A Journey to Three Pines - Episode 1: Still Life
Currently Reading
Meredith Schwartz
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2023
⏱️ 92 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are so excited to journey with you to Three Pines, the fictional French-Canadian village created by Louise Penny for her Three Pines series, featuring Detective Armand Gamache. This limited-edition podcast series will tackle each of the books in the series in turn, in a spoiler-FILLED format. Be sure you’ve read the book before listening to the episode.
As you’ve come to expect with all Currently Reading content, Meredith and Roxanna will follow a regular episode format, with regular segments, so you know what to expect each and every time. We love staying focused on the book, rather than conversational rabbit holes.
Show notes for this series will not be time-stamped, but will include links to Bookshop dot org or Amazon for any books or resources referenced in the episode. These are affiliate links, so they kick back a small percentage to us if you buy through them, and help support the work we do on Currently Reading.
3:50 - The Set Up
Still Life by Louise Penny
4:40 - Putting the Book Into Context
Louise Penny’s age at publication
Publisher rejection
Seasonal settings and Canadian Thanksgiving
Book Awards: CNA New Blood Dagger Award, Arthur Ellis Award, Dilys Award, Anthony Award for Best First Novel
The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
Glass Houses by Louise Penny
How did it sell
Meredith and Roxanna’s first encounters with the series
No other titles for this volume (but many do have alternates!)
12:17 - A Deeper Exploration
First few paragraphs
Louise’s writing style and character introduction
Our first meeting with Gamache
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Oddness Factor
Diagnosing the end
Exploration of human nature
Overarching themes
Still Life and Still Lives
Pacing
Is this is a cozy?
50:50 - What Do We Need to Know?
Village of Three Pines
Canadian History
59:28 - Superlatives
Biggest flaw or disappointment
Language around LGBT characters and large bodies
Favorite scene
Best food description
Character MVP
Biggest loser
Favorite foods
1:12:23 - Within the Series
Pivotal or skippable
Favorite quote
1:16:03 - Stop to Avoid Spoilers for Other Books
How it Fits within the series
Recurring visuals
Ruth’s poetry
Connect With Us:
Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram
Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram
Roxanna is @roxannathereader on Instagram - This is NOT what it says in the episode. She got locked out between recording and drop day!
@currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram
Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast and
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi readers, welcome to a Journey to Three Pines. |
| 0:22.3 | In this special limited edition series from the currently reading podcast, we're doing |
| 0:27.0 | a deep exploration of each book in Louise Penney's Three Pines Mystery Series, and we are |
| 0:33.5 | diving deep into it. We'll delve into the mysteries, of course, but we'll also talk about all |
| 0:39.2 | the characters we love so much, the delightful village of Three Pines, and probably even chat |
| 0:44.3 | about all the delicious meals they feast on, washed down with a bowl of cafe au lait. |
| 0:48.9 | We'll discuss everything from the themes that Louise Penney explores to exactly why we love |
| 0:54.7 | Armand Camache and all the rest of the characters so very much. I'm Meredith Munde Schwartz, |
| 1:00.1 | co-host of the currently reading podcast, and the Three Pines series is my favorite book series |
| 1:06.0 | of all time. And I'm Roxana Casamcara, a Canadian reader and show regular on the currently |
| 1:11.7 | reading podcast, and I am making my way through the series and loving every minute of it. |
| 1:17.0 | We should say at the top of this podcast series that it is for people who have read the book, |
| 1:22.5 | because we are going to get deep into it. There will be spoilers about still life in today's |
| 1:29.2 | episode. So if you haven't read it yet, you may want to press pause and come back when you've |
| 1:34.3 | got that reading in. We will be discussing each book in context of the series as a whole also, |
| 1:41.6 | but we'll save those portions of the discussion for the end of the episode and we'll tell you when |
| 1:46.8 | that is going to happen. So we wanted to be really clear about this part in every episode, |
| 1:52.4 | but here in this very first episode, again, we just want to say this episode will spoil still life. |
| 2:00.0 | It will spoil it completely. We are going to talk about who did it, why they did it, and we're |
| 2:04.9 | going to do that right from the beginning. So if you haven't read still life, press pause, |
| 2:11.2 | or at least if you don't want still life completely spoiled. But again, if you are just joining us |
| 2:16.0 | and so many of you are in doing a reading of the three-pine series and still life is all you've |
... |
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