reading – Adventure Is Booked

S2E12: LOVE is LOVE is LOVE is LOOOOVE

By booksandteapodcast | June 27, 2018

This week, Kyrie and Cori discuss LGBTQ+ books they selected, as well as some history on Pride month.

What We Are Drinking

During their discussion, Kyrie and Cori, and their special guest Sydney drink Rosa De Jamaica, and it is a Hibiscus and Pineapple ice tea from Two Sisters Tea. As you can see by the photo below, it’s this beautiful merlot colour and has sweet and bitter tastes of hibiscus. This tea came in Cori’s June Sips by box. Want to try this awesome monthly subscription box? Head over to Sips by to fill out a profile and try it out yourself AND get $5 off your first box!

What We Are Talking About
Kyrie’s pick, Simon vs. The Homosapien Agenda follows young Simon around in high school, as he goes from having a internet crush with a mysterious classmate called Blue, to the difficulties of being blackmailed by someone who knows his secret, to finally coming out to his friends, family, and realizing who Blue actually is. A teenage perspective on the difficulties of being gay in high school.

Cori’s selection, This is How it Always follows the family of five year old Claude, who loves his five brothers and peanut butter sandwiches, but also loves wearing dresses and wants to be a princess when he grows up. As his family encourages him to become who he wants, Pepper, the family keeps a secret of who she really is, until it explodes. This novel of family shows the strength, courage, struggles, and sacrifices everyone makes to keep a secret, but eventually the love of acceptance.

We Are Fundraising!

Help support your two favourite podcasters by donating to their GoFundMe page! Each donation level comes with a gift for you!! A big shout out to: Roger, Ali, Stephanie, and Liz for being the first three to donate!!

What We Are Reading Next
Kyrie and Cori explore Summer reading!

Kyrie’s Pick: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Cori’s Pick: Hey Ladies! The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails by Michelle Markowitz and Caroline Moss

Cori’s Pick is also for the Modern Mrs Darcy 2018 Reading Challenge. This is a book recommended by a librarian or indie bookseller. Cori heard about this book from Annie Jones the owner of the The Bookshelf in Thomasville Georgia while while listening to their podcasts: From The Front Porch.

Our Sponsor This Week:

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References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_pride

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/health/pride-month-explainer-trnd/index.html

https://www.glaad.org/publications/pridekit

Kyrie’s Goodreads

Cori’s Goodreads

S2E11: The Underdog

By booksandteapodcast | June 13, 2018

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Hi Book Friends – our awesome sound editor, Daniel let us know that the recording quality was not so great this time around… Not sure what happened. Oh, technology. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

This week, Kyrie and Cori discuss books that have underdogs, as well as some history on what an underdog is–literally! During their discussion, Kyrie and Cori drink delicious iced tea, but not just any iced tea, it’s Books and Tea Herbal tea. Kyrie rode her bike today and Cori must have picked up on her not wanting to drink anything hot. What’s so nice about the herbal blend is that it’s subtle but refreshing. You can taste everything in it (the citrus, the mango, the mint, the green rooibos!) and we love it so much!

Speaking of tea, did you know we are currently doing a GoFundMe campaign to earn some money for our operating expenses?! Well, head over to our page and see what to donate to get some groovy items from us, including tea, book recommendations, a book, and the chance to be on our show!

Kyrie was too busy traveling Europe to read any of these books. Well, Kyrie tried to read her book, but alas, it had too many words–and we all know how Kyrie feels about that. So fortunately, Cori read both of these books and gives an overview and discusses why she may or may not like them!

Kyrie’s pick, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown follows, as you guessed it, nine men from America rowing their way to the Olympics.

Cori’s selection, Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand is about a horse. But not just any horse. A thoroughbred racing horse who, to the amazement of many, achieved greatness in the 1930’s. It’s also about his people: owner, jockey, and trainer.

Sponsor

The Dog Healers by Mark Winik. A copy was provided in exchange for a fair review. His agent noticed we were going to be talking about underdogs and thought this might be a fun tie in. Cori’s Review is posted on social media.

FINALLY! A truly powerful heroine. Mark Winik’s debut novel is the suspense packed story of a fierce young healer named Isabella who can breathe life into ailing dogs and turn race horses into champions. In the tradition of Eva Peron, she ignores her Argentinian culture’s ideas about female roles, plunging into the shadowy reaches of the horse racing world where thugs would turn her gift into riches. To her, money is just the means to her dream: creating a haven for all dogs, be they wretched, ill oraggressive. Isabella wields wit and charisma among society ladies, twisting gold-braceleted arms for donations, exerting a still greater spell on men. This includes her handsome protege Carlos, who yearns for the love Isabella shares with her dogs.
But her dogs are her allies as villainous threats mount. Isabella faces the fight of her life, but when you’ve got dogs you’re not in it alone.

