The Things We Cannot Say | Holly Furtick Book Club

Foreign.

Hi, everybody. It's book club time. Tonight we are going to be discussing the Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer. I have a copy of the book right here. I really loved this book, so I'm just going to give you a little summary. The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer. I love historical fiction and I particularly love World War II.

It's a really great book.

So again, historical fiction, World War II, and it's one of those books where you have two different storytellers in two different time periods. And I don't know if you're like me. Sometimes when I read a book like that, I so favor one of the storylines that when the other storyline is going, I just, I want to hurry up, I want to get back to the other story. I want to find out what's happening. Usually I favor the storyline that's in the past. I don't know why I love historical fiction so much, but anyway, this book, what I. One of the things I really loved about this book is how much I loved the present day story as much as I loved the past story. And I loved how Kelly brought the two stories together. And, you know, they kind of. You have the girl. So basically our main character is a girl named Alice and then her grandmother, Alina. There are two storytellers and Alice is in present day and she's a wife and a mom of a son with special needs. And her grandmother is Polish. And so you have her grandmother telling the story kind of in reverse. And her grandmother has a stroke and can't talk, and she needs Alice to go and find out something about her past. And so Alice leaves her family and travels to Poland and starts to uncover all this great juicy details about her grandmother's past. And it was a really great book. So without further ado, I think that you all would like it if we brought on our author, Kelly.

Hi, Kelly.

Hi.

Thanks for having me. Hi.

Oh, my gosh, we're so excited that you're here with us. Thank you for doing this. What time is it in Australia?

Oh, it's 10 in the morning, so this is great for me.

Perfect. And where exactly do you live in Australia?

So I'm about four hours west of Sydney in the country.

I've been to Sydney many times. Oh, nice. Yeah, my husband travels and he has preached at Hillsong Church. Yes.

So I'm about four hours, like towards the middle from there.

Awesome.

Well, thank you for joining us. We really enjoyed your book. I have this little book club on Instagram and I think this is our fourth book that we've done and everybody has said it was their favorite. Oh, thank you.

Thank you so much.

So, okay, I just have a couple of questions for you. I'm just gonna jump right in. One of the things that I read is that this particular storyline was kind of personal for you. Absolutely. So can you fill us in on how you came to write about this family in Poland and what inspired you and just how the book came about?

Yeah, sure. So this is my fifth book, but it's unique in the sense that I wanted to write it for a really long time. It was a story that for probably 10 years I've been thinking that one day I would write this story. And it kind of was sparked at a. We have a family Christmas function every year with my mother's family. And one day 10 years ago, I was standing at that hot Christmases here. So standing at that barbecue in the backyard around the pool. And I looked around and realized that from my maternal grandparents, there were now more than 50 people, 50 descendants, and we're all Australian. And I started to think, how did this happen? That there was this couple in Poland and then the war broke out and now here we are 80 years later and our whole lives, our very nationalities are different because of what happened to them during the war. But I didn't know really anything about their experiences back then. They came to Australia and then they just built a new life. And so they both died when I was, you know, quite young. So I couldn't really just ask them. And I kind of figured that their stories were just lost to time. But I started researching about, you know, what life was like for Polish Catholics during World War II. And from that research, Tamaz and Alina just popped into my head and here we are. So that's basically the story that's amazing.

So tell me, your modern day character, Alice, she has a child with special needs. So what inspired you to start with a character that has a child with special needs?

Yeah, the evolution of that was really interesting. So I had read probably three years ago, I had just read this, you know, just in my picking up a book randomly at the bookstore. I just had been accidentally gravitating to books that featured protagonists who had autism. And I noticed this trend in popular culture, in fiction, like I write, where those characters were represented sometimes almost as a joke. And I was pretty uncomfortable with some of the humor that I was coming across because I have two nephews with autism. And it was pretty obvious to me that. That these boys were special and their Disorder is in some ways a strength, and that. It's not a joke. It's not a joke for them, and it's certainly not a joke for their families. So I wanted to write about a character with autism who was more of a whole character and not a stereotype. And so Eddie, I met with a friend who had been a special ed teacher for years and years, and she gave me a boot camp in what it's like to live with children with. With really high needs autistic disorder. And Eddie popped out, and then Alice was kind of an extension of that.

