hi Julia. Welcome to the What's Your Next Podcast?

Happy to be back

So happy to have you back. We were just catching out 'cause we've been we haven't seen each other in quite a few months

so long. Truly, so long.

and so we were like, life has been laughing so. Tell us where you're up to, because you did get a new job, so you're actually working in new division. You're still working in polishing, but you're working on new division, new books, and you were telling me all about the books and I'm like so freaking excited about them.

Thank you. Well, I am now officially a marketing associate, which is very But the biggest change is I was on a little bit of everything in my last job. But now I'm very focused in wellness nonfiction, so that's, books by doctors. It's cookbooks, it's memoirs, it's what we call like prescriptive books. It's nothing I like, I never would've expected it for myself, but I'm loving it like it's a lot of fun

Yeah.

it's. It's so funny, like my, the running joke with my colleagues is Julia will find a way to connect any book to a romance book, but it

Yeah,

true. Like I have done run so many giveaways with book. Like for example, I had a book called Person in Progress, and it's about the psychology of your twenties. And I was like, well, what is every romance book? But a girl in her twenties who's lost and confused. So I

you.

with another part of our division to do a joint giveaway. With person progress and daddy issues by Kate Goldbeck, which is the follow up to you again. So like the running joke in my team. But I am really liking working in nonfiction as a fiction reader in my heart of hearts.

I, I started listening daddy issues and it's delightful.

It's fun.

It is a fun one. So, but I have to tell you, I love, as someone who just revisit nonfiction, I read a lot of nonfiction in my early thirties before I went back to fiction, and it's been such a joy to read about. Things about things outside of your comfort zone. Learn about new topics, new eras. And a lot of times what I was surprised about is they're not dull, they're not boring books. They're actually really interesting. The writing is actually engaging and it keeps you going, and then you learn something new. You might be surprised. I was reading a book about groceries. It was recommended by another podcaster. And I actually had to turn it down because it was too depressing to hear about how my groceries were put together. But it was fascinating and it read like fiction. As someone who's now I was telling you, I was like, I'm about to start perimenopause. I'm in that hormonal forties. Most of my friends were talking about hormones and stuff like that. You're like, oh yeah, they'll menopause people here,

we call them the Meno Posse.

Yes. And I think this is like really exciting because you're providing literature because it's readily accessible for us to understand what is going on and then understand like how we can actually make this stuff. So let's talk about a couple books you mentioned in the nonfiction that you're, they're marketing. 'cause I'm actually really excited to talk about those. And then we'll talk about some other book combinations and other fiction. We'll go back to fiction, but yeah.

Well, the first one that comes to mind because you mentioned books that read like fiction is a book I worked on this summer called Anatomy of a Con Artist,

Yes.

by the host of queen of the Con, which was like this podcast that went like semi viral a couple years ago. But the gist is that this man was scammed out of over a hundred thousand dollars from

Yeah.

scam artist. So he wrote this book on basically. are the 14 red flags to stop you from being scammed. But it reads like a fiction. 'cause you're reading

Yes.

true life account of this is when I started to be suspicious. And then this is when

Yes.

aspect. So it truly is we pitched it to so many fans of like crime fiction as

Yeah.

is, it's just, it's the true crime. It's true crime. It's true crime,

Yeah.

form or

So I'm bumping this one up for sure. And it does read like flexion, so I That's even better.

Yeah, I feel like that one was a big example of that. And like a lot of the reviews that we were getting said that said,

Yeah.

it was picked as like a book club pick of it's like next book club, I believe is

Yeah.

And I don't think they typically pick a ton of nonfiction, but they

Yeah.

one because it read like fiction and because. Jonathan Walton, who is our author, is like very engaging, very much willing to talk about his experience and he really shares a lot about how I. The biggest problem with being scammed is that you, you get embarrassed about it. So you keep

Yes, it's a shame.

that shame stops you from speaking out and prevents like other, like victims from being like harassed and heard and everything. So he just recommends get the shame out of it, just, talk to people about it. 'cause you need to be honest.

Yes.

tagline was some people play golf on the weekends. Jonathan Walton fights crime.

Yes.

He became like an amateur PI because

Yeah.

people get their con artists convicted.

Yes, it is. It is a process to get someone convicted. It is not, at least,

got his, like his lady just got convicted,

yeah, it is a process and stuff like, that's like the bigger part is like I actually prepare a case for the law enforcement to actually review it and to actually take action. And it's a long game. You cannot expect someone to get convicted in five, five minutes. It's like years

was able to write

making, yes.

was convicted.

Yes. It's years in the making, so, yes. Oh, I am so excited for this. I am gonna bump it up. I'm gonna request it for my library for the audio, because I love audio space, like audio books and stuff, so, but let's,

of our audiobooks are read by the author too, which is really nice 'cause

oh, that's even better. Yes.

best? They do have to audition to it, which is like an

Yes.

thing that I was like shocked by. But I guess that makes sense.