Next Episode

Coming up next time, Kyrie and Cori explore LGBTQ+ books in honor of Pride Month! Yay love!Kyrie’s Pick: Simon vs. the Homosapien Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Cori’s Pick: This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel

References:
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/45812/why-is-dog-in-underdog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underdog

http://flavorwire.com/318138/10-of-the-greatest-underdogs-in-literature

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/58314-the-10-best-underdogs-in-books.html

S2E9: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Kyrie thought these were great, Cori thought they were poo

By booksandteapodcast | May 16, 2018

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Okay, maybe not poo. But it rhymed. And Cori was less excited than Kyrie about the content.

This week, Kyrie and Cori discuss the poetry collections they selected, as well as some history on poetry! During their discussion, Kyrie and Cori drink Plum Deluxe’s Vanilla Latte Tea, which, does taste like a vanilla latte, especially when you add any sort of cream. The Vanilla is just sweet enough in this black tea that it requires no extra sweetener. A delicious tea that tastes a bit like coffee that was perfect for a chilly spring day!

The publishing schedule continues to be off by about two weeks and Kyrie and Cori continue to roll with it. April was National Poetry Month, and we read and discussed these books in April.

What We Read

First off, it should be known that there are triggers abound in both of these collections.

Kyrie’s pick, the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace takes you on an emotional journey of what Kyrie thinks many 20-something ladies experience. There’s heartache; there’s happiness and sadness; there’s emotional abuse; there’s letting a man make you feel small and not treat you right. There are also poems that are too familiar for some that include the themes of sexual abuse, rape, and violence.

Cori’s selection, milk and honey by Rupi Kaur was, well, perhaps too similar in style and content (um, notice the lower case titles of both…). This is also a very personal and emotional collection that primarily deals with the highs and lows of family and relationships.

Coming Up Next Week

Kyrie and Cori explore books by Asian-American authors in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Kyrie’s pick: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Cori’s pick: Hotel of Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

S2E7: Brain Candy

By booksandteapodcast | April 18, 2018

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This week, Kyrie and Cori discuss current “chick lit,” which they both call “brain candy.” Modern chick lit is known for following the ups and downs of 20 and 30-something women who tend to be heterosexual and white. The settings tend to be British and American cities.

During their discussion, Kyrie and Cori drink Steep’s White Peach tea. Steep is a local Flagstaff tea shop, and you can order their tea online. Kyrie and Cori both really enjoy peach tea, and they enjoy Steep, so the combination was perfect. White tea seems to be one of the best bases for a peach flavored tea. It keeps it from being too sweet or overly flavored. Steep’s is one of the best we have tasted.

Kyrie’s pick, Where We Belong by Emily Giffin follows Marian Caldwell, a thirty-something television producer, living her dream life in New York City. With a fulfilling career and satisfying relationship, she has convinced everyone, including herself, that her life is just as she wants it to be. And then Kirby Rose shows up, who shakes and rattles her world for the rest of the book. Interchanging between Kirby’s point of view and Marian, we get to live through a coming of age story of an 18 year old and a 36 year old.

Cori’s selection, My (not so) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella takes place across the pond in London. Katie Brenner is almost living her perfect life after college. She is living in London and working at a marketing firm. Maybe her boss is scary and mean and her flatmates are terrible, but this is what she wanted, and she can always take beautiful pictures and put them on Instagram and pretend they are her life. Katie is then blindsided a lay off and heads home to the English countryside to lick her wounds and help her parents start a bed and breakfast business. All is going well until her old boss shows up as guest.

Show Sponsor
Another Flagstaff podcast is promoted in this episode. Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom is the owner of Do Good Be Good. Sharon coordinates workshops that are primarily directed towards team and staff development for local government entities and non-profits. On the Do Good, Be Good podcast she interviews people doing meaningful work (paid or volunteer). It’s always interesting so visit her site and check out her podcast

Coming Up Next Week

Kyrie and Cori explore books about nature in honor of Earth Day

Kyrie’s Pick: The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries From a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
Cori’s Pick: The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams

S2E5: Austen vs. Brontë

By booksandteapodcast | March 21, 2018

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This week, Kyrie and Cori discuss classic chic lit, but instead of doing what they usually do (discussing each book), they instead decide to show the differences/similarities of the two authors, as well as discuss parts of the books. As always, they’ll give a brief description and history of Chick Lit. During their discussion, Kyrie and Cori drink some tea by Adagio–the flavour of pu erh chorange which is essentially chocolate and orange. Kyrie really enjoys the tea (gulped it down quickly), while Cori thought the combination of chocolate and orange didn’t go well together. Needless to say, Kyrie went home with this one.