So did you. I'm just curious. The whole thing with the iPad, is that like a thing for children with autism?

It is. Yeah. So that research led me to that, and it just. I already had the planned. What happens with Hana and her stroke and her, you know, inability to speak. And the connection of those two things just is one of those organic things that happens when you're writing. That's where the magic is, when you have an idea and another idea and your research kind of connects them in a way that's totally unexpected, because I think that actually is one of the things that make the book really special.

I do, too. I thought that. Well, I have a sister who has special needs, and so that's something that's close to my heart as well. And I thought, she doesn't have autism. But I thought that you wrote that really well and that you did a really great job with the tension of that. That having a child with special needs places on your home, on the mother specifically. My mom read the book, and she loved it. I think she's joining us.

Thank you.

But she loved the book, and she said the same thing. She really liked how I just. I think you really brought to light how having a child with special needs, it's not just taking them out in public that's stressful. It's just the whole thing. Oh, there's my mom. She says hi.

Her name is. Hi. Holy smoke. Hi, Deb.

Okay, so, yeah, I really loved Eddie, and I loved my. How you just. You really brought him to life so. Well, especially. Thank you. The yogurt. And I could just really feel. I mean, all moms know what it's like for their child to have a temper tantrum. And in a grocery store, one of my children one time pulled over the grocery cart on top of him.

Oh, yes.

I'll never forget feeling like people were staring at me and not.

Yes.

And so I thought that was such a great scene in the book. And the whole the whole thing about the yogurt and how he wouldn't eat the yogurt. And then I just loved how. And we'll get to this throughout the night, but I really loved how the moment Alice, she had to. She had to leave him and didn't want. She didn't think she could. She didn't think that her husband could do it, could survive, and how her husband was the one that got him to eat the yogurt. With the new packaging and a win for the husband. I thought, I thought that was really, really great. So, okay, was there. Did you have a favorite character in the book?

I think Eddie's probably my favorite character that I've ever written because he just, I mean, he inspired that whole narrative and he came to life in such. For me at least he came to life in such a real way. And I'm actually, I think Eddie's probably my favorite. But you know, I really liked Elena's spirit and how the journey that she goes through, you know, and it's forced upon her, but she just has to. She just has to become this courageous, strong woman. And you know, there's the shades of my grandmother and my grandmother's generation in her. So I think they're probably my two favorites.

Yeah, so historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. And I also love coming of age stories. And so I loved how there was that aspect to it as well of how you had Alina as a girl and just this naive kind of self centered child and how she becomes this woman that has this power past and this history and this thing that she survived. That's just so cool. I thought that was so great. So I don't want to give away any spoilers. I usually do spoilers at the end so that if anybody's watching and they want to go back and read the book, they can. But I just want to ask you, did you know the end of the book before you started?

Yes, I did. And I also won't give away spoilers, but the scene where it all comes together, I had that planned before I'd written a word. And the scene where the slight unexpected twist in Alina's journey, the scenes around that with Saul in the moonlight, that scene was vivid in my mind before I'd started. And so I wrote some of that early on. And sometimes I have to do this with my characters because I become so bonded to them. I don't want to put them through awful things. And so if I know something difficult is going to happen, I sometimes have to write it. Right at the outset, or else I'm a little bit tempted to make things easy for them once I get to know them. So it probably seems a bit silly, but those scenes, I knew exactly how it would tie together. Yeah. It's a little bit crazy how real they become to you after a while. You know, I'm spending a year in the mind of this person. Yeah. So they become like close friends. And, you know, you're effectively going to put your close friends through, in this case, something quite horrendous. So right at the outset.

That's amazing.

I never really thought about that.

The book that we read last month was called A Place for Us. And if you've seen that book. But the author, she. When I was watching some interviews with her, she. She had taken like 10 years to write that book.

Wow.

She was like. She talked about, like, mourning, almost like mourning the loss of these friends she'd lived with for 10 years. And I can imagine that because I do a lot of audiobooks. I actually listen to the audio of this particular book. And a lot of times when the book is over, I do. I feel like my friends have left me and so. But I'd never thought about how I've spent, whatever, 15 hours with them. And you spent a year with these, so it's really awesome.

That's the ultimate compliment from an author, too, if you say that you felt like your friends had gone, because, I mean, it means that they became real for you too. So that's really great. Right? It's so true.

