A Proposed Nationwide Book Ban, The NYPL's Most Checked Out Books of All-Time, and more

For over a hundred years, the world has been captivated by Hollywood. The stuff that dreams are made of. Where stars are born. Made and born! Over the world! But just beneath the stardust lie a million more fascinating stories that when sewn together form an incredible history. The Secret History of Hollywood. Available now wherever you get podcasts. If you're interested in what's happening in the world of technology, you will love our roundtable news show This Week in Tech. Hi, this is Leo Laporte. Every Sunday, I bring the best tech journalists together to talk about the week's tech news. This week, the showdown between Anthropic and the Department of Defense, Apple's big week ahead, Samsung's new phone, and a whole lot more. Join me this week and every week for TWIT. You'll find it at our website, twit.tv, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Book Riot Podcast. I'm Jeff O'Neill sitting in for Rebecca this week. Sharifa Williams, our director of content here at Book Riot. Sharifa, you get to sit in for Rebecca, and usually that means we're just talking about news, but unfortunately this week we've got one of the most disturbing news pieces of the recent book banning and censorship thing. I do want to say at the top that we're going to get into it somewhat to introduce people to the story, But Kelly Jensen, for us, as always, has written a more definitive piece on this nationwide book banning legislation that we're going to talk about here in a second. I'd say it's glad to see you. It's always nice to have a conversation, but it's a bit of a bummer when we have something like that. On the top, so we'll get into that. That's going to be our headline of the show today. Some news and notes here. Right now, 1984 by George Orwell is over in the zero to well-read feed. already have several nice notes from listeners saying that's exactly what we wanted from a 1984 episode. Some people who maybe, you know, thought they always should have read 1984, but never really got around to it. They knew it was important and knew some of the words, like Big Brother, and then went and picked up the book, even though they felt like they didn't need to, they wanted to anyway, Sharifa. So that's what we're trying to do there. What's your own relationship to 1984? Did you read that as a teenager? Did you read it in college? Have you ever gotten around to it? I shouldn't assume anything. I don't want to, but I wonder. Yeah, I definitely read it in high school. And I think after high school, I conflated it with all of the other, you know, I don't know, Catch-22 and Harden. Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World. They kind of glommed together. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Sure. And more recently, of course, in my adult life, I've come across it and can and have been afraid to revisit it. So I think I'll revisit it through the Zero to Well Ride podcast. Oh, that's very nice. not try to read it myself again. Yeah, I've read it several times. It'd been a little while. And you know, I guess it conflates with I don't think I may find this while we're talking here in a minute, the New York Public Library released its list of its 10 most checked out books of all time. And, you know, there's some things that go into that list that are structural, like kids books, for example, they get turned over a lot, they have longer shelf lives. And there's budget, you know, in kids libraries. But 1984 is like number four on that list. And I guess I was both surprised and not surprised at the same time because I feel like it's as famous as people as it is, but also a lot of people haven't read it, which I guess is just what happens with famous books at the same time. In the modern dystopian canon, Sharif, I think we have to add probably Atwood and Octavia Butler sort of have been added to the Huxley, Bradbury, Orwell triumvirate. Does anyone else come to you? I know sci-fi has been doing this a lot over the last 20, 30 years. Does anyone else come to mind on a dystopian that we should think about for modern folks that you know? I mean, for instant classics, Octavia Butler is the person I would think of for this because of Parable of the Sower. And it has the same sort of rise in popularity in recent years as 1984 does, and it feels very prescient. So I think that that is the one that comes immediately to mind. Other ones, I can't really, there are so many books that have like, you know, that political dystopian, I think Infomocracy. Malika Olga, is that her? Yeah, is another one that's come up and I don't think has been read as widely, but it's another one of those books that's like, oh yeah, this feels very real and timely. And we sort of skipped over to just the post-apocalyptic novel. Yeah, that's true. So then we get like The Road or Station 11 or the things like that. Or we've gotten the YA dystopia, right? The Hunger Games, the Divergent series and things like that. So it's been interesting to see how many of those have sort of trundled out from Orwell's overcoat there. So go listen to that. Sharifa also joined us, if you didn't, check it out already for our episode on The Warmth of Other Suns, which was a fantastic episode and a wonderful book. and we were so glad to have you over for that. Let's see, other bit of housekeeping. The It Books of March episode will hit the feed on Wednesday. So you're going to be listening to this, folks, that are not in the Patreon feed. That will be our first March episode of the month. We try to make that the It Books episode, but because of the way the month happened and Rebecca being on vacation, we're going to hit that on Wednesday. A pretty chock-a-block March, I would say. I was looking at the New York Times picks for the 27 books to read in March. And yeah, there's a lot that I want to do there. All right, we're gonna take a quick sponsor break, do a little email follow up and get into the rest of the news. Today's episode is sponsored by HarperCollins Leadership, publishers of Moms in Labor by Daphne Delveaux. Stick around to the end of the episode to hear an excerpt from the audiobook edition. Read by the author, employment lawyer Daphne Delveaux, moms in labor empowers women to protect their careers when they become mothers. Drawing on 15 years of fighting workplace discrimination, Delveaux breaks down the laws that safeguard pregnant and working moms, shares practical scripts for tough conversations, and offers strategies to secure leave and flexibility. Blending legal insight with candid personal stories, this audiobook equips mothers to advocate with confidence. It's read by Daphne Delveaux herself and delivers her legal expertise with conviction and clarity, making the guidance feel really personal, urgent, and empowering. Moms and Labor is available everywhere you read and listen today. Thank you once again to HarperCollins Leadership for sponsoring today's show. Today's episode is brought to you by 23rd Street Books, an imprint of Macmillan and publisher of Everything in Color, a Love Story by Stephanie Stalvey. Interrogating her upbringing in an evangelical community, Stephanie Stalvey weaves a story of faith, alienation, romance, and acceptance in this beautifully painted graphic memoir. Stephanie grew up where love and obedience overlapped. Sin was inevitable, desire was dangerous, and her thoughts could not be trusted unless she believed the, quote, right things about God. As she built a life of her own and fell in love with a seminarian named James, she began to question those rigid borders. Stolvi traces a journey of faith, romance, motherhood, and reclaiming a love that is healing and transformative. Everything in Color is a deeply personal and tender graphic memoir from Stephanie Stolvi, whose autobiographical comics began circulating online in 2020. It quickly resonated with readers searching for language around faith, identity, and intimacy. So make sure to check out Everything in Color, a love story by Stephanie Stolvi, and thanks again to 23rd Street Books for sponsoring this episode. Today's episode is brought to you by Tin House, publishers of Kim Fu's The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts. From Kim Fu comes a brilliant Gothic novel about a woman drowning in the horrors of modern life as a never-ending rain eats away at the home collapsing around her while she grieves the loss of her