white immigrants come to be farming the middle of the country in such a way that the soil is no longer holding on to plants and they've run into the dust bowl. And so it also deals with some of the historical American ugliness of pushing indigenous people off their lands, of not using healthy farming techniques, of wanting to push down ugly memories. So it encapsulates a lot. And I feel like the mood that I would put to it, which I think I kind of applied retrospectively because I read it when it was available from the library.
Rachel Ropeik:So but I would say that the mood is sort of like, do you want a book that is, like, both magical realism and dealing with the realities of American history? And this does it in a really nice way. Like, there are some fun plot lines and some interesting plot lines, and you learn about history. And there's also some really deep and dark troubling plot lines. And it was sort of, like, a really nice mix.
Rachel Ropeik:And I love the way that it used the sort of magical realism element to be part of that.
Amelia Hruby:That's so interesting. Well, I'm immediately now, like, running to my library holds to actually read it. I had seen it come out. I saw it was set in Nebraska, and then it just kinda, passed me by in the sea of books.
Rachel Ropeik:Yeah. It was really good. Karen Russell, the antidote.
Amelia Hruby:This definitely sounds like the mood is, like, Midwestern historical magic.
Rachel Ropeik:It's like Midwestern historical magic plus trauma.
Amelia Hruby:It was also the way you're describing it really reminded me of the deep by Rivers Solomon because that book is set in a very different place underwater. But the general sense of, like, there's one member of a community who holds all of the memory and has to live with all of the trauma. And then in that book, there's sort of, like, an annual event where the memories are shared among the community and everyone has to feel it and live it, and then they're all given back to that one person. So, essentially, like, the people can just go through their lives and feel okay, but this one person holds all the memories. That feels sort of like the vault concept.
Rachel Ropeik:Yes. It's it also reminded me a little bit of the giver by Lois Lowry, which I loved when I was younger, which is still worth a reread. I've reread it as an adult, and it's great.
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. That's a beautiful, like, sort of constellation of books that we've pulled together there. And, yes, I will definitely be reading The Antidote by Karen Russell. Thank you. Okay.
Amelia Hruby:For my first share, I'm gonna totally change the mood. And I think I'm gonna cheat a little bit because it's kind of two books. But when I was, like, really deep in that reading slump, and I was like, I don't like anything. For me, that's when I really turned to genre fiction because I'm like, okay. When I feel like I am not enjoying my reading, I don't have the energy or the attention to spend that much time building a new world.
Amelia Hruby:I want a book that's gonna give me that, like, immediate payoff, that immediate good feeling. And for me, those are always gonna be thrillers or romance. Like, those are my two genres where I go for that sort of, like, easy reading. Even though some of those books are about, like, really complex topics, it's not that they're quote, unquote easy books, but I can get into them easier myself. So my first recommendation for the mood is problematic summer romance by Allie Hazelwood.
Amelia Hruby:So this is her brand new book. It just came out, and it's the second book in a series. That's another way I motivate myself. And if I'm in a sort of slump, if I can, like, go to a series I already enjoyed, that sort of pulls me through. So the mood I was in before I read this book was like, I hate everything, and I don't know if I like books anymore.
Amelia Hruby:So I read problematic summer romance by Ali Hazelwood. And this is an age gap romance. It's the first age gap romance that Ali Hazelwood has written. She became famous for writing what they called steminist romance, which was like women in stem feminist romance. She became famous for those, and then she sort of shifted her purview a little bit.
Amelia Hruby:So she wrote a book called Not in Love that was sort of set at a tech company and was more of an erotic romance than her other books have been. And this book follows that book, and it tells the story of this romance between Maya, who is 23, and Connor, who is 38, and is one of her older brother's best friends and business partners, and how they become friends and then build a relationship, and then, like, how they try to avoid that because of the problematic age gap, but they end up at a wedding, I think, in Italy or in Tuscany or Sicily or something like that in the summer, and what happens and unfolds there. So I am not always a fan of an age gap. I'm actually pretty skeptical about age gap romances, especially, like, so many of them are, like, teacher student dynamics that I really don't like. That's, a big ick for me personally.
