The Last Thing He Told Me | Holly Furtick Book Club

Foreign.

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Holly Furtick Book Club. It is a cold and rainy day here in Charlotte, North Carolina. I hope the weather is better from wherever you are. I hope your day was better than my dog Bo's day. You. You can hear him snoring in the background. You also might hear Abby practicing her piano in the background. She is going to be coming and getting the snoring dog in just a minute. But here is Beau. As you can see, he has a donut around his neck because he got neutered today. So no matter what happened to you today, no matter what the weather was like, you can pretty much guarantee your day was better than my dog's day. But dogs have great lives. So anyway, enough about Bo and his snoring. I am so excited for tonight. It is book club night. It has been a minute since we have met together and tonight we are discussing this book, the Last Thing He Told Me by Laura. Dave and Laura is going to be joining us tonight. I'm so excited. I can't wait to to talk to her and hear about how the story came to life. And I hope you enjoyed this book as much as I did. I read this book last like last October and I really, really enjoyed it. I love the pace of it. And so I wanted to make it our like October book club book because, you know, I like to pick a book from October that is suspenseful and a little bit scary. And so I read this book and I immediately tried to book Laura to come on and she is a busy woman because this is a New York Times bestseller that is being made into a show with Apple tv. And I'm so excited that she is going to join us tonight. So I want to start tonight by reading you a quote that I loved from this book. Okay. This quote is on page 276 and I'm going to read it to you from my notes. It says this in one way or another. This is the deal we all sign when we love someone for better or worse. It's the deal we have to sign again and again to keep that love. We don't turn away from the parts of someone we don't want to see. However quickly or long it takes to see them. We accept them if we are strong enough or we accept them enough not to let the bad parts become the entire story. And I love that quote because at the end of the day I feel like this book is about loyalty and it's about a woman who marries a man and she thinks she knows him and Then she finds out one day that there was a lot that she didn't know about him and his daughter. And he leaves her a bag of money and a note that said. All the note says is protect her. And this woman, Hannah, she goes on this journey of finding out, like, why her husband has vanished. Where did he go? What happened? And I think, yes, Mrs. Queen Bishop, that is my dog snoring in the background. He had surgery today, so we're all feeling sorry for him, but Abby's gonna come get him after she finishes playing the piano, which you could probably also hear in the background. Anyway, I'm sorry I got sidetracked. But this woman, Hannah, she has to uncover this mystery of where her husband went. What happened to him? What did he get involved in? Was he a good person? Was he a bad person? Like, what in the world is going on? And she becomes loyal. She decides to stay loyal to her husband and to her love, to his daughter by staying loyal to his daughter and doing the thing that. That he asked her to do, which is to protect his daughter, Bailey. And so I love that, and I love this idea from this quote about how when we love someone, for better or for worse, we don't turn away from the parts of them that we don't wanna see. Because that's what true love is, is loving the parts of someone that are beautiful and lovely and wonderful, but also loving the parts of them that are hard and hard to accept. And so, anyway, I loved it. Lj Music. Hello. He says, does this book have a movie? It does have a movie, and we're going to ask Laura about it. I think it's a show that's going to be on Apple TV plus, but it's not out yet. We're going to ask Laura all about it. All right, guys, I want to know, what did you love about this book? Tell me, besides the fact that. Start typing, because I want to know what you left about this book, but besides the fact that you could not put it down. Because when I asked you in, in our emails, you know, what do you want me to say? Ask Laura. All of you were like, I could not put this book down. I could not put this book down. And, you know, there are criteria for a good