mother. Acclaimed writer Kim Fu, author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, is back with this incredible new novel that has been named a most anticipated book by time, by us here at Book Riot, by the Chicago Review of Books and others. It's perfect for readers of Carmen Maria Mercado and Shirley Jackson, and reviewers are calling it immersive and brilliantly written. Start reading The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu on sale now from Tin House. And thanks again to Tin House for sponsoring this episode. quite a bit of follow-up from listeners about audiobook ebook print book synergies or dis synergies where they do and don't work together this is a really good tip from mark thank you so much mark says there is a discount that's been around since the history of whisper sync but it's not advertised and is often cheaper than buying the audiobook alone so this is about making de facto bundling. So Amazon doesn't advertise the audiobook price discount for owning the ebook until you buy it. But for titles that support WhisperSync, it's almost there. For example, he just purchased the Dungeon Crawler Carl book six. The audiobook is $31. The Kindle book is $5.99. However, once I own the Kindle book, the audiobook gets a reduced price of $7.49. So this is a well-known hack for getting cheaper e-books and audio books. And then sometimes you go to Reddit to find out a discount is available so you don't have to do the purchasing of the book situation. So I don't do a lot of that kind of book buying, but that's pretty interesting. I'm guessing Amazon is thinking, well, you've already got the e-book, so you're probably not going to spend another $31 for the audio book. But what if I give you a coupon to buy for $8.50 or something like that? A lot of this came out of, and I guess I'm going to aggregate several emails. about people saying they would try the page match and read-along functionality. Some people just want to try it. Some people do this naturally anyway. I guess it's the people that help the most, is people who are already trying to go back and forth between audiobook and print anyway. I didn't get a lot of email from people saying that this would induce them to try switching formats, but the people that are doing it say this is quite a wonderful boon. I know, Sharifa, you do quite a bit on audio. Have you ever thought about moving back and forth between print and audio? Where are you standing in that polygenic reading? Yeah, I do that. I do that not... You do that? I did it with the warmth of other suns, as a matter of fact. Well, okay. And it's not with every book. It doesn't always work for me that way. But especially with a big book. I think I did this as well with The Count of Monte Cristo. I went between the audiobook and the physical copy. And it's weirdly like you develop this second sense of being able to locate where you are. But that does not mean that a person like myself would not appreciate the page thing. So I can absolutely see people who are already in the habit of doing this and already having the premium subscription so that it's available to them being really grateful for the feature. so what's harder is it harder to go from print to audio or or backwards like if you're making the handoff which do you find has the most friction it really depends on how the book is labeled like the chapters in the warmth of other sons was so specifically labeled with the time period and all that it was really easy both ways with most books that are just like regular old chapter, long chapters. It is really like, I find it easier in a strange way to find the page in the physical copy. And I don't know, like I can scan the text. I mean, flippability is real, right? Like that you can flip through, flipping is hard on audio. Like if you skip forward and listen to 10 seconds, it's not the same as your eye kind of gets accustomed to a book to where you are in the story. That makes a ton of sense to me. Yeah. But I take great pride in my skill, my ability to do that. I feel, I mean, maybe it's one of those things that gets easier as you do it, but I even find hard if I zone out, and this happens sometimes, especially when I'm working on some other project, and I zone out and I have been sort of not listening to the audio book, even though it's been on for 30 minutes, I find it very difficult to relocate. Okay, what's the class I was actually plugged in and consciously paying attention to what was happening? because I can only imagine the dysfunction there. Sharif, I just dropped into the agenda. We might look at this for a minute. I meant to put in the top checkouts of the NYPL. So I already spoiled for listeners here. We'll play a little game that listeners can play on their own. These are the top 10 most checked out books of the last 125 years is what they say here. Now, I don't know. The methodology here is I guess they just counted. There is, I'll give some people a hint. There is nothing here older than, let's say, 1936, I believe, is the oldest of these books. I think you're right. Yeah, pretty sure. I'm wondering if some of the things that are out of copyright just don't get borrowed because people buy them or they're cheaper to buy. I don't know. So that's interesting there. George Orwell was the third on the list with 441,770 checkouts. Presumably that's more today than it was beforehand. The top two are kids books. So I'm going to give people maybe name that book. Let's play that. Let's give people hints, Sharif. Let's see what we can come up with here for name that book for the top two. For number two, let's see. What hit could we give? One of the best-selling all-time children's authors. And probably, would you say this is that author's most famous work? I would say this is the most, I'm thinking, this is probably the most famous work other than the other one that sells a lot. Other than the other most famous work. The other hint is that this author has written a book that is hugely popular for graduation gifts. There you go. Great hint. Yes. All right. So if you haven't got it yet, we'll give you a second here while I try to vamp and think of another. Oh, the title has a rhyme in it. How about that? so I don't know that we can give more hints than that without just giving it away, Sharifa. Can you come up with anything else to give people a hint? I think people have got to get it based on that. I mean, there have been adaptations of terrible ones. Freaky ones. The most terrifying adaptations on a very banal, not a banal book, but a very safe, funny book, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. I don't care for any of those adaptations. Real people dressed up as Dr. Seuss' characters is nightmare fuel. Animation is the one thing. Yeah, it's not meant to be. I mean, I've been forced to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas or whatever it's called like a bunch of times and I don't like it every time. No, I don't like it every time. My daughter really likes the most recent, I think it's just called The Grinch where Benedict Cumberbatch voices The Grinch. It's the same studio that does Minions. Illumination. It's quite charming. Okay, but animation, yeah. Always better with Dr. Seuss. not to give too much information but where are your kids at on movies are they into movies do you do movies at all are you trying to keep them away from screens at some point they're into them and some point they're out when they can sit and watch even sort of the best of kids movies they will watch a movie and they'll shout for movies and we let them watch a movie on the weekend usually but Sesame Street is really where they're at the early Sesame Street episodes are the only ones they watch because I can't with the newer ones. Sorry to anybody who's a fan out there. Okay, that's fine. But the old ones, they love it. We sing the Sesame Street theme song all day long. And Muppets, the Muppets movies are a huge hit with them. Oh, yeah. Do they have a favorite? I think the, what was the original one called? Just a Muppet movie? Yeah. That's the one that. Yeah. Yeah. Just with a fork in the road. The Big Fork in the Road? They love that one. I love that one. They love that one. So do I. My kids prefer The Great Muppet Caper, but it's only for that last sequence where they're throwing the baseball diamond around and they're doing the Muppet heist to steal that. We still watch all that time. Okay, we're on The Muppets. Yeah, Muppets elite, goaded