Kyrie picked Jane Eyre and Cori picked Emma. The authors, Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen are quite different in their writing styles. While Emma follows the normal Jane Austen theme of a privileged young lady, who is a bit naive and aloof, Jane Eyre is a bit more gothic and dark. Kyrie enjoys Jane Austen, while Cori enjoys Charlotte Brontë. The lightness, the predictability, and the love of Austen’s characters is what keeps Kyrie coming back for more Austen. Cori enjoyed the more dark, obscure, and a little bit crazy story of Jane Eyre.

These were also our picks for the 2018 Modern Mrs Darcy Reading Challenge: A Classic You’ve Been Meaning To Read.

Coming Up Next Week:

Kyrie and Cori continue to explore books about women in honor of Women’s Month.

Kyrie’s Pick: The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg
Cori’s Pick: All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of the Independent Woman by Rebecca Traister

S2E2: Battle of the Countries Part 2

By booksandteapodcast | February 7, 2018

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This week, Kyrie and Cori continue their selection of French vs. English, with Kyrie picking a book based in France, while Cori picks a book based in England. Which book/country will they enjoy the most this time?

During their discussion, Kyrie and Cori drink an Earl Grey from Flagstaff’s locally owned tea store Steep. The Earl Grey has a strong essence of flowers, but is quite enjoyable. Earl Grey is probably Cori’s favorite, and this one is perfect example of what you want in an Earl Grey. If you don’t live in Flagstaff, you can still try out Steep’s tea. They do mail order!

Fun fact: Steep is where Kyrie and Cori got the idea of starting this podcast! After meeting for months, drinking tea, and discussing all the books they’ve read since their last visit, Kyrie and Cori had a lightbulb go on with the idea of creating a podcast talking about the books!

Kyrie’s pick, The Bookseller by Mark Pryor follows US Embassy worker Hugo as one of his friends, a bookseller along the Seine, is taken away from him right before his eyes. When he starts investigating, he learns other booksellers have been disappearing for a while–what is happening to all these booksellers? Turns out Hugo will uncover sinister plots related to these disappearances. There’s a lot of different twists and turns and plots and drama–it’s a classic mystery of “who done it?” Cori’s selection, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is a quirky read set in alternate version of England that is slightly different from the one we know. It definitely goes into the fantasy realm. For one thing, literature is a big thing to most people. There is even a police force just for investigating literary crimes. Our heroine, Thursday Next, gets sucked into catching a criminal who is threatening to make Jane Eyre disappear if he doesn’t get what he wants.

Coming Up Next Week

Kyrie and Cori explore the genre of the Dark of Winter and a “Book You Can Finish in a Day” for the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2018 Reading Challenge

Kyrie’s Pick: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Cori’s Pick: The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Episode 17: Fiction Native American Stories

By booksandteapodcast | December 13, 2017

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This week, Kyrie and Cori conclude their first season with the continuation of Native American Heritage month books! Tazo tea sent them some sweet dessert tea to try, so Kyrie sipped on the Vanilla Bean Macaron and Cori sipped on the Lemon Loaf. Both were delicious and could easily be used to curb that sweet craving you might have.

Kyrie’s fiction pick was The Orenda by Joseph Boyden. Kyrie wanted to like this book, but it was long, the three character narration was often times confusing, and left her without really feeling anything.

Cori’s fiction selection was Last Standing Woman by Winona LaDuke, a Native environmental activist. She picked it because she enjoyed one of her non-fiction books and heard her speak at NAU while in grad school. It seemed like an interesting premise following seven generations of Chippewa women from first contact with whites and into the future. The continually changing storyline and characters made for a disjointed read, and it was hard to keep track of the familial connections.

Both Kyrie and Cori felt inundated with the similarity of all the stories. It also might be because the nonfiction pieces Kyrie and Cori picked were so great, but perhaps it’s because it’s hard to read four books about Native American Culture and the wrongs done to them. Upon reflection, it might have been easier to digest and be more enjoyable if we had picked one fiction piece and one nonfiction piece.

Other books mentioned in this episode included The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke.

We will be taking a winter break to plan our next season, select our reading list, start our reading, and hopefully come back stronger and better than before. We appreciate your support and your listening this season. Have comments on what we could do to improve? Please leave them in our comments! We’ll read them and see how we can make it better for you.

Be on the look out on our social media pages to have two chances to win a Books and Tea bag filled with 5 of Kyrie’s and Cori’s favourite books of the year!