book. A book that makes you cry, a book that you can't put down, a book that, like, takes you completely off guard by surprise. A. A book that has a different ending. I mean, so many criteria for a great book. And I think the biggest part of this, from this book was that, yes, Shell what you said, too, was that you could not stop. You just flew through it. You could not stop reading it, listening to it. You had to know what was happening. But then also, I love the ending, and I want you. Okay, I'm gonna read some of your comments, but then I want to know if you liked the ending. So Katie says, I love that the suspense wasn't too scary, but it captured the reader. Katie, totally agree. 100%. The kid that brought the note to the door. Abby, you want to say hi? Here's Abby. Hola. Pick up Bo show. Everybody wants to see Bo. You have to see his. His collar of shame. We hadn't buy one that looked more comfortable than that plastic thing. So there's Bo, and he does. He snores even when he hasn't had surgery. All right, goodbye, Abby. Shut the door. Okay, so, Emily. We also need to ask Emily if she skipped to the end and read the ending first. But now I'm gonna read some of your. You always ask her that. We always ask her that because most of the time, she skips to the the end. Can you believe that? I always knew that. But I didn't remaster that on book club. We do. Okay, Lynn. Jasmine says she loves the character building. Diana says Haley letting Bailey choose Katie. Katie Aventi says, I love the suspense. Oh, I already read yours, Katie. Let's see. Let me skip to some more. The evolving relationship between Hannah and Nicholas's daughter. Yeah, that was great. I loved how you. At first, like, they. They had a really hard time getting along and trusting each other, but then they. They were kind of forced to. I heart reading says the loyalty that she had to her husband Joe. Erica Lopez says, hi. I loved the stepmom daughter relationship. I'm a stepmom, so I could relate. Plus, I have a teen daughter. It was really well depicted. I thought of having a teen daughter, and that how I would imagine a stepmom relationship. Pants party. Larue says, I love that she put the daughter first, that she was selfless. Totally agree. Christy says. Christy Collins says, I love that the mystery wasn't what I expected at all. True. Elise loved the ending. All right, now we're talking about the ending. Elise, love the ending. Ashley says, yes and no on the ending. Emily says, but I. But let's see. Emily, did you love the ending? And Emily, you need to let me know if you skipped to the end? Lisa. No. Steven says, I love the ending. I love how Hannah always stayed by Bailey's side, and no matter how Bailey treated her, Yo, Nah. Times two. Said Heidi said, I wasn't super happy of the ending. I still kept thinking of all the ways they could have communicated. And Shell says, poor Bill. I think you meant bo. Ashley says, the donut con. You guys, now we're talking about the dog. You're getting me all. All worked up here. Let's see, what else are we talking about? Who has something to say about the book? Okay. Emily says, I did. I had to know where the man went. Emily always skips to the end, and most of us at the book club here are not huge fans of that. I mean, how could you skip to the end, Emily, you have to let the book unfold, and you have to be. You have to wonder what's going to happen. Teresa says, I love how the husband secretly shows up at the end. Okay, there's your spoiler, guys. I did, too. Now, a lot of you in your questions for Laura, you want to know what happens to Owen and Hannah in the future. But I'm like, well, she told us what happened. They can't see each other, and he just, like, shows up. And I really like that because it was a bit unsatisfying but yet a bit believable for a fiction story, which doesn't have to be believable. Emily says she loved the ending. Judy McMillan says she loved the ending. Let's see. Megan Z. Says, I was expecting more for the ending, but I did love it. Let's see. Alan Scottish shortbread says, I want to know if Bailey visited her grandpa. Yeah, that's true. I was curious about that. Let's see. Stephanie says, they could have the could have been boys still love you. The last thing he told me. That was awesome how she, like, called back to the title in the end. I really did love that. Guys, it's time. Let's get Laura on. Enough talking about her book. Let's talk to her about her book relationship. Hi, Laura.