And it happens to me. It happens to me a lot. Okay, super quick. I would love to ask you about the title, because the title was. To me, the title was one of the things that just really made the book like. Just.

Thank you.

Just the cherry on the top. But more. I don't know, more than a cherry, because the title was everything. So did you have the title before you started or did it come. How did it come to you?

It's really interesting because I, you know, I'm not great at titles, so really. It's really not my strength. And so I think I had. I've had input to all of my titles, but I've often kind of. Someone else has come up with it, but in this case, my husband said something to me one night and it just clicked that that's what this book is about. You know, on so many levels, that this book is about things that people just can't express for, you know, physical reasons, for psychological reasons. There's kinds of layers and so he gets the credit for that. He always reminds me it was his idea that sparked the title.

That's really funny. My husband is for. A lot of the people who follow me, follow my husband, and he is really into titles for his sermons.

Okay.

So he. We haven't talked that much about this particular book, although usually I tell him all about whatever book I'm reading. But he would really appreciate the title because I just. It really as I was just even contemplating the book today and thinking back through. You're right. I mean, it's like Eddie can't speak and then Alina can't speak. But it's not just about physically what they can't say, but the things that they. The things that they can't say, like the things they can't talk about. So I just.

Even between Alice and Wade, there's been so many things unspoken and. Yeah, yeah, that's.

We're going to talk about that later about their marriage. Because I also thought that you did a really great job just with a realistic picture of a marriage that has a strain on it. And I just loved it. I loved it so much.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Super quick, before you go, can I ask you a couple just, like, generic reading questions?

Sure, go for it.

Do you have a favorite book?

Oh, no.

Well, no, I don't probably. If I had to pick one that, you know, that's difficult. But if I had to pick one, I'd probably say My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picu, mostly because that was a book that made me want to write the way that I write. But the book that sparked my love of writing was Heidi when I was a kid. So those two would probably be my top two.

Love it. I. I don't think I've ever read the book, Heidi, but I definitely saw the movie a lot when I was a little girl and I loved My Sister's Keeper. I thought that was awesome. Okay, last book that made you cry.

Oh, that's. Oh, it's not been published yet because it was an advanced copy. Let me think of one that I've read that people can buy right now. Oh, I'm drawing a blank. Can you come back to that one?

It's been a long, long time since I read that, but that book made me cry. The last book that made me cry was actually Michelle Obama's biography.

Oh, yeah. And you know what? Around the same time, I read the Tara Westover book, the memoir Educated, and that made me cry, too. So that's probably a recent one. That made me cry.

That was a great book, too. Okay. And do you have a favorite author?

Jodie Picchu? I love Sally Hepworth. She's an Australian author, writes domestic suspense. They're probably my top two.

I love. I also think it's interesting the way you're saying Jody's last name, because I started out calling her Jody Picolt, and I know that's definitely not the way to pronounce it, but I can't say Jodi Picoult. Oh, really?

Oh, there you go.

But have you ever. Have you read all of her books or.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes. When she has a new book out, I block that day in my calendar and I drop everything to read them.

I haven't read nearly all of hers, but I've read a lot of them. And one of my. Besides My Sister's Keeper, probably my favorite one of hers is the one about the elephants Leaving Time. Oh, yeah.

That was a great book, too. Yeah, they're all great. She's amazing.

I just love that stuff. Hey, thank you so much. Thank you for.

No, thank you again for picking my book and for having me on to talk with you. It's been great.

We loved it. It was so nice to meet you. I just loved how great both storylines were. And I really want to talk about our favorite moments from the book. And so I'm about to get Lisa on here. Is it hot in Tennessee?

It is so gross. I have sweat, like, today. I cannot even tell you. It's been horrible. It's 96.

Yeah, it was. It's about that here. And I'm sitting on my porch because I'm stubborn, and I just want Fall to be here. I think Saturday, it's supposed to cool down, but I'm sweating.

Well, you know, I live in. I live in the boonies, so I couldn't get. I. I wasn't sure it was going to hold at my house, so I came to my favorite coffee shop, and Missy is eating waffles and playing her iPad. And I was so geeking out that you had Kelly on. She was so nice. And Jodi Picu Picol. Pico. She's my favorite. I've read every single Jody P. Book. I actually buy all of her books in hardback. So the fact that she said Jody was her favorite author, I was like, oh, oh, I'm about to hyperventilate. I know.

