You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show about book culture and literary life designed to help you read better.

I'm author and book devour, Mallory O'Mara.

And I'm Brea Grant, Filmmaker, and E-Reader.

This episode, we're taking off another box from the 2025 Reading Glasses, Glasses, Glass, Challenge, read a book slowly. Plus, we test out a stretchy bookmark and recommend scary books with no body horror. But first, Brea, what are you reading? I'm reading a book that fulfills the Reading Glasses Challenge, read a book based on its title that you chose for me. Oh. I don't even remember.

It's the spirit collection of Thorne Hall by Jay Ann Thomas. Oh, no, you picked this for me. No, I sent you, on the show, I said, here's a bunch of books, and I said which one sounds good. You said, you said this one. Oh. Is it good? It is good so far. So I am only four chapters in, but it starts with this, like, very fancy giant hall,

Thorn Hall where this extreme, large hall, where this very rich family lives.

And it's set in like the 1800s and told from the point of view of a guy who's like hired for this night where all these people are coming to this house for this big party. And you know, this is sort of the era, I believe it's 1800s. Yeah. And sort of the era where the spiritualist or spiritualism was very popular and people would be like, oh, here's a person who, you know, will talk to your ancestors or like, we'll do a seance or whatever.

So this guy, um, oh, so this is, is this historical? Sort of. I don't know. Because I haven't read, I haven't gotten that far. But I, yes, I, well, I can't tell with the current. So it's two timelines. So it opens like this. This guy has this big seance or he's like, I'm going to have a seance, but it starts to get a little too real, and they kick a bunch of the people out, and then someone starts crawling out of this floor, and it gets really wild. Then it goes to a different time period, and now I can't remember when that is, because I just started that chapter. But basically, there's all, it must have let loose a lot of spirits.

And now it's kind of a funny.

Funny.

It's a little bit funny and clever.

It's funnier than I thought it was going to be of this young woman named Elegie,

which is a great name, who has to basically keep all these spirits from wreaking havoc.

Oh.

Because like she wakes up one morning and one has like like, stopped up the drains and it's, like,

flooded the house.

Whascally little wabbards? And her dad is still alive. He's on his deathbed. And she's, like, in charge of keeping all these little rascally spirits happy. And she's constantly, like, mediating between them. and I don't know how this all happened because I again, I'm not very far into the book.

And I won't know until because I don't know how this all happened because I again I'm not very far into the book and I won't know until because I don't I didn't read what the book is about. I'm still discovering it as it goes. But it's not the, I thought it was going to be totally much darker and it was dark and now this part. It's just, it's a, I mean, it's not super light, but it is sort of funny to have her run around. Yeah. So we'll see if it maintains that. I don't know. It's, again, purely based on the title, fun so far. What are you, what are you reading? So I'm reading a book I fucking love. Okay. But I do have a big PSA about it. Oh, okay. In the middle. So I am, I have already, actually I finished it last night. I read Murder at Gull's Nest by Just Kid. Just Kid is an author that I love.

I've read all of her books. She wrote things in jars, which is a historical book that I am completely obsessed with. And this is the start of a new cozy mystery series. So I'm going to tell you what is about and then I'm going to tell you my PSA. So what it's about is this woman, she's a nun.

And one of her friends in the convent is this much younger woman.

She decides to leave and she's been like writing to the main character.

And one day she just stops writing, stops responding.

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