of all time. Number one, so this is one I think a lot of people wouldn't get. And I know this is super popular in the New York Public Library system because it's come up back and forth. Let's see. Do you want to start with a hint? Where would you start with a hint? They turned the cover into a postage stamp. I think it was the cover. They turned the book illustrations into a postage stamp in recent years. That's not very helpful. I think this is also set in New York. Is it explicitly set in New York? It's been a while since I've thought of this. I always thought it was, but I don't think it ever actually, like there's no real explicit mention. Yeah, maybe I just always imprinted on it that it was a New York Public Library bestseller. And it has an urban environment. The cover has a traffic light on it and it looks like a city or town. It is weather-related, I would say. It is weather-related. It's a children's book. I don't know if we said that already. A picture book, even. A picture book, yes. Oh, my goodness. It's so simple. It's hard to come up with a hint that doesn't move it away. I know. It's so hard. It's one of the few 1950s, 1960s, I guess, is when this was published children's books that features a black child. Black child yeah It number one it 485 583 checkouts So basically in the ballpark of Cat and Hat One Snowy Day we put it in the lead It is Ezra Jack Keats classic 1962 children book The Snowy Day, about, you know, a child enjoying snow. Great for kids of all ages. And it won the Caldecott in 62, and it's just been available in multiple languages since it was available in New York. So I don't know. I wonder, I'd be curious to see how this list of top 10, we'll go through the rest of the year quickly, we won't play this game for everything, overlaps with the Chicago Public Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, other kinds of places. Of the remaining 10, Sharifa, before we read them out, is anything that struck you as anything you also might be surprised by or people might be surprised by do you think i wasn't what i wasn't entirely surprised by everything i am always surprised that how to win friends and influence people is still like a big people must be checking that out today still to make this yes by dale mardeggie like i know It's constantly referenced in every business-y, self-help-y sort of, I don't know, a certain type of book. Yeah, it's the original sort of self-business slash self-help crossover, which there are scads now. But it very much is, yeah, I think that one I've been surprised enough that I'm no longer surprised at this point. But it is number, what number is that? Number eight. with 284,000 checkouts. Also, this book has sold more than 30 million copies in print, which is just wild. You know, I wonder if we should do a zero to well right on how to win friends and influence people. When I was doing my Bussman's MBA in the earlier days of Booker, I was trying to teach myself how not to screw up a business. I read this, and it's pretty good, but also feels, I don't know, it feels maybe obvious in some way. It's more obvious than is easy to implement, like be interested in other people. You know, you can Google, there's infinitely Google summaries that you can do here, but that's a, that's interesting one too. A lot of children's books here. So let's just go down the rest. Well, where the wild things are number four, 436,000 checkouts, Marie Sendak's classic picture book for adults and email. I think that's what we've done there. To Kill a Mocky Bird, 422, 912,000 checkouts. Harper Lee's, of course, 1960 breakout, contemporary classic. Charlotte's Web. I was just talking to my daughter about this other day in the car and trying not to cry as I was walking through the end of Charlotte's Web. E.B. White's fable of a pig that is sentient pig that can talk to other animals. Once you start getting into the mythopoetics of this, it kind of breaks down a little bit, but a beautiful book about farm animals helping each other avoid slaughter. Probably the first book that made me cry in my life. How old were you? I think I was, I remember being in my third grade class talking about it. Oh God, you're the worst age. I mean, the perfect and worst age because you're like, again, yes, Everyone knows why third grade is exactly the wrong and right age to experience. It was memorable. I'll say that. Very memorable. Speaking of memorable books, Fahrenheit 451, 316,000 checkouts. Ray Badbury's 1953 short novel. Yes. Very timely. Always, already. As we said, number eight, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dale Carnegie. Number nine, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I think this is the most recent book on the list. Yes. 1990s. Yeah, nothing really even close. 231,000 checkouts. And then lastly, Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar with 189,000 checkouts. So we're really going from almost a half a million checkouts to just under 200,000. So sometimes, especially when it Goodreads or book sales, you'll have a bigger drop off. It's like not quite triple from one to 10. But it does say that just time and market really matters. and children's books and these contemporary readable classics. 84, Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451 are all really page turnery too. So there's that. I'm not sure what else to say about this list. I'm finding myself nodding my head and saying this makes sense, but I'm trying to figure out if there's anything people might be surprised. Now that I'm looking at it again, I think I am kind of surprised that The Very Hungry Caterpillar didn't get up higher on the list. I feel like because it's from the... So it's been around for a while, and it just feels so ubiquitous in children's literature in the same way I would imagine. I would almost imagine it to be slightly above where the wild things are, but I don't know if that's a bias. You know what? If you gave me this list with blanks for the children's books and told me to arrange them, I think I would probably get it really wrong. I don't know that I would have snowy day at number one. I don't think I would have either. I don't think I would have. I know that it's very popular, but I think I would have thought, like you, that the very hungry caterpillar. I would have put probably where the wild things tend that it just sort of sneaks on. Because I don't, I guess, I don't know. My kids are now unbelievably 12 and 14, so they're out of the kid books era. Rowan actually just started the Hunger Games yesterday. Oh, wow. God help us all. It begins. She's locked in, by the way, just to report from the front, locked her in like a tractor beam in Star Wars, man. Just that's all she could do right now. It's great. I mean, I really like it. That's amazing. But I don't feel like where the wild things are was really in our, that wasn't in our repertoire. No. I don't know why. Yeah, I mean, we have the book just because it felt like the thing to get and it won awards and things like that. But I reread it and I was like, yeah, it's great, but it just like doesn't, it's not as snappy as some of the other children's books, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, I guess that's true. And it's not as bedtime readable because it's big monsters. Kind of freaky. And kind of a bratty child. They're not supposed to be. Yes. Yeah. Do not emulate Max, please, very much. Yes, that's not what the moral is. Everyone here. Please. Maybe over time, Little Blue Truck and the Little Blue Truck Industrial Complex will come for one of these spots. I think that of the ones that was in our orbit and that I just see from book sales. I was looking at the best-selling books of the week last week that Danica put together and Little Blue Truck's Valentine's Day. There's a bunch of holiday ones related. So maybe that dissipates the interest, but I love Little Blue Truck. Interesting honorable mention. Did you make it all the way to the honorable mention part of this? I scrolled one honorable mention and then sort of... Okay, I'll hit you with it. You can have the same reaction here to the story of Goodnight Moon gets an honorable mention, but it's because of this weird fact. So this book was published in 1947. I don't think I could have told you what year Goodnight Moon was published in, but the editor's note here is that the extremely influential New York Public Children's Librarian And Carol Moore hated Goodnight Moon when it first