Hey, everyone. Winter is such a great time to curl up with a good book. So we're going to try

something a little different on this bonus episode of Read with Jenna. Recommendations. Take a listen

to this conversation Hoda and I had with one of my favorite authors,

Ruman Allah, and add these titles to your To Be Read list.

When you need to get a gift for someone, you can never go wrong with a good book. So we thought,

why not get some book recommendations from a best-selling author? Ruman Alam is the author of

Leave the World Behind, which was Aribugenta Pick. By the way, just happened to have been turned

into a Netflix film starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali. Ramon, first of all, wow, congratulations.

I mean, we knew your book was going to become a movie.

We didn't know it was going to be starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali.

How didn't it feel to have them playing the roles?

I mean, it certainly doesn't get better.

I think that, you know, to be able to have the trust when you work with performers

at that level and you just know that you're putting it in such capable hands, I mean,

it's crazy. People, so many people have asked me, like, oh, did you have a fantasy cast in mind?

And my answer is like, well, even if I did, I wouldn't have dared to go that high right like

to go as high as Maharshala a a alexi robert so like it's a great great thing you got to celebrate

this week by going to the premiere we have the premiere it's getting crazy reviews i mean i feel

yeah i feel like a proud end.

You are, you are. I'm screaming for everybody to go see it.

And I feel like as a writer, that must feel so good.

It's great. It's great. I think that there are, maybe there's a perception that the writer of an adapted work, a work that has been adapted by a different writer, Sam Esmail, who is the director, wrote the script, that there might be a feeling like, oh, they've taken your baby and they've done something to it. But I just haven't had that experience. I feel so proud of the finished movie. So I'm really happy. I love what Julia Roberts said when she said that Sam asked her to read the book and said you got to read it, got to read it fast, got to read it fast. And she said she started reading it and she could only read it during daylight hour. She's like I couldn't she couldn't handle because it was that kind of scary. Okay, wait, it's that time of the year. We're book gifting. You are, I actually text with you a lot about great book recommendations. I always pick his brain.

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