Did you read Leaving Time? Well, you said you read them all. The one.

I literally have a shelf in my library that's just Jodi Picoult. Books. I can't remember. Somebody, maybe, my sister maybe gave me one of her books like 10 years ago. And I get so excited. What she is she to me to write the way she writes? The. The research that she does? You know, I want to say she has like a PhD from Columbia or something. She's so legitimate as a writer. Her research is unbelievable. But I love her books. Her books are like carbohydrates to me. I just want to save room.

I'm really tempted to pick. Leaving time as a book club pick. And then I'm going to get everybody. All of our book club will all have to like bombard her on social media and get her to.

Maybe she would hop on with us. Maybe she was she. And she looks cool. You know, she has that really amazing.

Amy Grant hair, curly hair.

When Kelly's said it was Jody and another author, it skipped out. I didn't hear her say she.

Otherwise she said, I didn't catch the author either. Kelly, if you're still watching by any chance, will you comment and tell us the other author? She said it was an Australian author.

That's what I heard. And I thought, I know because I savor everything she reads. I know Jody is not from Australia, so I thought I didn't hear that other author.

Yeah, I didn't catch it either. I should have gotten her to resay it. Okay, so back to our book. What was your favorite moment in this book?

There were so many favorite moments. I think the way Alina loved Saul so well after the death of his wife and daughter. That slayed me. When you said, when it. Sorry, there's motorcycles going by the coffee shop. I didn't want to bellow inside. Inside the coffee shop. So we are like rednecks outside in the heat. When. When you said, when was the last time you cried reading a book? I wept several times during this book, partly because of the horrors of World War II. It reminded me of Eli Weasel's, you know, book Night. Just that it was so visceral. The. It's like you saw the worst of humanity and you saw the best of humanity, but I think it was her and Tomasz's compassion to Saul on the heels of him losing his wife and his. And his baby.

Yeah, that was a really. Yeah, a really heart wrenching scene.

Yeah, so heart wrenching. And then I. And I'm not good at figuring out endings and I don't like to figure out endings. That's like knowing your presents before Christmas Day. I don't like. I want to Be surprised, but I totally. I don't know how far it was. Maybe. Maybe 20% toward the end, I figured out that the end that we don't want to spoil. And it was the sweet. Like, it was so sad and so redemptive. I loved this.

I know. Okay, so my favorite scene, which, like, is maybe a less obvious scene, but. And I said this to Kelly. I really love the way she wrote about Alice.

What was her husband's name?

Wade.

Wade. Yeah.

About their marriage. And there's this. And there were two. Two parts where. When Alice is in Poland and she's calling to check in. Yeah. And their marriages, you know, it's really stressed, and it's. It's, like, really strained. And she realizes, oh, I really miss my husband. I really need my husband.

Right.

And she calls, and it's super chaotic. I think I wrote it down.

But he pretends at first. Is that the one where at first they're on FaceTime? He pretends everything's going okay. And then Callie, her daughter, like, totally throws her dad under the bus. Yes.

And so she says. So she's. She's, like, wanting to talk to them, and she's really wanting to connect with him. But then she says she. Like, something that he says kind of triggers her, and she gets really defensive, and she starts, like, fussing about the kids and all of that.

And.

And then there's another scene, like, a little bit later, and they start arguing because it's the part where Eddie hadn't eaten. I don't remember that.

And he got him the wrong yogurt. Yeah.

He fed him the wrong. Or the soup or whatever. Like, Eddie had been setting the soup. The cans of soup out because he wanted the soup. And she says. She starts the. Alice starts to say mean things, and then her. Her, like. I don't know how you say it in, like, a literary term, but her, like, narration says. As she's talking, she says it's the disappointment speaking. Yeah. And. Yeah, I just, like, that line was so great to me because I think about relationships with people and how not even just in a marriage, but how in a friendship or a relationship with a family member or whatever. Right. You have this desire to connect with them. And then just like. Like, your disappointment starts speaking rather than your gratitude or your love for that person or your vulnerability, like, instead of being vulnerable and telling the person, like, this is really hard for me.

Right.

Your disappointment just starts speaking. I just. I thought that was.