Amelia Hruby:But I trust Allie Hazelwood so implicitly with how she writes and how she constructs characters and intimacy in her books, and I loved problematic summer romance. It totally worked for me. There was, like, a lot of care paid to, like, how this age gap came to be, what happens, and not only the relationship between the two main characters, but all the people around them and how there was a sort of, like, community support for true love. So so that's all to say. I came to this book because I was just, like, not in the mood to read, and I couldn't find anything I liked.
Amelia Hruby:But I think where it ended me, like, mood I left it with was just this real sense of the many ways that intimacy and romance can come into our lives. And I just felt, like, fun and frilly by the end, I suppose, which did get me on my reading slump a bit.
Rachel Ropeik:I feel like summer wedding in Italian countryside, you could put anything in there, and I would probably enjoy it. And I do. You know, it's funny as you were saying that. I think you have read I mean, I will I will read a romance if it comes recommended. Absolutely.
Rachel Ropeik:One of my good friends is all romance all the time. She's like an encyclopedia of romance. I'm not in any way down on romance. But I will say I have not read that many of them overall, and I'm trying to think, are there any that are good where the age gap goes in the other direction? Like, if it's a hetero couple where the woman is older and the man is younger.
Rachel Ropeik:I don't know of any.
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. I mean, I read and watched the movie for the idea of you, which is, like, supposed to be Harry Styles fanfic.
Rachel Ropeik:I I watched the movie. I did not read the book or the fanfic.
Amelia Hruby:I read the book. I think, actually, the author is on record saying it's not about Harry Styles, but the general public 100 believes it is.
Rachel Ropeik:I'm one of the general public.
Amelia Hruby:So I read that, and then I also know that Meryl Wilsner wrote a queer age gap between two women. And I think I forget the name of that book. I'll put it in the show notes, but that sort of takes on this trope from a different perspective.
Rachel Ropeik:I'm gonna take that cue to go for another queer romance, but different. I would not classify this as a romance novel, but it has a queer romance as a central plot line. Great. It's the Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley. And this one just came out this year.
Rachel Ropeik:And Natasha Pulley has written other books, and I have loved them all. Anytime Natasha Pulley wants to write something new, I am there. She writes these historically set. They mostly have a queer romance element to them. Some of them have been connected.
Rachel Ropeik:She wrote the first one that I read, which was kind of where I learned about her, is called the watchmaker of filigree street. And it's about, like, England and Japan and kind of imperial times and how these two empires are kind of interacting with each other. Just very interesting. Also magical realism. Maybe this is a through line.
Rachel Ropeik:I'm a sucker for magical realism. But the hymn to Dionysus is is, like, Dionysus, like it's said in ancient Greece. And the thing that I love so much, she has this tone to her writing that is always kind of, like, a very contemporary voice to it. So she's not, like, trying to write historical time periods where, you know, it's trying to model the language, I guess. And so this is Phaedros is the main character, and he is delightful.
Rachel Ropeik:And he's from Thebes. And because I'm also an academic nerd about, like, the history of, like, men and queerness and menswear, that was part of what grad school was, the Theban band is interesting to me. This was sort of like the ancient Greek Theban soldiers where they had these very, very close, sometimes indeed lovers, although I don't think that was, like, required bonds between age gap, older man, and younger man.
Amelia Hruby:Very Greek.
Rachel Ropeik:Yeah. It was like the older man soldier who, like, trained the younger man, from a very young age to and then they had this really tight bond, and it was part of what made the Theban band kind of such fierce soldiers because they were all literally fighting with and for people that were very important to them. So Phedros is one of these people, and he's the main character. And he is basically dealing with kind of the the city of Thebes kind of falling apart around him. Like, the politics is messy.