Hi. How are you?

Wonderful. And I am so honored that you would come on tonight. I know you're so busy, and we just love talking to authors, and we're so happy that you're here.

Well, I'm so happy to be here. I love listening to you guys talk already, and this is just such a nice way to end the day today, so I'm very grateful. And it's so funny listening to you guys talk about the ending because the ending is very divisive. And I will say, for those that wanted more, I am writing a sequel that was not planned when I worked on the book. But. But There will be a sequel. So some of the questions, some of those questions about what happens next will be answered.

Oh, that's so interesting. I can't wait. That's so exciting. Laura, to kick us off.

Yes.

I think someone on my team asked you to have a selection to read to us. Can you read to us to start off?

I'd be happy to. Sure. Absolutely. And I also loved seeing your daughter. She's so friendly and nice. I have a six year old son and he, at this moment in time, there's nothing he loves more than like a big kid. So he would have just died. He would have been so excited.

He would love her because she's very friendly.

Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna read. I'm gonna read right from the beginning of the book. So. Owen used to like to tease me about how I lose everything. About how in my own way, I have raised losing things to an art form. Sunglasses, keys, mittens, baseball hats, stamps, cameras, cell phones, Coke bottles, pens, shoelaces. I did used to have a tendency to misplace things, to get distracted, to forget. On our second date, I lost the ticket stub for the parking garage where we left the cars during dinner. We'd each taken our own car. Owen would later joke about this, would love joking about how I insisted on driving myself to that second date. Even on our wedding night. He joked about it. And I joked about how he'd grilled me that night, asking me endless questions about my past, about the men I'd left behind, the men who had left me. He'd called them the could have been boys. He raised a glass to them and said wherever they were, he was grateful to them for not being. Being what I needed. So he got to be the one sitting across from me now. You barely know me, I'd said. He smiled. It doesn't feel that way, does it? He wasn't wrong. It was overwhelming what seemed to live between us right from the start. I like to think that's why I was distracted, why I lost the parking ticket. We parked in the Ritz Carlton parking garage in San Francisco and the parking attendant shouted that it didn't matter if I claimed I'd only been there for dinner. The fee was $100. You could have kept the car here for weeks, he said. How do I know you're not trying to pull a fast one? $100 plus tax to go home. Are you sure that it's lost? Owen asked me. But he was smiling as he said it, as if this were the best piece of news he'd gotten about me all night. I was sure. I searched every inch of my rented Volvo anyway. And of Owen's fancy car, even though I'd never been in it. And of that gray, impossible parking garage floor. No stub, not anywhere. The week after my husband disappeared, I had a dream of him standing in that parking lot. He was wearing the same suit, the same charmed smile. In the dream, he was taking off his wedding ring. Look, Hannah, he said, now you've lost me, too. That's what we're doing.

It's so good. I'm so happy that you read that part, because the way that you open the book and then close the book was just. Was just marvelous. And so I'm curious. This is great, because this is my first question. Did you write that first? Did you write that last?

How.

How did the order of this story come to be?

So I'm always interested. Like, when I start writing a book, I'm interested in sort of an emotional question I want to explore. And here the question was, can you really know the people you love the most? And what does it mean to really know someone, to be the witness to their lives? And so I wrote this, the prologue, actually, years and years before I started writing the book. And I knew that I wanted to explore the idea of someone just vanishing, someone who you think you know and paradoxically, the world is telling you is someone else entirely. And what do you do with that? What do you do with what's in your soul versus what the world wants you to believe about somebody? And so I was sort of holding onto that, but I didn't want to tell that story unless I could figure out a way to make the woman at the center of that questioning the hero of her own life. And the way that I got to the place that I knew where to go was I got married all the way back in 2011, and someone gave us a woodturn bowl for a wedding present. And I started learning about woodturning and the patience that goes into it, the physical strength, the perseverance, the attention to detail, the trust. And I'm like, this is a woman. A woman who does this for a living would know that how to. To use your word, be loyal and think about loyalty in a different way. And that's when I started writing the book. But I had no idea what was going to happen. All I knew is that she received this note that said, protect her. And I started writing from there. Wow.

So you had the prologue. You have this premise. You have this, the note, and then you Just you. You just go, yes. And how long from when you started to. When you had, like, a finished manuscript?

So I had the first finished manuscript in 2014, and this is my sixth book, and all my books usually take about 18 months. But this book was. Was. I could never figure out how to end it. And in all my endings, Owen came back, and the last scene was. The last scene was them reuniting in this way that it never felt correct to me. It was what I wanted to happen because I loved him so much and I forgave him because I think he was operating from a place of. Even if it was. Even though he made some mistakes, I think he was operating from a place of goodness. But every time I was. Every time I would get to that end, it was never organically where I felt like the story was supposed to end. And then I had my son, and I realized, oh, this is the primal story of someone becoming a mother. And once I realized that, I knew that, oh, it wasn't coming back and that the love story I was telling was slightly different than the love story I set out to tell. And it was really a love story and an ode to found family and the way we often end up mothering and caring for people in ways that we never anticipated, people that we did not give birth to, people that need us. And I wanted to honor that. And so then once I realized that, I wrote in one afternoon the last, I would say, 50 pages of the book, and I never wavered from it. And then that manuscript, but that was all the way later. That was years later in about 2018. So that's a long answer, but it took about eight years from the time I first started.