came out. So the New York Public Library didn't carry it for the first 25 years it was in print. Oh my gosh. Because one person didn't like it? Because one person didn't like it. So they didn't buy a bunch of copies or maybe any copies. It says didn't carry it at all until 1972. That is so shady. I cannot believe that. Isn't that crazy? What problem could anybody have with Goodnight Moon? I just need to know. I don't really know. Because it's over so... There's like nine words in it. But they're so... I mean, I love Goodnight Moon, so I'm biased, but... Oh, now you're just offended. You're not even curious now. You're just pissed off. I mean, how mean? But that is hilarious. I didn't even know that this is a thing that... I wouldn't have guessed that it would have been weeded out for that long because one children's librarian did not like the book. That's like a vendetta against a children's book. So I've got a couple. I did a little research. I'm so glad you're a good night mood, Stan, because I did a little research on Anne Carroll Moore. Would you like to hear a little bit about her, let's say, idiosyncratic reign as the New York Children's Public Law? Now I need to know. So she had a stamp which read, not approved by expert, which she would stamp in the books that she didn't like, but the NYPD. caddy caddy librarian that is amazing so she she also apparently hated the laura ingalls wilder books and rather than like she had some conversation with a doll instead of the book's editor to sort of explain why she had She did a little pantomime with the books editor to talk about why she hated the books. All right. I went from disliking Anne Carole Bort to- I know. You went all the way around. I knew you would. I'm like, I want a whole biography of her suddenly. What was this person's life like? I will put a link in the show notes to a piece by Betsy Bird that appeared in School Library journal called The Quintessential Librarian Stereotype, Wrestling with the Legacy of Anne Carol Moore. So this is a blog post over there, which I think is kind of interesting. And now I kind of want a short miniseries or maybe a documentary, docudrama. What a fun role this would be to someone play, this warm, or this cantankerous acolyte, champion of children's literature that is not just everything's great all the time fascinating so there we go what a journey we went on we learned something i think we helped people i think so too librarian lore i think we did something today's episode is brought to you by random house children's books publishers of the book thief by marcus zuzak it's 1939 nazi germany and the country is holding its breath death has never been busier and it will become busier still Liesl Bimbinger is a foster girl living outside of Munich who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist books with the help of her accordion playing foster father she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement now there is a 20th anniversary edition of this best-selling, mega best-selling book, excuse me. It includes gold-sprayed edges, a new letter from the author, details of how characters and scenes evolved, excerpts from the author's notebook, and handwritten notes from the original manuscript. So make sure to check out the 20th anniversary edition of The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. And thanks again to Random House Children's Books for sponsoring this episode. No one hates history, they just haven't found the right teacher yet. Or in this case, a nerdy best friend who loves to tell you all about world history, women's history, and weird history. Hi, I'm TK, the creator of For the Love of History podcast, a place for people who want to learn more but don't know where to start, and history lovers who want to break from the mainstream. From rat trials to warrior women, we cover topics from every country and era. Whether you're a history expert or just starting out, there's a place for you here in the Time Machine. So join me every Friday on your favorite podcast platform and YouTube for a brand new topic. See you there. Bye. Yeah. No matter what Anne Carroll Moore thought about any particular children's book, I know one piece of writing she wouldn't like, Sharifa. And that is a nationwide book ban that was introduced on the House floor, H.R. 7661, also known as the Stop the Sexual Relations of Children Act, which would modify the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by prohibiting the use of funds under the Act to, quote, develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity or to provide or promote literature or other materials to children under the age of 18. that includes sexually oriented material and for other purposes. The bill was introduced by House Representative Mary Miller, who is a Republican from Illinois. If she happens to be your representative out there, or even if you're just Illinois, you can make some noise, send a call, make a stink, go vote. 17 other additional representatives have co-signed it. So this, as far as I can tell, and I very much encourage people to go read Kelly's whole piece. I could read them verbatim, but I guess to give the overview is this is in the, seems to be the most successful general tactic right now in book bans and censorship, which is to make very broad and sweeping laws, regulations, guidelines, whatever it may be in certain jurisdictions that are really vague about sex. so that anything related to sex can be flagged to the ends of certain interested parties. Is that your understanding of what's happening here, Sharifah? That's kind of as far as I got in trying to understand what's going on. Yeah, I think those are the broad strokes of it. And, you know, it is so, it can be such a cast of such a wide shadow over what constitutes this kind of book, how they're defined that it's preposterous. Like it's obviously written in bad faith from the name of it because who wants to say no to something called the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act? Yes, right. Obviously in bad faith. But it also has like preposterous aspects like it includes lewd and lascivious dancing as prohibited. I was like, have we been transported to the 80s film? Footloose. Yeah, is Kevin Bacon going to start choreographing his dances on the house floor? But it is serious and it is hard sometimes to see how a bill like this can have a broader effect and how it can be the start of many similar bills and many other ways to silence certain people's stories. Right. And Kelly makes the point that this bill itself would only initially, or this bill only affects public schools, not all public libraries. But she makes the point that if it were undertaken for that, we've seen this strategy play out where those same principles then are expanded to include all public libraries at the same time. So, and then presumably would be much farther reaching and affect sort of blue state situations or blue cities within these other places. That's one of the things too. There's, because of the way that a lot of libraries are funded and administered, they can be quite locally controlled, but quite a bit of money comes from the federal government at the same time. I don't know enough about the strategy here because these kinds of bills are very unpopular. A lot of people who've run for school board or been on school boards that have passed these kinds of laws have lost. They've been struck down, though some of them are quite durable at the same time. I don't know why now. I really don't. We need our old pal, Amanda, to help us with the three-dimensional chess about how the politics is working at this level. But thought you should know, read the article, call your representative, stay informed. We can tell from how this, the reaction when we posted this on social that people care about this. The headline's quite alarming. I don't know that it has much chance of a passing. It has to get through. It only has 17 people in the House. Then it has to get through the House and the Senate. Do people want to go on the record ahead of midterms for this, Sharifa? I don't really know. It makes no sense. But that even be floated is horrible. I cannot imagine. it is hard to make sense of the decisions that are being made by the administration ahead of the midterms because they are so unpopular. This is just one of many, many actions that I cannot understand. Right. So we'll leave that there for now. Shoot us an email. If you know more