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-Rater.

And this episode is our 2025 reading wrap-up this year of 2025, the year of our Lord,

2020-year-of-our-old. Being Dolly Parton.

Of course, obviously. I mean, who else would be talking about?

Look, it's cliche to say, but how is the year over? How is the year over? I still feel like

it's January. I know. I'm still stuck in January. the year over? I still feel like it's January.

I know. I'm still stuck in January. January was so awful that I feel like I got stuck there. And this whole year has been a dream sequence and then I'm going to wake up and it's going to be the real 2025. I wish. Plus we reveal our 2026 Green Glasses, Glasses Challenge, which we're very excited about. We got a good one for next year. We really do.

I will admit Mallory came up with most of it completely. 26, Green Glasses, Classes Challenge, which we're very excited about. We got a good one for next year.

We really do.

I will admit Mallory came up with most of it completely on her own. It was half and half. What are you talking about? Half of that stuff was from you. We put that document together. Okay, great. Brea's so good that she forgets the good stuff that she does sometimes. but before we get into it and do these big reveals,

Brea, what are you reading?

I am actually reading another 20-25 book. I am reading a book. No, where are you? Okay, great. Good. I don't feel weird about it. I'm reading a book called Dwelling by Emily Hunt Kival or Kvill, maybe. K-I-V-E-O. I think I got an arc of that. You may have. Yeah, I think I have that somewhere. It's kind of a fairy tale, kind of surreal, kind of literary fiction. It's basically this woman lives in New York and New York decides, guess what, we're going to get rid of all renters. You have to own your house. Or you can be a rich person who comes in and rents like an Airbnb situation. Yes. Okay. So everyone gets kicked out of your apartments at the exact same time. Yeah. And so she was like, what do I do? She was like, I think I have a distant cousin in this small town in Texas. So she goes there. And all the houses there are really strange. Like they're like these big like spidery style houses with all these extended like everything looks really weird in this world, like tons and tons of, like, additions put onto the houses. And she can't find a place to live at first, and then finally her second cousin helps her find this place, and it is a boot. What? It's a house that looks like a boot. Like the little old lady who lived in a shoe?

Yeah, it's a fairy tale, it's a fairy tale And people keep knocking on her door and they're like Is this the cobbler? Because she moves into there And then she's like, no, it's not the cobbler And at some point she's like, maybe I should just be a cobbler Dude, it's just this like woman's life as she's going through sort of like fairy tale-esque sort of weird, bizarre, surreal world.

It's very weird fiction. Oh, my God, I got to read this. Great locations, great settings. Great shoes. Great shoes. Actually, they do talk a lot about shoes. It's a really good time. What are you reading? I am reading a book a lot of glasses save for the end of the year because it's like a Christmas winter horror.

It's the really good time. What are you reading? I am reading a book a lot of glasses save for the end of the year because it's like a Christmas winter horror. It's the unveiling by Kwanberry. We love Kwanberry on the show. She hasn't done a horror book in a bit. This is her first horror book since we write upon sticks because her book before this was a more literary fiction book. This is more genre. And it is about this woman.

She's a film scout for a production company, I think. And she's on a luxury cruise in Antarctica

to scout locations for this film that might be happening. And she's the only black person

there on the, on the like the whole cruise,

which she does not feel great about, obviously.

And this is not a spoiler.

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