It's incredible, and it's incredible that you stuck with it, knowing the whole time like, that it wasn't quite right. It wasn't quite finished. And really, I love. It's funny because I don't think that I put that all together until just now, but I think that's what resonated with me in the book. It wasn't her love for Owen necessarily. It was really, truly her love for Bailey and her realization of, like, I'm all she has. And I think, like, because there were times in the book where you're where you wanted to just be, like, just take the money and go. Just forget. Just, like, go live your life. But she couldn't because of Bailey. And I think at the end of the book, when you go back and you evaluate all of her actions, I loved how. I think, as a. As A woman, she could be proud of what she did and the choices that she made, and I think that's what made her a hero in the book, was that along and along she kept making the best choice. Not. Not necessarily best for her, but sometimes the choice that was best for Bailey, just. Just such a wonderful story and so. But. But yet so done in like a suspenseful kind of thriller type way. Okay, I gotta. I gotta ask you some more questions. Okay, so you said you just start writing and you let the story happen. Was there anything that somebody did that surprised you?

So many things happened that surprised me. I was really surprised when Hannah decided to go to Austin. As crazy as that sounds, I knew that I was playing here, I think so much of love in our lives. That's why I think the memories we make with our family and our friends are so important to us, and we hold them so close because that's how we tell ourselves the stories of how someone matters to us. And so I really wanted to play with this idea of memory in the book, but I didn't know that those memories were gonna point her toward a future she didn't know she needed. I didn't know that. And I. And when I realized, oh, my God, she's gonna go to Austin, I had a few days of being like, what is gonna happen to them there? And I do think tons of research while I'm working on a book. So I got on a plane and I went to Austin and I started looking around and trying to figure out what are some things that they're going to discover. And then I went back a couple other times when I was working. And at the end, I actually went back to Austin and did their exact two days there. I, like, stayed. I went to the restaurant late at night, all the things. But. So that was something that really surprised me. Another thing that really surprised me was in the earlier iterations of the book, Hannah went to Nicholas to try to negotiate freedom in a way for Owen, a way for him to come home and be with them. And that scene in all its previous shapes, in earlier years of working on this book, that is what they agreed to. And then I was speaking with a lawyer who has prosecuted more organized crime than anyone else in history. And he was basically like, that could never happen. And I realized then, too, she. She is going to have to make. She's going to have to sacrifice him and sacrifice his ability to come home at this moment in time, maybe ever, forever. And I was really surprised she was able to do that. I was really Surprised she was able to sit in that room and do that, because it was. So. It is sort of the work of a mom in a way. We have to. And the work of being a good, hopefully, person on this earth is you do what you need to do for the children, even if it's not what you want to do. And so I was surprised she was able to do that. I was surprised how that came around.

Well, I was, too, but I wasn't the one writing the story. Were there any characters in the book that you got stumped on that were, like, harder to write than others?

You know, Nicholas was harder for me because I always try to write from areas of gray like I never have. I don't believe that someone is ever bad. I think that, you know, you can find salvation. You can find your way to. To the person that you. That you most deserve to be and that you can be for other people. And so Nicholas was hard for me. And then I unlocked him when I wrote. I wrote a passage in the book about how good and evil often start from the same place. The hope that you're going to get to a different. Get to somewhere better, to somewhere different. And when I understood him in sort of a different context, that he became the worst version of himself. A little bit at a time, I could figure out how to pull him back to the more loving version of himself. So he surprised me somewhat. I think Grady was very surprising to me, the U.S. marshal, because I had to figure out a way to make him very smart and also the path he wanted for them, that he truly believed that was the best path for them, but that Hannah could turn away from it. So he was complicated for me. And in early iterations of the book, there was moments where I was like, maybe that's going to turn out to be a love interest. Maybe I didn't even know. Like, I. You know, and then maybe Owen's going to turn out to be bad, but never really did I think Owen was going to be bad. So, you know, I think Grady was complicated, too.

