You're listening to All the More Books, a weekly show about books of all kinds.

I'm your host, Vanessa Diaz. This episode is airing on Friday, January 30th. And wow, January,

you can just go.

2026 is off to quite the start.

And I'll be honest, like every time I have, I think, had to come onto a microphone for the last

several years, it always just feels so weird to weigh whether or not to discuss what's going on in the world,

partially because, yes, I understand that people come to podcasts and other forms of, you know,

entertainment to escape some of that. But also, it just feels really weird to do life in general,

whether that's going to the grocery store, showing up to work or recording a podcast,

knowing what's going on outside and not acknowledging the heaviness of it.

This is a real scary time.

It's weird for me.

It's weird for you.

So just want to say that I hope you are finding ways to resist, to take care of yourselves,

to look after your communities, and just do even the small things on a daily basis

that help push back against the horrors. But for today, we're going to take a little

break and talk about two books, one that is a little bit, very timely actually, that I did

talk about last year, but that feels maybe not newly so much as consistently relevant.

And then one that is also very in the

news in the sense that it's attached to a very buzzy film adaptation, a book that you've

definitely heard of, but that maybe you're wondering if it's finally time to pick it up,

because maybe like me you hadn't read it for a while and are wondering if it is for you.

...