You're listening to all the backlist weekly show about books that are not new.

I'm your host Vanessa Diaz back for episode 472.5 airing on Friday July 19th.

Today I'm going to tell you about some books that I read, I think at least 10 years ago, which may sound like kind of a vague theme.

But really it's because it's all tied to the release of the New York Times list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.

In thinking about the best books that I have read in the last many, many years and that I also put forth as a top 10,

which I'll tell you a little bit more about later. I had to go through to remember

what the heck I have read because I could not remember and I never do. It feels like whatever someone's like,

what's the best book you've read in the last, you know, z amount of time I forget that I've ever read a book

period I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about that process and how I arrived at this theme

but before I do that let's hear from our sponsor. This episode is sponsored by Celadon Books,

publishers of Honey by Isabel Banta, and if you like me grew up listening to late 90s, early 2000s era pop music you're going to want to pay attention to this one

It's 1997 and Amber Young has received this life-changing opportunity to join a girl group called Cloud 9 in Los Angeles and

escape her small town. She quickly finds herself in the orbits of other

rising stars like Gwen Morris a driven singer dancer and West Kingston a member of the biggest boy band in the world called ETA.

She's surrounded by people who claim to love her but seemed only wish to exploit her

and before she even knows who she is the men surrounding

her have decided what she's capable of. Amber comes of age at a time when the

kaleidoscope of public opinion can distort everything and one mistake can shatter a career.

You like me maybe nodding your head and going, mm-hmm because if you grew up listening to

late 90s and 2000s pop, then you know this story sounds pretty familiar. This reimagined the superstars

that we idolized and hated, that we over-sexualized and underestimated, and gives them a fresh,

multifaceted story that they deserve.

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