Rachel Ropeik:It's dealing with the queen of Thebes is kind of trying all these different things to maintain control. And at the same time, this new kind of mysterious witch comes to town. And the witch is basically Dionysus, the god of wine and revels. And this is also a book about, like, if you bury all of your problems, they will come back and cause you trouble. And in this case, there's sort of Dionysus who comes to town.
Rachel Ropeik:And through kind of, like, witchy supernatural means, people are trying to kind of express some of this inner wildness or inner kind of bacchanalia. And when the political situation of the time tries to squash that down, more problems happen. So Phedros and Dionysus are the couple that I mean, it's not really a spoiler that they get together. It's in the summary. But it is really interesting to kind of see.
Rachel Ropeik:Again, I think it's it is a queer romance, and it has this very kind of contemporary tone to it and contemporary voice. And I also ended up learning more about ancient Greece and the different gods and symbolism and ritual traditions. And I would say the mood for this one is kind of, like, unhinged historical catharsis. Woah. Which I loved.
Rachel Ropeik:The Hymn to Dionysus, Natasha Pulley, also anything else that Natasha Pulley has written, but I really enjoyed this one.
Amelia Hruby:Wow. Okay. I love that mood. Unhinged historical catharsis. It's reminding me of another book that I'd imagine you've read that I have not read yet, is the song of Achilles.
Amelia Hruby:Yes. Does it feel in that same vein?
Rachel Ropeik:Yes. I would say Madeline Miller is another one. Anything she wrote Song of Achilles. Anything you wanna read by Madeline Miller, wonderful. I would say Madeline Miller's books are a little bit more like, straight down the middle makes it sound like it's blah, and they're not blah.
Rachel Ropeik:But they're more straightforwardly, like, here is a historical retelling of this figure from Greek myths. Whereas I would say Natasha Polley and especially in this book, like, she is kind of taking that as the jumping off point, but then she's inventing a lot more. I mean, she does a ton of research, and she always talks about it in her afterward. But this one is the unhinged part is more Natasha Polley than Madeline Miller.
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. I would never describe Madeline Miller as unhinged on any level in her fiction at least. It's also, if we wanna go way more unhinged, the other thing it reminded me of was the Dark Olympus series by Katie Robert, which is essentially just like a smutty retelling of various Greek god stories, but set in more of like a urban fantasy setting. So the setup is that, like, there is Olympus, and there's the underworld, and there's the River Styx, but they're just like cities. And they're just across the bridge from each other, and there's like, you know, all of the major pantheon of gods in Olympus, and there's some gods in the underworld, and then there are all of these very sexual relationships between various players.
Amelia Hruby:So the most recent one I read was Dionysus focused, so it reminded me of this.
Rachel Ropeik:I am running to put it on my to read list this moment.
Amelia Hruby:Okay. Let me share another one of my mood reads. So the next book that I'm bringing to this episode is actually a book that I would have told you I was not in the mood for when I started reading it. But the reason I started reading it is because my local library every summer has this sort of sort of like a book competition for what they call one book, one Lincoln, which is where there's a committee that picks 10 books over the course of a year from a bunch of reader recommendations through the libraries, and then that committee reads the 10 books, and they narrow it down to three. And on Memorial Day, they have an event where they announce the three books of the summer, and then the city reads them and votes.
Amelia Hruby:And on Labor Day, they, tell us which one won with the most votes, and that's one book win Lincoln for the next year. So it's pretty common across many libraries, but that's how it's done here.
Rachel Ropeik:Libraries are the best.
Amelia Hruby:All three books were announced on Memorial Day. It was James by Percival Everett, The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton, and Dust Child by Nguyen Fonke May. And I started with The Light Pirate. That was my first pick. And this is a literary fiction leaning into, like, speculative fiction.