We hope you have a happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year. We’ll see you in 2018.

Episode 16: Native American Heritage Month–Nonfiction

By booksandteapodcast | November 15, 2017

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This week, Kyrie and Cori read nonfiction books about Native Americans in honour of Native American Heritage Month. Cori has prepared her version of a pumpkin spice chai latte using Tazo Tea’s Pumpkin Chai.

Kyrie’s pick, Neither wolf nor dog : on forgotten roads with an Indian elder by Kent Nerburn explores the reservation and the tales of an Lakota Elder named Dan, to write Dan’s perspective of not only life of a Native American, but white privilege, the taking away of rights by white people, and easy life of paying attention to mother earth. After a faulty start, Kent get’s “kidnapped” and taken on the back roads as Dan tells his story and changes Kent’s perspective.

Cori’s Pick, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann investigates a series of murders of wealthy Osage people that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma in the early 1920s. The Osage became some of the wealthiest people in the country after big oil deposits were discovered beneath their land. The mystery of who is orchestrating these killings and what else David Gran discovers in his research will keep you engaged and guessing until the end.

That President that served more than two terms we were wondering about? Franklin D. Roosevelt! According to the website: “The only president to serve more than two terms was Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1940 he won the election for his third term. Four years later in 1944, he ran again. He became the only president to be elected to a fourth term. However, he was president for only a year into his fourth term before he suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and passed away.”

We’re taking a break for the Thanksgiving Holiday, and will release our final episode after we all recuperate from our turkey comas. Stay tuned as we continue our exploration and honoring of Native American Heritage Month in our final episode of the season with fiction books.

Kyrie’s Pick: The Orenda – Joseph Boyden

Cori’s Pick: Last Standing Woman – Winona LaDuke

We wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and thank you for listening.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Indian_Heritage_Month

https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about/

http://www.ncai.org/initiatives/native-american-heritage-month

Episode 15: Horror scary stories

By booksandteapodcast | November 8, 2017

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This week, Kyrie and Cori discuss the books they selected for the horror/scary genre, as well as what the heck the difference between horror, thriller, and suspense genres! Here’s a sneak peek at the findings: all deal with fear. During their discussion, Kyrie and Cori drink Yogi Cranberry Spice Probiotic . It’s a bit bitter, but not overwhelmingly so. Kyrie and Cori think it’s just ok.
Kyrie’s pick,World War Z by Max Brooks, goes into full detail/testimonials of what happened with the big zombie apocalypse has happened. There isn’t much of a plot, but mostly just people’s stories at different times and places as this zombie apocalypse was happening. According to Max, he took things that have technically already happened and just added zombies!

Cori’s selection, Security by Gina Wohlsdorf, is about killers in a luxury hotel that is about to open. One by one, the employees are being killed off, and only you and the omniscient narrator knows what is going on for quite some time. The story is literally told through the view of the gazillion security cameras. Like all good slasher stories, you can expect a high body count and some gruesome blood and guts visuals/descriptions.

Coming Up Next Week:

Kyrie and Cori explore Native American Heritage Month by reading nonfiction pieces

Kyrie’s Pick: Neither wolf nor dog: on the forgotten roads with an Indian Elder by Kent Nerburn

Cori’s Pick: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI – David Grann

References:
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2nq32g/what_are_the_differences_between_horror_suspense/

Episode lucky 13: Spooky scary stories

By booksandteapodcast | October 25, 2017

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This week, it’s lucky episode 13 and Kyrie and Cori discuss spooky/scary books to get ready for Halloween! Kyrie and Cori pick books by the same author, which was a complete oversight, but also pretty cool to see the author tell two different stories. During their discussion, Kyrie and Cori drink Jasmine tea because Kyrie looked at the back of the box and it has so many positive things!!

Kyrie’s picked The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Jackson does a great job of not giving away too much, and allows the reader to decide what happened to the people in the book. Hill house comes alive, or does it?

Cori’s picked We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Again, Jackson doesn’t disappoint with making you feel a little creepy about what is happening. Relationships with people in the book are also still creepy.

Other books that are spooky scary mentioned in today’s podcast:

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Coming Up Next Week, Kyrie and Cori explore suspense books to follow our halloween theme!
Kyrie’s Pick: Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Hayes
Cori’s Pick: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Make sure you subscribe to their podcast to get updates and check them out on their social media feeds! If you like what you’re hearing, go over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review to help them reach a broader audience of book and tea lovers! Read along with us and partake in the discussion via our blog or Facebook! Logo: Chris Taesali. Sound and Editing: Daniel Stearman.