So when you're. When you're.

How.

How does this work? Are you, like, walking around with these characters following you all the time? Are you always thinking about them? How do you make the time to, like, get it to come out on paper?

So I have a writing process that's really been the same since I've been in graduate school. I went to graduate school for writing, and I actually wrote my first book in graduate school. And then I finished, and I moved back home to New York, where I'm from. And I spilled water on my computer and I lost the whole thing. All that work, all those years of work. And I remember sitting in my parents home and my father saying to me, like, what are you going to do now? And I said, well, I'm going to start again. This is what I'm going to do. And so I got all these jobs. I had 14 jobs, 13 jobs that first year out of school. I tutored private school kids and I waited tables and I worked. I did some freelance work for a PR firm. I wrote for espn. Anything to keep my mornings free. So I would get up at 5 and I'd write till 10:30 almost no matter what. And it was so precious to me that I was willing to do just about anything to protect that time. And I would work, you know, different hours in order to do that. And I think I learned then, like, what you do first in a day often is what you do best, or at least for me. And so I still always write in the morning and before I turn on the Internet, before I. Now I have a son, so I take care of him and I get him off to school, and then that is my time. The Internet is off. I listen to the same song on repeat the entire time I'm working on a book.

I heard that about you. And so now we're gonna have to pause and we're gonna have to talk about this. I have so many questions to ask you about this. Are you telling me one song all day long?

What did you say?

5 to 10, 35 hours? One song?

Yes. The whole book? The whole book. So I find the song usually at the beginning of the writing process, it becomes a shorter and shorter playlist of songs that are. That. That become sort of meditative for me. I used to write in coffee shops, and I used to write in coffee shops. And then I. I started writing at home. And when I wrote in coffee shops, it was really to tune out other people and sort of be focused and meditative. And then it just became sort of the soundtrack to like, I'll stop the song, wherever it is in the song, when I end my writing day and pick up in that moment of the song the next day.

This is the craziest thing I have ever heard an author say. And, you know, I am fascinated by hearing authors talk about their methods. I have never heard, because I. So my husband, he is one of those people that he latches onto a song and he plays it over and over again. And I call it music torture because, you know, like that is a thing. Music torture. Where you. They, like, play the same song really loud over and over again.

Oh, my God. I did not know that.

Well, okay. I mean, I saw it on a TV show, so I get. I think it's a real thing. I mean, it's a real thing to me.

And I'm like, this is.

How could you do that to yourself? How can you. So what's the song for this book?

So this. The song for this book is a song called if I Should Fall Behind. It's a song by Bruce Springsteen, but it's a specific version of that song that he sang with his band at Madison Square Garden. And it's like the song's like, six minutes and like 42 seconds or something like that. And everyone in the band, his wife, these. These people he has been making music with for decades, they all sing a verse, and at the end, they all sing together. So it's that version of the song that I listen to again and again and again, and I love it.

The book is over. Do you still love the song?

I love it so much. And just the other day, my husband got into the car and it was on. He's like, you've got to be kidding me. He's like, you're still listening to it? I love it. I really love that song.

Are you, like, a big Bruce Springsteen fan?

I like Bruce Springsteen. I really do. I love his music. I love music. Music's a huge influence for me in general, but every book has been a different song.

So what are some of your other songs?

One of my other songs is called Bixby Canyon Bridge by this band called Death Cab for Cutie. Okay.

I've been to the bridge.

Yeah, it's a beautiful bridge. I love that bridge. Another song. I listened to a Joni Mitchell song for one book, a case of you. I'd have to sit down and think it's crazy how it leaves my mind. Another song was called. My first book was a song called Call Me on youn Way Back Home by this man named Ryan.

Do songs have anything. The story in the song have any connection to the story that you're writing?