about this podcast at riotnewmedia.com. We've got a smorgasbord of other news things, Sharifa. I don't know. We'll get to them all. Did your eye float to any of these? What do you want to make sure we cover together? You'd like to say something about it? I definitely want to talk about the International Booker Prize because that always feels like an event of the year. Yes. This is when I feel abashed because I consider myself someone who reads a lot of books and is interested in books. And then this list always comes out and I realized how much I don't know about and will never get to. Because I am O for the list for this prize long list Have you read any of these I have not but one of the books was one of my most anticipated of 2026 Let me guess. Yes, guess. Can I guess? You're going to get it. Was it The Witch by Mary and John? I knew you were going to get it. Yes. That was it. I mean, obviously. But it's coming to the US this year, this April. So I had no idea. It had been out for a while, but it makes sense, of course. Like, this is why we in the U.S. often feel ignorant when we confront this list, because sometimes these books haven't even arrived by us. But a lot of these books have won the National Book Award or have been a finalist or have made, like, the New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. So they have been circulating, but I also tend not to have picked up most, if any, of the books on the International Booker Prize list. But that's why it's exciting to me, because it's like, wow, I would have missed these books completely. Yeah, I've only read one Mary and Jai book. I think it was called The Chef a few years back. I thought it was tremendous, and I've been meaning to read more. She's become, I think, one of the... She's been writing for a while. I don't actually know how old she is. I don't think she's one of these people that's in their 80s or 90s and have been writing that long. I think she's a little bit... But she has some time to be burble up to the top of the Nobel Prize list. The witch, just straight up calling it the witch is a real move. It's flex. I like this. Witch is a funny... Did you read the synopsis at all? A mediocre witch in a mediocre marriage tried to pass on her gift to her twin daughters, Sharifa. Is that too close to home? What's going on? Not to call you mediocre. I don't mean to say that, but come on. I have been, it has been weird how much, how many books about twins are coming out this year. And this was just one of many. And I was like, am I going to have, is this going to feel too personal? Like, oh, I'm going to have my heart broken. Like the kids fly the coop in the story and are basically like, And so I hope it's more lighthearted than it sounds. But of course I have to read it because it's called The Witch. Yes. And it's about twin daughters. I have twin daughters. And it just sounds fascinating. I have never read any of Ndiye's books. So this will be my first one. Yeah, she was born in 67. So she's quite young for some of the corpus she has. she published her first book at the age of 17. One of those infuriatingly precocious people that puts us all to shame. I don't have anything else to say about the rest of the list. Go look at the show notes, bookriot.com slash listen. Any other ones that struck your eye? I've got one mediocre take, which is long lists need to be told. We can't do 16 titles. Is it 13? There were 16 for the Women's Nonfiction Prize. I like a list as much as anybody, but like 10 at the most for a long list. At the most. I'm sure they felt pressure because they are trying to represent so many places. I would probably be a terrible judge that nobody will ever ask. You've judged things like this, though. You judge the pen. I know. Well, no. I was in charge of choosing the judges who would judge us. Oh, right. Yes. I'm sorry. My job was easy. I had the easy job. There's fewer people than books. Is that what you're saying? Yes. I mean, I can't. I couldn't do this. But I agree. Like, it does feel less competitive when it's just like, oh, it's this giant list. So. It's not even about. I mean, competitive finds just like I find my eyes just stopping caring like halfway down. Oh, okay. I don't know. That's me. Maybe my attention span's been ruined. But we've had long list creep over the last five or 10 years. And I think we need to put an end to it. Sorry to say for the three people that left off here. But let's do 10. And then the short list can be no longer than five. Okay, that's reasonable, actually. I would also need to say. Yeah. Five is fine. Okay. So go check that out over there. I will now ping pong to one that I am interested in. I'll hit one that's closer to home. Here in Portland, Mother Foucault Bookshop, which has one of the great bookshop, maybe the greatest bookshop name of all time, Mother Foucault's. It is a art used vintage. It's kind of, it's not. Did you ever go to Mother Foucault's when you were here? Did you ever stop in at all when you were living? I was trying to remember and I cannot remember. It might have been that I happened in and completely forgot, but I was, you know, like I just kept going to Powell's then I feel sorry that I didn't explore more bookstores in Portland. Yeah. I mean, I understand. It's more for local people, right? Powell's is big commercial and tourist. And I love Powell's. Don't get me wrong. Motherfucko's is something different. It has a bookstore with used books piled all around. There's like a typewriter sitting around. It feels like an old professor's den that's like just into a bookstore. And they have local arts readings and poetry. it just has a little more bohemian element to it boho bohemian portland vibe into it and it's great and i saw i don't think i covered it all last summer because it did feel parochial but it launched a kickstarter um to buy the building it was in it created a literary non-profit with a really highfalutin french name that i can't remember and wanted to raise three hundred thousand dollars for a down payment on this 1.6 million dollar building it owned i think there was something about maybe the owner was going to sell the building or the lease. The real estate shit was getting in the way. And we hear this all the time. So many times a bookstore closes, not necessarily because its fundamental business is bad or unprofitable, but the realities of the real estate market and landlords and commercial real estate, it can't keep up. Especially as neighborhoods gentrifying the boutique and the Chipotle down the way, it makes that. and I'm not exactly sure what happened here because I was following the Kickstarter, and it sort of stalled out. It did pretty well for a while, but it didn't really seem to get close to $300,000, and then Motherfucker announced that they had enough money for the down payment, and they were going to continue the Kickstarter for subsequent payments. So I don't know. A patron stepped in. That's the only thing that really makes sense there. They're a little hand-wavy about that, which I don't really care about. And I bring this up because speaking of PALS and speaking of The Strand and speaking of some of the other long-term institutional-like indies that people know about, one of the reasons they've stuck around a lot of those is that they own the building. As the early people, the giant mothership pals, they own that building. The Strand, they own that building. There's some other bookstores that I think do, and I don't want to say on here because I don't want to be wrong. Those two, I am 99% sure I'm on solid ground saying that they're owned by the building, which means that they control their own real estate destiny. And I wonder now if more bookstores might consider this as a, when the going is good, to try to snap up the real estate that they're in if that is possible. I know it's a huge ask, but this seems to be a pretty interesting way of subsidizing through patronage or memberships or something else. The bookstore that's not about just coming in to buy books all the time and it's more sustainable, right? If they buy the building, you don't have to go spend 25 bucks every couple of weeks to go patronize it in that way. L'école Boussenaire. I wasn't gonna try to say it, I saw it. I know, I know, it's just horrible. I don't know what to do. It translates to bush school, which believe it or not, means a school of the outdoors or life. Not, I don't know what else it could possibly mean. It's a phrase