Yeah.

it is they are auditioning for a part, even if they wrote the book.

Yeah,

you do.

you gotta talk about the witchy.

get it.

Yeah. Now you gotta talk about the witchy book, because I am actually excited for this one. You told, like you gave me a.

I first, first things first, I begged to be on this book basically the editor. We have these things called Office Hours and we all just sit around and we chat about what we're working on. And it's a great idea to ideate and meet the editors and really come up with ideas. And Catherine the editor who's wonderful, was like, yeah, so I just bought this book called Mundane Magic, and I was like, tell me about it. It sounds so interesting. And she was like. So it's this witch who has a DHD and has come up with this system called Mundane Magic, which helps her with executive functioning and helps her her house, keep nice routines, do all this stuff for her mental health and yeah. And she has, background as a trauma counselor. She's a theater kid. Like she has all these things and I was like me. I want that book now. So I like told my boss like, I really think I could do something with this book. Like I think it would be great. And I had like just started and my boss was like I've gotten a lot of, I've been very lucky, I've had a lot of awesome bosses who were like, oh, you really wanna do this? If you have passion for it, do it. Because the Respond well to that. They really do

Yeah. So the outlook is perfect for all the witches and all the.

exactly. Like I already in my head have five different romance witchy books that I wanna pair it with.

Yeah.

and a big thing I'm really going for is I wanna go after the Witchy kids, but this book at the end of the day is just for anyone who feels stuck in their

Yeah.

and who is like struggling with keeping, 'cause it's hard to keep a space clean, especially if you're dealing with depression, anxiety, all these mental

Yeah.

Oh, you're just dealing with the world as it is right now. So like it. It really helps and like she has like these clutter crushing charms and stuff that

Yes.

to. It's so good.

So it's kind of like Kamari be witchy. You remember the Marie Kondo squirrel but make it witchy.

Yeah. Make it witchy. And the thing is, you don't have to be a full believer to use this

Oh

it's just about adding a little bit of magic into something that feels mundane as the

yeah.

says, so that you are more excited to do it. In my mind, I see it almost romanticize your life, like you're the

Yes. Yeah.

in the movie would have a clean place, would she not?

Yes,

She wouldn't have a dusty gross. Place, like she Like your main character in your Hallmark movie would have, a beautiful, clean New York City apartment, so

yes.

gonna let her down by

Yes.

in my filth because you also feel better when your space is clean and you have these routines. So

Yes,

that I'm working on that like literally I live by it and the cover is beautiful. It's so purple and cute

I love this. Oh my gosh. I love the fact that it's like bringing little magic to the resets and the stuff because I don't know about you, but I love watching a good Sunday reset as someone who just cleans everything, meal preps, do all the different things, and it just brings a lot of just not having reset and just okay, I can start the week, I can actually do this. What I learned from me is, 'cause I have freeze, like I, I freeze functionally. And so what I learned is I have to break it down to like bite-size things like five to 10 minutes class.

that she says Two minutes every day

Yes. Yes.

Once a month is so much better.

It's so much better. It's no,. I'm gonna do the laundry, and then I'm gonna break it down to okay, fold the laundry. This mo this 10 minutes I'm gonna put some music and then I'm gonna load the dishwasher. It's break it down to bite sizes as, as opposed to when the thing about Kaari was like, it was so big, it was like, everything bring you joy. And I'm like I'm frozen.

Yeah, you, because the thing is. big thing that I love about nonfiction, but that I also caution people is that nonfiction is not a one size fits all solution. so, there are some like very popular books that might

Yeah.

people. The Let Them Theory for example, that

Yeah.

people, but it's not gonna help other people. So

Yes.

just in general, I always suggest that people, take, what's helpful from it? 'cause you are learning from experts, from

Yeah.

who have honed their craft. but in general yeah, you have to know that 'cause yeah, marie Kondo and like all these incredible people definitely mean well, and their stuff probably works for a lot of people with quote

Yeah.

normal brains, but it doesn't work for people whose brains are a little different.

Yeah. I think take what you like and lead the rest. I learned that really early on. I was like. Sometimes you gotta listen to your intuition and that's your one, one stop mind of just like clearing in your body of okay, what does my body wants? What does, what do I think I want or do I need to know? And it helps you make those decisions to be like, no, this is the life that I wanna live. And owning your life. It gets easier when you get older, but I think it's like allowing yourself to take where you like and leave the rest and be like, you know what? That doesn't fit me. It's okay.