So sometimes it does. So with this, you know, this is a. It's really a song that Bruce Springsteen wrote for his wife for their wedding. So it was a wedding song. And when I wrote the wedding scene in the book, I began to imagine that this was the song that. At that restaurant Francis. That they're after, everyone leaves that he. That they put it on one of their iPhones or Their ipod or whatever it is, and that the two of them dance alone to it in the restaurant. So I imagined it almost as their anthem to their lives together.

Is it just like. Does it start to make your brain go, okay, song's on. Now it's time to write?

Yes. You said it so well, Holly. That's exactly what happens. It has a meditative quality to it. And it reminds me, especially because I often don't know what's happening next. There's this great E.L. doctorow quote that I love about writing a novel in which he says, writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You have to see as far out as your headlights, but you can't see further than that. And writers have all different processes of how they deal with it, but that's how I do it. And so, because I don't know what's happening, it reminds. It taps me back into my characters in a way that I get to be in conversation with them and they get to sort of, as corny as it sounds, show me what's going to happen next.

Okay, that is the most fascinating thing. I'm telling you. That's the most fascinating thing I've. Any author I've ever got to talk to, any author about. So I'm so glad that you share that openly, too, because it's just. It's really funny.

Well, you know, it is. And I had. I had not heard that other authors do it, except that a playwright that I love is this man named Tom Stoppard. And he's one of the reasons I became a writer. I saw his show with my mom when I was a teenager. He wrote a show called the Real Thing. And he's written some other Arcadia, beautiful plays. And just recently, a friend of mine sent me an article that he listens to the same song on repeat. And I never knew that. And he's had such an influence on my career and on how I think about writing that it was so wild to hear that he does the same thing.

That is. That is so fascinating to me. I just. I truly can't get over it. I heard you say it on an interview that I was listening to today. And I told my husband, I was like, babe, she listens to the same song over and over again. And he goes, you have to ask her more about that.

That's amazing. I love that your husband likes doing that, too. That makes me. You know, that's great.

He is not as obsessive as you. I am not even close, but he did. I don't Know if. You know, my husband's a preacher, and he had this one song that he listened to on repeat on Sunday mornings while he was getting ready to preach for years. And it. That particular song, he would listen to it, like, pretty much like, from the time he got up until he went to go and preach. And anytime I hear that song, it gives me this weird, like.

I don't know. I don't.

It's not like ptsd, but it, like, puts me in a weird place. It, like, puts me back in that building.

Yes.

In that. It wasn't a. It was like. It wasn't a green room. It was like a backstage. I can smell it. I can see it. The whole song. It just, like, does something really, really weird inside of me. So I can't imagine what that's like for you because, I mean, you wrote this book for years. You better pick the right song with the next.

Do you have a song for the.

Book you're writing now?

Well, so I. So I'm writing two at the same time because I had started writing this domestic family mystery again that centers on the death of a patriarch of that family, two of the siblings trying to figure out what happened to him. And for that, it's actually another Bruce Springsteen song that's the first Repeat called Highway 29 that I've been listening to. But I've been also working on the sequel. I started writing the sequel of this book, and I do not have a song yet. I've been listening to several songs, so that hasn't revealed itself yet. But we also wrote with my husband, I wrote the TV show. We wrote the limited series together. And it's so funny because when I write scripts, I don't listen to the same song. It's only with novels. So.

I bet your husband is like, we cannot write together because I cannot listen to that.

He couldn't. It's so funny. He listens to music, too, when he writes, but he listens to, like, a long playlist, which is much more common, I think, you know, that people listen to. Yeah.

It's so fascinating. Can you tell me a little bit about the show? Is it supposed to come out this summer?

So. Yes. We don't have it. We don't have a definite. We haven't been told the definite air date, but I think it's going to be sometime this spring. And it is. Jennifer Garner is playing Hannah hall, and Ann Gowrie Rice, this wonderful actress, is playing Bailey. And it's just, you know, it's been such a joy. It's just sort of, it's so crazy to see these characters have this second life and to it's everyone that's worked on the show. It's just been really so, so lovely.

That's amazing. Is it wrapped? It's done.

It's wrapped. We're in post production right now, which means we're in editing and so, and we're almost done. We're working on the finale. So we're really, really close to the end. We're really close to the end.