that also connects a truancy in French as when you skip school and you're attending to the school of life, which is exactly the kind of thing Mother Foucault would name their literary nonprofit. I'll just put it that way, which I like. Yeah, it's both hilarious in that the bookish person is not the person you expect to be in the bush literally or being truant from school. But it does make sense because of the sound of the personality of this bookstore. I could see it. And I do think that this could be successful as a model for other independent bookshops that are specifically deeply rooted in the community and have evolved beyond like the small business model into more of like a third place like a library is. But I think that if you just have a very straightforward, independent bookstore model where people do just like come in to buy books and leave, then I don't know that this would work for that kind of store. But I'm thinking of like loyalty bookstores, for instance, they are very community oriented. They have events. They're very like they have a level of activism. so I think that they could generate a lot more of that patronage from like just people who have come in and love what they do right so I right I would love to see that for those specific types of bookstores and I don't know that so many of the kinds of stores like this would be making so much profit that moving to non-profit status would be a real loss of cash for the owners right you You can still pay yourself a salary and pay people salaries and do all that kind of thing. But it definitely would be a trade-off to be a nonprofit. But I think there's a lot of stores that maybe sort of de facto are nonprofits in terms of they make enough money to pay the employees and the owners, but they're not making a whole bunch of money in addition to that. And if that's the case, the nonprofit status can give you some tax benefits. And it has strictures too. But you could set up some sort of institution where... One and a half million dollars is a lot of money, Sharifa. I don't want to say that it isn't. But there are people that give a lot of money to things in excess of $1.5 million that if you could vouchsafe the library in your neighborhood, I think some people would be amenable to that that have deep pockets. I think that's quite possible. I think so too, because it's also just romantic to be a patron of the arts, of the bookstores, of the world. And to be able to say, well, you know, and I'm not saying that people who would support or fund places like these are driven by narcissism. But it does feel good to do something like that because everybody loves an independent bookstore, especially one that feels like as romantic as Motherfucko sounds. Yes, very much so. So I don't know why this – I'll tell this quick story. I once heard about a bookshop in New York. And I think it was the old Blue Stockings. And they had a patron. And their mode of patronage, which is, I want a copy of every book you carry. So whenever you're ordering books, make one extra copy for me. And they would just come every week and pick up like 100 books. Oh, wow. Every week? Isn't that interesting? Every week. Wow. I mean, it's a small bookstore. So if they were ordering a new title, if they were getting one for the store, there was plus one just for this patron. And I don't know what happened to the books. This is a story I probably heard 25 years ago. So take it with all the grains of salt now that my brain is ricotta cheese and I can't remember things. But that stuck with me. But that was their way of like, they wanted the books, but it was an ongoing sort of standing order to keep some cash flow. Wow, what an interesting way to patronize a store. Yeah. If you all happen to know how exactly I could be corrected with understanding that story, shoot me an email, podcast at bookriot.com. So I got that. We got Indy. Where do you want to go? You pick next. We only got a few left here before we're going to hit first. I have to talk about the Pride and Prejudice and Jane heir of it all. All right. Are you excited for these? What do you think? So tell the people what these things are. I'm sorry. We should actually know what we're going to talk about. So we are getting both a new Pride and Prejudice adaptation. I think both of these are sweet. The Pride and Prejudice adaptation is a series. And the Jane Eyre. Yes, on Netflix. And it's done. It's shot as far as I understand. There's a teaser for that. Yes. And then the Jane Eyre adaptation is a film, I think. it's not quite clear yet TV adaptation so it's another series it does say TV adaptation we don't know what platform it is someone might pick it up they sell it to somebody else yeah it sounds like it's a UK production so who knows when we'll see it or how we'll see it but I am excited about both of these because predictably Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre were my favorite teenage reads. When there were classic works that I were immediately drawn to, these were the two. Now, that does not mean I have liked every adaptation. I was not a fan of the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice adaptation. I know a lot of people were, but I was a BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice person. Oh, okay. See, you have to be one or the other? You can't like Star Wars and Star Trek? Is it one of those where you've got to pick your BBC versus Keira Knightley? In my internal world, it is. Probably to nobody else, it is. Well, I like the BBC one, but I like the Keira Knightley one quite a bit better. And I haven't really investigated why. I think it's because it's short. Mine is probably very nostalgia-based because that was the first Pride and Prejudice. I'm pretty sure I actually watched Pride and Prejudice before I read it, which was not my usual thing as a teen. I was very opinionated about that. But that's how I sort of discovered Jane Austen for myself. And so, of course, I have this fondness for that particular adaptation. But I'm so I'm not even like I'm more curious about this Pride and Prejudice adaptation, especially after seeing the teaser trailer, because I was like, wow they're like really it feels the vibes feel different than what i would expect from an adaptation for my yeah i noticed the same thing and my first thought was they were trying to make it seem like a withering height situation yes which pride and prejudice is not or tends not i mean i guess you could do it where you're much more out on the moors and looking but it's much more verbal and much more a comedy, frankly. It's a comedy where things go well. It's a romance in the classical sense. And the pleasure, I think, for me at least, and the people I've talked to and what I've taught it, is the wit and repartee that go back and forth, whereas Wuthering Heights is the staring and hitting each other, I guess, is what people like about that book. But that was my first thought was, wow, I wonder if they cut that teaser differently if Wuthering Heights doesn't make $90 million at the box office. Yeah, that was my thought too. I was like, oh my gosh, these marketing people were scrambling to cut this teaser to make it look like, you know, to give it that smoldering, smutty appearance, which you really can't. The yearn. The yearn. Yeah, the yearn. So I was very confused for a minute because I was like, this is Jane Austen, right? Yes, this is Jane Austen. I'm not misremembering. but now I want to see an actual like full length trailer because I can't, I'm really struggling to imagine that this is the actual tone of it. And if it is, I will be super fascinated, perhaps angry. How you do that for the whole mini series, right? It's going to feel so weird. It's going to be too much. Like I would struggle with it, But my curiosity is edging out my cynicism right now for this one. And I like Jack Loudon quite a bit from Slow Horses, who's playing Mr. Darcy. Yes, I agree. I don't know much of the woman who's playing Elizabeth Bennett. I think my favorite thing about the 2005 Keira Knightley was the character who played Tom Collins and then Donald Sutherland. And I think they did a particularly fine job with the secondary characters at the same time. And both my daughter and I listened to the soundtrack on infinite repeat while I'm working. So it just sort of wormed its way into my brain. And then, so that one was already in the can. Maybe the teaser cut was related to Wuthering Heights success, but