That's fine. And then I also just think we're in a growing time of, misinformation and a lot of like dangerous stuff being spread. And I think it's good to revert to experts. So A lot of our books are written by doctors and are heavily researched because Greenhouse does not wanna be sued. Bad information. Like We have an entire legal team, we have researchers, we have out the wazoo have also like books that are consistently revised when more data is updated.

Yeah.

think that it's a good thing to, to work on in general. Like I, I feel like I'm making a difference, which feels

Okay.

'cause it's kind of, the world burning, all that good stuff. But you kind of have to find what you can. And for me, if it's getting someone a book. Because to be frank, it's hard and expensive to see doctors to do almost anything.

Yeah.

to buy a book.

It really is

it

So let's talk about your other passion, which is fiction books and it's romance. You are my go-to romcom queen. Talk to us about the latest romance you have read or which ones you would recommend our listeners to pick up.

So have kind of been in a bit of a reading slump. Just a

Yeah.

nothing terrible, but it has been like. Hard, but the book that I read recently that I like absolutely enjoyed was Along Came Amor by my God, is that book good? It is just, it's so good. I love The Primas of Power. It's like one of

yes.

series of all time. will read anything that lady writes, like she's truly. And it's so big and I didn't know I was getting it. So it was also just all these

Okay.

'cause I guess I'm on some list from Avon of like probably on a list of Latina bookstore grammars who have talked about this series before. So I got the book randomly. I was like, oh, I wonder what this is. 'cause it was thicker than usual. 'cause if you

Yeah,

like, I'm looking at it on my shelf right now and it's a thick book. And I was

it is.

this is. And I open it and I was like, oh, is this probably some fantasy that I won't read? But I open it and it's a long, and I literally went oh my God. I think I have a video. 'cause I was like I sent a video to my friend and I was like, I don't know what this is. Let me check. So it is still nice when I get those little hints of book mail. Like I just got Timothy Janowsky mannequin for Christmas book that just came in the mail and I wasn't expecting that either. So it was like.

Oh my God.

I haven't read that yet, so I can't speak to it, but that one's been good. I've also consistently been in a historical romance phase just for the rest of my life. I love it so

Yes.

it's just, it's so escapist and it's just a lot of fun.

Yeah.

I will say they kind of merged together in my mind. Like the

Yeah.

out are like Gabriela and his Grace, or like the ones like "Don't want you like a best friend." Like ones that like to be frank, ones who have a little bit of diversity are the ones that stick

Yes

Think that's intentional. I think it. I don't know. There's something so magical about it, about like inclusivity in a historic time period.

Yeah.

Bridge Two so much because it's like, it's colorful and pretty and it also, has diversity in it. That is like why I love that show and it has totally transformed my thoughts on I would refuse to watch anything like. Austen, anything until Bridgeton, and now I can go back and be like, okay, I see the charm in this.

Yeah.

it took Bridgeton for that to happen and I still think, you could add some sparkles, it would look nice.

Yes.

not one of those people who cares about historical accuracy oh,

But you know, there is, there was diversity in the historical world like that.

there were people of different races and genders and sexualities

Yeah. I, I don't know. And honestly, when we get into the historical accuracy, let's talk about fantasy, let's talk about murder. Did you, do you have accuracy for how these people get murdered and stuff? Because I don't see you like looking at crime scene. Go

No,

back.

like I just can't stand with selective outrage 'cause I'm

Yeah,

you are so pressed about some diamonds on a little outfit, I would like to plug, there's this app I love called Page Bound, which is like a new version of like Good Reads or

I have to try it. I've been through my own little app. I actually created my own little reading tracker.

Oh, you did?

Yes. So let's start with that. I've broke up with Good Reads this past year for very few reasons. I found it that it was not only has it updated for years, for a bunch of years it also stopped letting me see what my friends were reading. And I, that's the whole point of why I do good reads, just so I can see what my friends are reading so I don't have to bug them. So I wanna know what Julia's reading, and I'm like, okay, what is she reading? What is going on? They don't let me do that, and I'm like, I don't wanna see a bunch of random reviews that don't make any sense for me. So I broke up, I ended up creating my own system on Airtable, which is like I exported my Good Reads data. I'll do a little guide for you all, see what you do with the Good Reads data so you can actually make sense of it. So you know which books you read, what the specific things, so you could save it for poster posterity. It is time. I just hate to say it. It is time to break up with good reads. Either go to page mount or create your own app or go to store graph or do something else. But there's no need to use good reads because they have not updated since it started.

No, it is so bad. I only use it just 'cause it's like convenient in some ways and it's just there. Yeah. What I've read recently and oh this one is a good one. I can't believe I forgot to mention it. The only Earl in the world

Yeah.

By Amalie Howard, I

Oh yes.

I think I told you last time I was here that never met a Duke like you My favorite book of all time. Potentially it's either it's up in the top two.