Amelia Hruby:I see it labeled as science fiction, but I think that's incorrect. It is a climate change book. It is set in Florida, and we meet this young family as a hurricane is approaching. And the hurricane brings massive tragedy into their lives. And then we meet this young girl named Wanda who was born during that hurricane.
Amelia Hruby:We watch her grow up as Florida is essentially, like, submerged by the sea because climate change is ravaging the planet. And it is beautifully written. It is heartbreaking. It is both like a hard read and a super propulsive compelling read. Like, I both felt like I couldn't put it down, and I absolutely wanted to put it down.
Amelia Hruby:It was one of those, like, real tension. Like, it was hard to read this because it felt so real. And at the same time, like, I had to keep reading because I had to know what happened. So because I was in this reading slump, I was like, I don't wanna read distressing literary fiction. That sounds awful.
Amelia Hruby:But I think that for me, like, the mood was actually, like, I wanted to feel connected in my reading. And so my mom was reading this book. My aunt was reading this book. Everybody at the library is reading this book. And I'm like, okay.
Amelia Hruby:Well, then I'll read this book. Like, actually, what I was craving was that ability to talk to some people about the book I was reading who'd already read it. Right? Like, I started pleasure reading because I wanted to talk about the books I read, but sometimes I want people to talk back at me. So my I think my mood was that I was feeling disconnected, and I was feeling a bit isolated in my reading.
Amelia Hruby:And so I read this book, and by the end, I truly felt, like, transformed. Like, I think that it's height. That's what literature does. It transforms us. It changes how we see ourselves, how we see the world, and this book absolutely did that for me.
Amelia Hruby:And so I just, like, highly recommend the light pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton.
Rachel Ropeik:Also, it has the word pirate in the title. I love anything to do with pirates.
Amelia Hruby:So Yes. I really would like to know where the title came from because it's not obviously outlined, but it's a beautiful read.
Rachel Ropeik:It's funny because as you were talking, you were making me think about the annihilation trilogy from Jeff VanderMeer, which is also Florida and kind of, like, supernatural slash question mark speculative fiction, not sure what's happening. It's not, I would say, as obviously about climate change, but I think the the themes of sort of unrestrained mysterious changes to the world around us are very much there. And I loved those books. I mean, this sounds wonderful. Much more realistic than Jeff VanderMeer.
Amelia Hruby:There is a little bit of a magical realism aspect, but I'd say they're more dystopian than they are supernatural in any way.
Rachel Ropeik:I feel like based on the two books that I have talked about so far, it sounds like I only read magical realism. And that's not true, but I do love magical realism. But it's not required. So
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. Beautiful. Well, I think you love this book. And alright, what is your third recommendation?
Rachel Ropeik:You know, I think I I have to go with something that is not magical realism to prove that I do read some other things. Because you were talking about the mood of wanting a book that would make you feel connected. This was a book it's it's we will rest, exclamation point, colon, the art of escape from Tricia Hersey, who is the Knapp bishop, leader of the Knapp ministry, which if you are not aware, do yourself a favor, everyone listening to this, and go look up her wonderful work. She's an artist and a poet, and she is also kind of a social activist. And she has created these NAP interventions that are especially aimed at black women and acknowledging the amount of uncelebrated and unacknowledged labor that black women do and have always done in our country.
Rachel Ropeik:And so making space for them to rest. And she has these collective nap events, and she talks about the importance of rest. And I love her work. I am not a black woman, but I think the way that she talks about not wanting to be swallowed up by hustle culture and grind culture is wonderful. And she wrote the first book that she published was Rest is Resistance, which was more of a kind of straightforward manifesto, which I also read and also really enjoyed.
Rachel Ropeik:But this one, we will rest again, also, I love that it has so much punctuation. It's we will rest, exclamation point, colon, the art of escape. This one is really like, this one kind of rung a chord with me because it's really all about kind of the trickster energy of finding room to rest and to escape. And it's also beautiful. Like, this book is small.