it was already done. But I think this other one in which Amy Lou Wood is going to start a new TV adaptation of Jane Eyre for working title, Amy Lou Wood of White Lotus fame. Like, what other Brontes in the public domain? Let's go get it. Let's go get Jane Eyre. And when we did the Zero to Well Ride episode for Wuthering Heights, we did note that Jane Eyre was a huge phenomenon, even more so than Wuthering Heights. And I think probably more contemporary readers have read Jane Eyre than Wuthering Heights. Is that any sense of it? I would think so. I should look this up. I would be shocked if it was the other way around. And I think more people have like at least an anecdotal understanding. Maybe this might be me being in my insular world of bookish people, but I think that they have more of an idea of what Jane Eyre is about than what Wuthering Heights is about. Right. Yeah I think the pitch is a little simpler for Jane Eyre Yeah Like just a plot Yeah and the idea it has a lot of like the sound the plotting and sort of the intrigue of even some contemporary mystery like this woman in the sorry spoiler alert for this super old book, but you know, this woman in the attic. I think we're beyond spoiler alerts for Jane Eyre. Yeah, you can call this the woman in the attic and sell it, you know, but I think that this story has also seen, I'm trying to remember, it's seen more adaptation. I know in the piece it said it hasn't had a recent. It's been, I mean, I thought I had the same thought, Sharif, I was like, what is the Jane Eyre that I know on film? And I could, I came up blank. I really did. I'm like, there isn't one starring like, I don't even know who would have starred, like Barbara Stanwyck or something. Like, I don't even know. I'll look it up now while we're talking about this a little bit to see there was one in 2011 with um michael fassbender yes that's the one i i watched multiple times you watched that one but i feel like that didn't do i don't think it did i don't think it was very like i don't i don't think enough people were kind of into those works or those adaptations unless it was something like you know emma or it was a lot of like austin stuff emma and since and sensibility where it was more lighthearted. I don't know that a lot of people were into the dark stuff. That's an interesting point, yeah. Yeah, directed by Keri Joji Fukunaga, who you probably know now for like True Detective and No Time to Die and some other stuff directed that. And I butchered Mia Kowska's name. She plays the titular. Jane Eyre and then Jamie Bell's in it as well. It looks like, I don't know, looks like it did okay. but it didn't do well enough. I was like, oh yeah, they just did this. There was a 2006 miniseries. I did not watch that. That I don't know anything about. The star is Ruth Wilson. So, you know, there've been some, there's been some, there was a 1996 one. This would have been in my wheelhouse. Who's in this? Oh, Franco Zeffirelli directed this. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Anna Paquin and William Heard. I did see this. I remember not enjoying that Sharifa. Now that I'm looking at the, the quick view. Oh no. I mean, I think Franco Zeffirelli adaptations are very divisive. Wasn't he the one that did? That's right. Was he the one that did the Romeo and Juliet adaptation? Okay. Yeah. The famous Romeo and Juliet. Yeah. And later got sued over it, but there's so many of these, there's a 1997 TV. There's a 1997 TDF. There is so many 1983, 1973. I would have guessed that a lot. 1961. Would come from the UK, like UK production. Like BBC has probably done a thousand adaptations of Jane Eyre. Their terrible daytime television must be so much better than ours. Like we have like the Hallmark TV movie and soap operas. And they've got like 17 Jane Eyres that no one's ever heard of. I would be so happy not with the food, but with the viewing over there. I'm sorry. Sorry to the UK people. So I can only imagine that they're like, we can snap up. Well, you don't have to snap anything up. This is public domain. You can do it. You don't ask anyone permission. And honestly, the casting of Amy LeWood makes me feel like this is a very promising start. Because I loved her in White Lotus. And I think that once I saw the news that she was cast as Jade Air, I was like, of course. Of course. because she is not like a perfect model-esque heroine. She's not Margot Robbie. Yeah, exactly. And there's something interesting and complex about her. So I think that I can see her doing this right. Yeah, I think that's an interesting point. Yeah, we don't know who Mr. Rochester is yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm sure they will get, who would they? Well, that's a different part. I don't know enough about contemporary actors to be good at this. Yeah, we'll have to saddle up the three of us for Zero to Well Read for Jane Eyre when the time comes to do that, when this is coming out. All right, let's do front list foyer now. Sharifa, brought to you, brought to us, really brought to the world by Thriftbooks.com. At Thriftbooks.com, you can find 19 million new and used titles. I mean, there's multiple copies of Jane Eyre. You think there's a lot of adaptations of Jane Eyre? I was doing the pre-roll for the Withering Heights. I think I said on that there were 1,800... What? ... editions that were available. No, 181. Now I'm getting... Let hundreds of different editions of Withering Heights over the years that you could find listed on thriftbooks.com. With each purchase gets you closer to a free book award, which you could use to pick up an old paperback or use towards a book purchase of any kind. Free shipping on orders of over 15 bucks in the US. and if there's something you've got your eye on, you can heart it if it's not in stock now and come check it out later. I will spoil this by saying, not really, but there's a, our next episode is for contemporary-ish novels, which there's not a lot of editions that are available, you know, American editions or English editions over time, but there's like this Chinese boxed edition that is super cool. And I saw they don't get them that often, but I made a little heart there. If that ever comes in, I want to be told. They didn't have a price for it, which I'm a little nervous about, but I wanted to know there. You can do all that on thriftbooks.com. Thanks so much for them for sponsoring Front List Foyer. What have you been reading, Trie? I just finished The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikisha Elise Williams. I don't know this book. It is so good. It just came out in January, I think late January, and it's historical fiction. It's a generational saga about the Dupree daughters, And it starts like in 19th century Alabama and goes all the way to 90s Chicago, Illinois. So there's some like 90s stuff going on there, which is very close to home for me. And then there's like this huge story of the maternal line of this family that is, you know, quote unquote, cursed by this terrible, violent event that happened with the first Dupree daughter who birthed a girl. So it is a hard read, but it is so good. I love a generational saga. This speaks to my heart. So I cannot recommend that book more. Cool. I read and finished quite quickly on a road business trip the other week, or last week, Two Women Living Together, which Rebecca talked about in Frontless Foyer and I mentioned as one of my anticipated books of the spring by Kim Hana and Hwang Sun-woo, translated from the Korean, a nonfiction dual memoir of them moving in together and buying a house platonically. And how they came to make that decision, what it was like to do it. I thought it was interesting. I think Rebecca talked about it feeling a little, I don't want to put words into her mouth, but it was interesting and affirming, but it didn't quite have, I don't know, it didn't quite have the teeth I was looking for or the mess or the, it felt reserved. It felt like they were holding quite a bit back. Now that could be just, I'm not used to reading these kinds of books and translation to different expectation. That's fine. But I kind of wanted more of a story and more of a... I guess I wanted to feel more like a family story, but they happen to be two single women who aren't romantically entangled, but they are entangled by a real estate transaction. And I think some of that is because we don't even know how to think about a relationship like this. Is it family? Is