So exciting. I can't imagine how fulfilling that would be. To get to see your book, you know, come to life and to get to work with your husband on writing the script. That's just, it's just amazing. Okay, before you go. So you told us what you're working on now. Really quick. I just, we love to ask all of our authors, who do you like to read? What are some of your favorite books? What are some books? So you can answer this question however you want. Like, is there a book that made you fall in love with reading? Is there an author that you've read all of their books?

Yes.

What do you love?

I love this question and I love listening to what you were talking about, what you read last month. It's like my favorite thing. I think the reason I became a writer is I just love reading so much. So I read like three books a week. So I mean, some. That also sounds crazy. It's like my favorite thing though. So like when I finish work in the morning before I have to go pick up my son, my afternoon work is often reading and sometimes it's research and sometimes it's not. So I have sort of my all time favorites and then my current favorites. One of my all time favorites is a book called Heartburn by Nora Ephron. I've read that. Did you like it?

Loved it.

I love it too. And I heard you say that you like audiobooks and a real treat is that Meryl Streep does that audiobook. So if you want.

I think that's what I think. I'm almost positive it has like a fork on the COVID Yes, yes. I listened to it and I loved it. It was very quirky, but great.

Great. And I love that she has recipes in her book. I love, I cook a lot. I love any books that have food in it and I feel like that's very joyous. I love Joan Didion, who wrote a collection of essays called Slouching Toward Bethlehem, which I think is really wonderful. More recently, even though it's not exactly a recent book. I love a book called Defending Jacob, which is a really great book club book.

Is that a show?

It was a show on Apple, actually.

I saw the show.

Yes. The book is excellent. I think it's really, really good. I love that. I love Pride and Prejudice is a book I reread every year. Jane Austen. I love her. I love an author named Jonathan Tropper. I've read all of his books. I love Michael Shabin. He's one of my favorite writers as well. I have so many. I'm like sitting in front of my bookshelf, it's so hard to. But our house is overrun with books and that's my favorite. So those are some of the recent ones that I love. And it's so funny because I think people's what they read changes over time. And for me, recently, I've been reading so many mysteries. The nicest compliment when I was reading the comments are people saying, I read it in record time and I couldn't put it down because I feel like it's such a gift with so many forms of entertainment now. And, like, you can go see the show, you can go do this, you can do whatever for people to pick up a book. The other reason, which I didn't say that I listened to the song on repeat is I feel like it keeps a rhythm to the writing so that people don't want to put it down is my hope. So I love books that I just can't put down. So I've been reading a lot of mysteries recently, and that's also something that I. That I. That I love doing.

Do you like to read to your son?

I read to my son every night. It's my favorite, favorite part of. Of our day together. So, yes, definitely.

I. One of. One of my. The best things of being a mom to me was reading to my kids, and now they're busy and my daughter is. She has her own books that she's reading, and so we don't read together as much as we would like to. Laura, thank you so much for being on. It's so wonderful to talk to you. I know you're so busy, and I just really appreciate it and so does everybody in the book club.

Well, thank you so much for having me. It was so, so fun to get to chat.

I loved it. I really appreciate it. Have a great evening.

You, too. You, too. Bye.

Well, guys, I hope that you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did, but I seriously doubt it because I absolutely loved talking to Laura and hearing about all of her quirky writing methods. I absolutely loved the book. I've got it here, right here. The last thing he Told me I'm so thankful to Laura for joining us. If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure you leave me a comment in the chat. Let me know what your favorite part of the book was. Let me know what you're reading. If you think you're reading something that I should be reading, let me know. And if you are not an official member of the Holly Furtick Book Club, I don't know what you're waiting for. Make sure that you head over to hollyfurtic.com all you have to do is enter your email address. I promise I'm not going to spam you. I'm just going to let you know what we're reading and when we're meeting so that you can join us for the live discussion next time. And if you enjoyed this book. The last thing he told me I've got a conversation with another author about a book called While you were Sleeping that think you would enjoy. It's going to come up next. Anyway, make sure you like subscribe Hit the bell. Share this if you enjoyed it and you want a friend to read the book, do all the things and I'll see you back here next time on the Holly Furtick Book Club.