Rachel Ropeik:It's beautifully illustrated. It also plays with the font and typography. So it's like one I bought. This one was not a library. It was like, I to own this as an object.
Rachel Ropeik:And it's more kind of short chapters, some of which are about historical examples of black people who have found ways to rest and kind of been tricksters. Some of them are kind of motivational, like, here is a thing that you can try, suggested activity. And some of them are just kind of beautifully written observations about rest. And they also taught I mean, it's not just about, like, take a nap. It's rest as a larger concept and the idea of doing things collectively so that you don't need to take on all of the work yourself and kind of finding alternatives in a world that does not encourage alternatives.
Rachel Ropeik:But I would say the mood of it is very much I just wanted to feel kind of like there's a way forward in a moment where that is hard to find. And I'm really thinking about that a lot these days about Krista Tippett, who is the host of On Being. She talks about it as muscular hope and that hope is sort of a muscular choice. And I feel like Trisha Hersey is a really great example of that. Like, she is actively finding rest and positivity, and I just, like, needed that.
Amelia Hruby:I love it. I need to get a copy of this. I have read rest is a resistance, but I didn't even clock that she had a new book. So I'm excited to learn about it.
Rachel Ropeik:She also has a really lovely deck of cards, the rest deck, which I also have.
Amelia Hruby:Gorgeous. We'll link it all in the show notes. Well, my final book, once again, is radically different than what you just talked about. Last weekend, I found myself in, like, a very specific mood. So I feel like the two moods I've talked about before, like so, again, all these books kind of helped me cure a reading slump.
Amelia Hruby:Like, I read problematic summer romance because I just needed a sort of smutty, easy to read book that could bring me back into reading when everything sounded bad. And then I read the light pirate because I wanted to feel connected to other readers, and that happened to be this community experience. But this past weekend, I kind of found myself over, like, the hump of my reading slump. I was, like, enjoying reading again. And I had a lot of books from the library, but I couldn't pick which one I wanted to read.
Amelia Hruby:And I knew we were having this conversation, so was like, okay. Cool. Let me actually think about my mood. Let me, like, plan in advance. What the what is the mood and what is the book I want?
Amelia Hruby:So when I sat down to think about that, I was like, okay, I want something kind of escapist. Like, I don't want something that's, like, set in the real world. I don't wanna be dealing with, like, real world issues, quote, unquote. I do a lot of that in my reading, in my life, but I wanted a book that wasn't gonna do that for the weekend. And then I was like, I would also love a book that is set in the winter because it's hot, and I'm not really feeling this humidity right now.
Amelia Hruby:So, like, can I find a book that is, like, out of this world and set in the winter? And then I was like and it also needs to be super plot driven because I was having, like, a smooth brain weekend. I was not trying to, like, spend a 100 pages feeling into a book. Like, I wanted it to drop me in the middle of the story. So I picked up this sci fi space thriller that I don't even know why it ended up in my library holds.
Amelia Hruby:I don't remember who told me about this book. But it was perfectly suited to that mood, and I read through the whole thing in less than two days. So that book was Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes, which is a pen name for Stacy Cade, who's written some romance and other things under her given name.
Amelia Hruby:In this book, we meet this psychologist, doctor Ophelia Bray, who is studying this, like, syndrome that happens with people who live in space. So we're in this world where humans have, like, terraformed beyond Earth, and some people live on space stations, some people live on different planets, some people still live on Earth, but they, like, live all over the universe. And this psychologist is studying this, like, mental illness essentially that, like, causes people to have a sort of, like, mental break if they spend too much time in space. And so she is sent to this planet with a research team that has recently suffered a loss, and her job is to, like, make sure they're all okay so it doesn't escalate into more violence. There's lot of tension between the crew and her.
Amelia Hruby:They find some stuff on the planet that is, like, very questionable, and it's snowing the whole time because it's super cold. So this was like the perfect plot driven escapist space winter read for me when I was just like trying to escape summer from my couch. And it's also one of those funny things. I'd love to know if you experienced this. Like, this book was perfect for my mood.