Yeah.

love the book so much, I've read it so many times. I love Vesper with all my Soul 'cause she's an A DHD girl in the historical era and I love that for her. Grayden is like my type if with dudes like in a book, like he's like cute with his little glasses and like nerdy and fun like literally I adore that book with my whole soul. And when I found out that forever canceled the last book in the series. I was pissed and I found out from Amlie in

Oh.

in summer of 2024, and she told me, and I was like, no, like I was devastated. And she was like, don't worry, we're gonna try to, I'm gonna try to do something and I'm gonna probably do something in D. Like we'll see what happens. And I was like, okay, we'll see. On September 16th, she released only Earl in the World, which is the final book, which was the one that everyone's been waiting for because it's the two characters who have literally been teasing each other and everyone's been joking about them getting together since book one. I will say I totally missed that. That Jasper was redhead in the first three books. I totally did not catch that. It doesn't really matter, but it's super fun. It's great, it's technically a novella, but it reads like a full story to me. 'cause like you can, if you've read the other books in this series, you've, been invested in these characters. So it just feels different. so in general, I just, I like it a lot. Like it's good. And also she's like a romance writer, and there's like all this fun stuff. It's a fun read.

Oh my.

recently read that was like totally five stars. I love this and I'm reading problematic Summer Romance right now

Yeah.

get into it. I'm like a little iffy on it, but I'm about halfway through and it's starting to pick up steam, so I'm gonna keep

Yeah. I really enjoyed Atic Summer. I read the the first book in the series when I was stuck in the hurricane. When we were the hurricane that happened last year. I think I showed you that. It was like terrible. I lost power and I like literally benched like three Ali Hazelwood

in a series. I didn't know it was in a series.

Yes. There was the first book. The brother and the sister-in-law, the people who are getting married. They're the first book.

They

It's not in love. Yeah.

They are not in love. So

Yeah,

that makes so much sense. Oh my god. Do you know what, like someone says one thing and you're like, oh my God, It all starts making sense. 'cause they keep on talking about those two, like they've

yeah.

already.

Yes.

Oh.

Yeah, there. So that's the book. It's, I read, so I read three Che with that day. In a Day. I read the Check in Mate, which was the delightful, if you haven't read it, then Not In Love. And then I read Deep End. It was a great time. So Problematic my summer. I ended up buying the book because I didn't get access to an early copy and I was like, no, I really need to read this. Such a delight to just read it physically. 'cause I don't read physically and I was, I just

that's the thing I'm reading Pro X summer physically as well.

physically it's, yeah.

and I was like, oh, lemme try it.

Yes. I'm like, but it was delightful. It was like one of the few physical books that I read and I enjoyed. So I can't wait to hear from you. I just wanna go to Sicily just to hang out,

no. And the reason that I'm really enjoying Page Bound is you can you can basically, you join a forum for every book you're on, and you can say I'm 41% through the book, and these are my thoughts.

Yeah.

People can basically search comments by what percentage you are in. In the

Yeah. All

So like

right, so I am downloading page found and hopefully we'll work.

to like, you are gonna love it. And

I,

and there's stuff you can do.

Yeah.

I was like, what are people's thoughts? And then they also have a spoiler thing that you can put. So if

Yeah.

something that's a spoiler you can spoil, it spoiler free. It's really great. I'm excited to see how they grow. It's created by two women who left the tech industry. Were like, let's start our own app. 'cause we're readers and we love it.

I love this. Oh my gosh,

Yeah.

I, that's amazing. Awesome. Alright.

Yeah.

Yeah. Tell us, you can find it online. Check.

Oh, okay. So you can find me online. Everywhere at chick Lit is the shit that is chick as in chicken. Lit as in literature is as in, is the,

The

as in the, and shit. As in shit.

Yes, it's easy. It's easy to follow.

And my book club is k Clits book Club, which is Chicklet is the shit, that's the A acronym

Yeah.

nothing else. If you think it's anything else, get your mind outta the gutter.

All right, Julia, thank you as always to come back to the show. We'll be back probably in a few months to talk about Bridgerton because we got season.

To. I can I be your British correspondent?

Yes, you are.

Yay.

So we'll. We'll be back to talk about Bridgeton.

Come back with a bunch of Cinderella recommendations,

let.

retellings. 'cause

Awesome. So being in the lookout for Julia's future episode, Bridgeton, we'll probably do a recap show about what we thought about Ton 'cause I'm watching tv so we're gonna do a recap and we'll do a, in relevant recommendations. Thank you, Julia, for being the show.

Of course. Thank you so much for having me. Love that.

If you enjoyed this podcast, be considered right, read or subscribe. If you would like to see more book lists, please visit whattoreadnextblog.com to join our community on substack. Thank you so much for listening. Bye.