Hi everyone and welcome to Women Who Travel, a podcast from Kani Nass Traveler. I'm Meredith

Carrie, and with me, as always, is my co-host, Lala Eric Kowlou. Hello. A big thanks to our

Instagram follower, Jesse Kwan, for suggesting that we revisit books recommendations in this

week's episode, and we're doing exactly that. We're joined by National

Book Foundation's Lisa Lucas, who I think at this point we can call a podcast regular, and

Emma Straub, owner of the truly magical Books Our Magic bookstore in Brooklyn, and author of the

upcoming All Adults Here, which is out next Tuesday. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me. That is so scary to hear that my book is coming out next Tuesday. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. That is so scary to

hear that my book is coming out next Tuesday. Oh my God, it seems.

Emma, we will definitely get to talking about your book and your store a little later in the

podcast, but I wanted to start by asking both of you a question

which is a bit of a personal one because for me in times of personal crisis reading has always

been my solace and it has been my comfort and i'm finding it really hard to focus and i'm finding

it really hard to read and i just i'm not getting to read and I'm just I'm not getting through

anything and I'm wondering how you're doing it right now because books are such a huge part

of both of your life. I feel like we're both going to get fired from our respective jobs for

telling the truth about reading during COVID but no I mean I mean, you know, when I first got in place,

like sheltered in place, I think I was like on fire for books. I was like, I'm going to sit here

and I'm going to read it all and it's going to be great. And I read Masha Gesson's surviving

autocracy, which was great. And it was a galley. And I was really excited about it and I think

everybody should read it.

But then I just sort of hit this crazy wall for a while, and it's been hard.

...