Amelia Hruby:So it was like a five stars in the sense, like, it's exactly what I wanted at that moment. But do I think it's like a five star read writ large? Like, do I think I would recommend it to anyone and everyone, or it's like an amazing work of literature? Like, no. But it was just so perfect for what I needed in that moment, and that's what I love about mood reading the most.
Rachel Ropeik:I agree. And I think of a five star read as I really loved this, and it's something that I will keep thinking about when I'm done. And so I like that you're bringing up that difference because I agree. Sometimes it's like the totally immersive, like, winter in space from your hot couch is like, that's exactly the right thing and you super enjoy it. Like, am I gonna keep thinking about that long term?
Rachel Ropeik:I don't know. But, yeah, I you're you're making me doubt again. Like, maybe I should be including that in five stars.
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. I think my, like, most controversial take about star systems is like, there's like one star, five star, and then just muck in between. Like, either the book was extraordinary, it was awful, or it, like, fell into a range of, like, good enough that I finished it. Maybe I even really liked it, but it will never elevate to, this five star level. And I want to be more generous with my ratings, but also be honest about how many books can really stick with me.
Amelia Hruby:I think it's so subjective. It's very rare that I will say something like this book was bad. And there are some books that have been published that I think are just straight up bad. But more often than not, I try to couch it in just a sort of like, it wasn't my mood or it's not a topic for me.
Rachel Ropeik:I would say those tend to be the books that I just won't finish. Like, if I start it and I'm like, this is not for me or this is bad, that's when I'll put a book down. I have no qualms about putting a book down. I don't feel like I can, like, add it to my, you know, StoryGraph or Goodreads or you know? I although StoryGraph has a did not finish option, which I appreciate.
Rachel Ropeik:But I feel like my problem is when it comes to rating, like, if it's a one star book, I'll just stop reading it. Like, I'm not gonna finish a book that I would rate one star.
Amelia Hruby:This has been really hard for me. I am a completionist by nature in a funny sort of way. And so quitting a book historically was something I never did. But now that I read so much more, like now that I'm averaging two or three books a week, I feel like I just don't have time to finish books I'm not enjoying. And that said, I do track the ones I don't finish because on a few occasions, I have forgotten that I started and purposely didn't finish a book and then started it again and then been annoyed that I did it twice.
Amelia Hruby:So I like to keep track of which ones I put down.
Rachel Ropeik:That's a smart idea. I definitely will stop a book if I am getting angry while I read it. Like, angry at the book. Like, whether that's, like, it's bad writing or the content is not content that I'm responding to. And I recognize all of these things are subjective.
Rachel Ropeik:I'm a real snob about, like, the quality of the writing, and that is entirely subjective. And so sometimes I will pick up a book that other people have said this was great, and I'm like, don't like the writing. Sorry. I have to say before I forget that if if you liked it was Ghost Station. Right?
Rachel Ropeik:Natasha Pulley wrote a book on Mars that you might like.
Amelia Hruby:Hell yeah. Hell yeah.
Rachel Ropeik:It's called The Mars House. It was her, I think, her last book. And it it includes some, like, snow and and mammoths and cold, so you could save it for a summertime read. It's, like, not totally smooth brain, but it was much more like there was not, like, learning about ancient Greece involved. It's like they're on Mars, and and it's more about, like, different people.
Rachel Ropeik:It's like in the future, and they're depending on whether they were raised on Earth and then, like, moved to Mars or whether they were natively born on Mars, their gravity and weight is hugely different. And so it creates this kind of class system based on how much mass your body has. And, like, it was an interesting reflection on kind of the different ways that we classify people and the different ways that we make judgments based on people's bodies, but kind of using a very different metric. It's like how dense are your bones?
Amelia Hruby:Wild bone density as a sorting mechanism for wow. Okay. Blowing my mind. That sounds fascinating. Okay.