it not a family? Is it a business arrangement like we're taking care of each other's cats but you know if you've got insurance or these other medical things that come up that are sort of limited to family how does that work yeah i'm glad i read it it wasn't very long but i felt myself feeling like i wanted something more introspective and revelatory than what i got here to be perfectly honest so i can't not not i'm not not recommending it, but I'm not going to really be stumping for this one. I was curious about that book, so it's helpful to know that. Yeah, I wouldn't go out and run it. Now, if you're considering, like, if you're actually, I think if you're actually considering doing something like this, it might be interesting to see it has. I'm not in a position where this is something I'm interested in, but it didn't feel like it was interesting enough on its own as anything other than a concept. It felt a little more instruction manually and maybe a long blog post of like how this happened together just didn't really have juice. And sometimes it's hard to know what that what's missing in something. Yeah. Hmm. Anyway, so there you go. That's what I'm reading right now. I'm in the middle of like three different things. Of course. Audiobook, another. I will say right now that I just started, I got a audiobook advanced copy of the new Patrick Radden Keefe London Calling, and I am finding every single minute I can spare to throw my headphones on. I love that experience. I will say more when I'm done, but it comes out in April, so I am completely enthralled by what Patrick Radden Keefe does. As listeners of the show will know that is no surprise to hear that I like a new Patrick Radden Keefe book. So there we go. Anything else, Sharifa? What else we got? coming up. Do we have another Best Books of the Century coming up soon? Do we have one in now? Yeah, we do. We have one every month. Yeah, I don't even know what time it is. I think the next one I don't think I'm spoiling anything here. I think it's Mystery Thriller which is a big one. So I think a lot it's a tough one to conquer and I have to give it up to Vanessa who led, who captained that list because it was no easy feat. But that one is one of our big best of the century lists we're releasing. So look forward to it. March 11th. Yep. March 11th. That's my birthday. Oh, look at that. Happy birthday to me. Yeah. Sorry. I put that on the internet. I didn't mean to do that. Anyway, bookrack.com slash listen for show notes. with the link to the stories we talked about in this episode. You'll find it right in the palm of your hand in your phone and the episode notes in your podcast player of choice. You can choose email podcast at bookriot.com. Look for the it books of the March season, winter. March is a sneakily good. I think in the draft of the best book releases of the year, right now I go September, June October May March so I guess it's kind of more in the middle but it's closer towards the end of the top it's always it's always a sneakily good month like the first week in January is sneakily good all of March is sneakily good wow now I have to go look at it for that yeah I don't know what's off the top of my head oh also just bought by Kin by Tyree Jones after Rebecca was raving about it's probably speaking of Frontless Foyer my stack runneth over there. Check out Zero to Well Read. Check out the Patreon, patreon.com slash bookriotpodcast to get our bonus content over there. We get a couple of bonus episodes per month. Always appreciate your support. Sharifa, a pleasure. It was great. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you for listening today. We hope you'll enjoy this excerpt from the audiobook of Moms in labor by Daphne Delvaux, sponsored by HarperCollins Leadership. So with this book, I'm here to do two things. Inform you of the truth and empower you to take advantage of every legal right you have. When we do this, it works. I've seen it happen for so many moms. When I share my teachings, I met with two responses. I'm so happy I met you, or I wish I'd known this when I had my babies. In fact, I have a folder on my phone entitled, You Saved My Leave, to hold the many stories I received from parents, thanking me for the time off with their babies they took because of me. That folder has thousands of screenshots and counting. That's thousands of babies. I have another folder called Flex and Mamas, with stories from many mothers I've helped with flex or remote work accommodations. Another folder is called Mama Got Paid, because so many women shared how I helped them get a raise or negotiate a severance while protecting their reputation. Here are just some of their stories. I just returned to work today after 10 months of benefits. HR didn't tell me about them. You did. I got my leave extended by five weeks thanks to you. I never would have known and my employer never offered. Had no idea that this was my right. I'm now working from home three days a week with my reasonable accommodation. So very thankful. I was about to quit breastfeeding because pumping was impossible. Then you taught me how to work with my employer on getting my needs met, and now we're back on track. Nursing my baby is my favorite moment after coming home from work, and it's all because of you. You're truly an angel on earth. You're doing God's work. I was about to quit my job and was experiencing so much stress that my doctor was telling me it was impacting my pregnancy and baby. Because of you, I was able to calmly request my needs in a way they couldn't say no to. And now I'm able to work from my bed. I'm so, so relaxed. All while knowing my job will be there when I return. Thank you on behalf of me and thank you on behalf of my baby for giving her a relaxed mommy. I'm kind of dumbfounded that I had options I didn't know about. Now I know that the law has my back and I should not be fucked with. The world is a better place because of you. I shared my story with my state representative. They voted for paid leave in our state and the bill passed. Thank you for giving me the courage to use my voice to not be scared and to fight for change. These stories represent my proudest achievements because allowing babies to come into the world to parents who can enjoy a stress-free and supported bonding experience prevents generational trauma. So that's what we will do in this book. I promise that you will learn something you did not know, which will make you feel less powerless and less hopeless. Because if we feel disempowered, we act accordingly. Instead, this book is a consolidation of my secrets as a trial lawyer protecting employees at work from exploitative and demanding expectations. I will share a lot of stories about my cases and trials, and I will be sure to share plenty of positive stories as well because the good truly does outweigh the bad. No matter what the outcome, however, these stories will show you the bravery of my former clients. I hope you let their courage inspire you. What I will not do is teach you how to sue your employer, but rather how to prevent legal conflicts entirely. How to be a powerhouse at work, someone to be respected, even feared a little, because you know your rights and you know how to advocate for what's right. I will be that protective shield between the forces of capitalism and you and your baby. Think of me as Arya Stark, just back from Braavos. Crazy skills and able to fight in the dark. My goal here is to protect your pregnancy and baby bubble. And I will do that through a combination of education, step-by-step roadmaps, hot takes, and snackable success stories. One final note before we get started is that I'm a lawyer, but not your lawyer. This means that you will use this information as a source of inspiration, not as a strict constitution. As the law is nuanced and complex, it is always wise to consult with a local attorney if you're unsure of the particulars of your personal issue. So, come here, my dear friend. Grab a warm beverage. Put your phone in another room. Let me teach you my secrets. Let us outsmart them together. It can be done, and I know that because I've done it a thousand times. The patterns are the same. There is a method, and you can learn it. You will never regret advocating for your rights. And you will never regret advocating for your baby. Because you are not lucky to have a job, that's some bullshit. it. No, your job is lucky to have you. And so is your baby. Let's get started.