A Journey to Three Pines - Episode 9: How the Light Gets In
Currently Reading
Meredith Schwartz
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2025
⏱️ 94 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ 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 Armand Gamache. This spin-off 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.Â
Show notes for this series will not be time-stamped except for broad sections, but will include links to Bookshop dot org or Amazon for any books or resources referenced in the episode.
1:43 - Putting the Book Into Context
How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny
Published Aug 27, 2013 by Minotaur Books
4.48 rating on Goodreads
Seasonal setting - Winter
Book Awards: Edgar Award nomination for best novel, Publisher’s Weekly Best Mystery/Thriller book of 2013, one of Washington Post’s top 10 books of the year, one of NPR’s best books of 2013.
Critic Reviews
Meredith’s and Roxanna’s encounters with the book
9:24 - The Setup
11:21 - A Deeper Exploration
First paragraph
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
The pacing of the novel
Dual plots that compliment each other perfectly
Themes: how the light gets in, community and resistance,Â
Subtle light vs dark - Surete vs Three Pines
Dogs
Ruth’s addiction not a problem to solve in the series
Canadian aspects
Article about corruption in Quebec
The ending
1:21:52 - Superlatives
Character MVP
Biggest loser
Best food description
Is this book skippable?
No spoilers this episode!Â
The next book will be The Long Way Home by Louise Penny
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, readers, welcome to A Journey to Three Pines. In this special limited edition series from the |
| 0:24.9 | currently reading podcast, we are doing a deep exploration of each book in Louise Pinnies's |
| 0:30.9 | Three Pines mystery series, and we are getting deep into it. We're talking about the mysteries, |
| 0:37.0 | of course, but also about the characters |
| 0:39.1 | we've grown to love, the gorgeous settings in the eastern townships, and all the deeper themes |
| 0:44.4 | that Louise Penny weave so masterfully into each story. I'm Meredith Munday Schwartz, co-host of the |
| 0:50.1 | currently reading podcast, and the Three Pines series is my favorite book series of all time. |
| 0:55.9 | And I'm Roxanna Kasimkara, a Canadian reader and show regular on the currently reading podcast. |
| 1:01.6 | I'm making my way through the series and loving it. |
| 1:04.7 | In today's episode, we'll focus on how the light gets in, the ninth book in the series. |
| 1:10.7 | And yes, the series must, absolutely must |
| 1:13.8 | be read in order. No question. It must be read in order. And you should make sure if you have not read |
| 1:21.2 | how the light gets in, you may want to press pause and come back to it because this episode will |
| 1:27.4 | be spoiler filled. |
| 1:29.7 | We will not give away anything having to do with the series as a whole, but we will be discussing |
| 1:36.3 | this book in great detail with all the spoilers. |
| 1:41.4 | Okay, let's start out with a few details about how the light gets in. So it was |
| 1:47.8 | published on August 27th of 2013. The hardback was 405 pages, and as we sit here today, the book |
| 1:56.6 | gets a 4.48 rating on Goodreads with over 92,000 reviews. |
| 2:03.7 | I know. This is one of the highest rated in the entire series, which makes a lot of sense. |
| 2:11.1 | We'll discuss that further. All right. We are in the winter season here. In fact, we're at |
| 2:17.4 | Christmas time. And as far as the awards |
... |
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