Amelia Hruby:Rachel, my final question for you is maybe three questions. So I'm curious, like, how you have found some of your favorite books, these ones you told us about today or otherwise, and how you, like, keep track of books you want to read when you maybe are sort of, like, getting recommendations from a lot of places.
Rachel Ropeik:Yeah. It's funny because I've never really turned to social media for book recommendations. I mean, I think because I grew up reading before the Internet, so I got used to finding books before the Internet. I will say now some of the places are I listen to a ton of podcasts, and a number of them I don't listen to any that are specifically about books except for NPR's Book of the Day. And that is one place that I find book recs sometimes.
Rachel Ropeik:It's it's basically like a short it comes out every weekday, and it's like five to seven minutes, some NPR conversation with an author that probably aired on, you know, some other NPR show, and they just excerpt that conversation. So that one has been nice. And there are a few other places where, you know, they may occasionally review a book as part of, you know, being a podcast that is about larger pop culture. And so sometimes I will listen to those because I'm listening to those podcasts because I like the people and the vibe that they are bringing, and so I won't I tend to trust their book recommendations. I also get a couple of email subscriptions that are specifically about books.
Rachel Ropeik:Like, the New York Times has their read like the wind email that comes out once a week, and that's really nice for books that are older. Like, it's not so much focused on newly published books. And then there's a really fun substack newsletter called what to read if. Elizabeth Held is the woman who runs it, and she has like, they're always really fun titles that are, like, very specific moods she has. I I pulled a couple of fun ones recently.
Rachel Ropeik:It was like, what to read if you loved the Met Gala theme. Like, what to read if you've had a big night out go awry. Like, they're always you know, I think she's kind of, like, retroactively applying the mood, but they're really fun. And that's it's, like, very omnivorous and all over the place. So a couple of things like that.
Rachel Ropeik:And I honestly, like, I just have some friends who I ask them about reading, like, other friends that I know who read a lot.
Amelia Hruby:And do you, like, add all these books to a Goodreads TBR or something?
Rachel Ropeik:Yeah. I use Goodreads and StoryGraph, and so I will go and add a book that I wanna read to both of those places, like, pretty immediately. And then, you know, should a time come when there are no library holds in the queue, I will kind of go back and check that. I also have every August, I go up to Northern Maine for basically a reading vacation. It's like my parents have rented a house in Northern Maine for, like, twenty plus years, and we've done all the things that there are to do.
Rachel Ropeik:And I just bring a whole bunch of books and sit and read them. So that is often a place where I go and mine the TBR. Yeah. But it's kind of organic.
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. I think all of this makes so much sense. I can relate to a lot of the ways you find books and save them. Like, I am definitely a podcast listener. I subscribe to a lot of newsletters about books, and I love to talk to my friends who read a lot.
Amelia Hruby:I just think that, like, other people are the best source. And also, I when I go to the library, I peruse, like, all the tables, and I will regularly kind of pick up a book that, like, the librarians have put on the table to recommend, or I'll go to my local bookstore and find things there as well. And when I see a book I like, typically, the first thing I do is try to find it in my library holds. I prefer reading physically, so I'll use my actual local library app and see if I can put it on hold. And if it's not there, then I'll, like, add it to my list and story graph or something like that.
Rachel Ropeik:That's basically the exact process that I use. I love browsing a bookstore and adding things to my TBR.
Amelia Hruby:Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Pleasure Reading, Rachel. I really appreciate that you tune in to the show. I'm grateful you joined me to talk about mood reading and brought us a list of some of your favorite books and the moods that they suit. For listeners, you can find all of the books we talked about today in the show notes. Those links will take you to Rachel's bookshop page, where if you make a purchase, she'll receive a small thank you for the book rec.
Amelia Hruby:And, otherwise, there will be more episodes of pleasure reading coming soon. I am through my reading slump and can't wait to start making some new lists for all of us. So until next time, here's to your next best book.