I love that scene, too. And then I felt like. Because she kind of played out the elasticity of grace in every single relationship. And when you see even Callie, you know, the sister with Eddie, and she's so condescending through the whole narrative until the latter part, where you see that she really loves her little brother. And, you know, all along she loves him, but she's leading from her the fact that he's kind of a weight to her.

Yeah.

And at the end, when you see the softness in Cali toward both her mom but also her little brother, that fillet me.

So great. Wasn't this a good book?

It was a great book. You know, I told you, I've been so slammed with reading. And when you were like, you have to read this book, I was like, oh, my heavens. I was like, I will do it for Holly Furtick. And that's all. Because, you know, I had all these papers due, and I had this one afternoon. I thought, okay, I've got to read this book in this one afternoon. And then on a flight to New Zealand, I couldn't put it down. It was just. I. I enjoyed every moment. And it was one of those books I didn't want to put down, you know, because you really do resonate with the characters. And I found myself going, I have to find out about Elena. I have to find out what happened to Saul. Or I have to. I love this book. The. The. I felt like she was so honest. Every character, she got to their core brokenness. But she was so kind with all of her characters. Other than some of the guys who perpetrated the evil, you saw something redemptive in every character. Even at their worst, you thought, oh, I. I'd still love them.

Right? Yeah. Okay. So. Oh, shoot. I was just thinking of something that I wanted to ask.

I know. I want to ask you all these questions. I'm trying not to hijack your interview because I'm like, what you thought.

Did you love the title?

I loved what you said to her and about Stephen choosing titles, because I'm not. I'm terrible with titles. And I. I love the title at the beginning of the book, I fell in love with it more as I was reading the book, because of all the nuances, because it says it's almost like T H E I R T H E R E. And it.

Right.

Depending on what facet you look at it, you're going to see it from a different angle. It's. I love this title. Yeah. Please have Stephen do a series, a preaching series, a teaching series on this title. It's amazing.

Okay. So I pause for just A second. We have to come back to the title. But Anne Boss camp just hopped on and said, oh, you two women. And I just have to say, and boss Camp, look what is on my porch right here. Hello.

I love your book, Greatest Writer. Tell Anne that I always think of Ann. The first time I met Ann, I. I was so afraid she would see that I had her name tattooed on my calf. So I pulled my pants down. Not really, but I would. But I told her she reminded me of C.S. lewis in a skirt. She is. If I had to name a favorite living writer, she would be in my top three. Probably should be in my top three.

Yeah, totally agree. Okay, back to the title. So, okay. My sister and I were talking about this today, actually. I don't know if you've ever met my sister Emily. Yes.

Yes.

Okay. So Emily, she's not getting on tonight because she didn't finish the book. And. But the funny thing about Emily is.

Bsf, that's like old Bible study where you're not allowed to talk in small group because you didn't finish your homework. That's terrible.

Exactly. You can't share prayer requests because you didn't pray.

Yes.

Or you aren't wearing hose. Emily.

So. But Emily, unlike you, always reads the end of the book. She does not like suspense. And she always reads the end of the book. So she'll watch this whole thing and then she'll still go back and read the book, which is just funny. But Emily and I were talking today about our grandmother. And I was just like, as I was reading this book, I was thinking, like, how could this woman, Alina, how could she go her entire adult life and never share this story, never tell her daughter who she had a good relationship with, her granddaughter who she had, never want to share this crazy story with them.

And we were talking about some level, the most intimate part of her heart. Okay, what do you think? Because I have an idea.

Well, I think that. I think that our generation and our culture today is way more sharey than that generation. Yeah. And I don't know if one is better than the other, but we were talking about our grandmother had these burns on her arms and she would rarely. Not burns. Scars. Burn scars on her arms. And she would rarely wear short sleeves. She was born in 1911. She grew up during the. She was like a 20 year old woman during the Depression. And she was living at home because all of her siblings, they all fortunately had jobs, but they were all helping at home and contributing to the home. And we came to find out Later. And I remembered this today as I was thinking back, but she, her mother, so it would have been. My great grandmother was washing their curtains. And I don't really know the details of this or why, but I promise this is a true story. In kerosene outside. And somehow everything caught fire, and my great grandmother caught on fire, and my grandmother and her brother and her sister all had to put the fire out. Right.

Right.

And she passed away. She went to the hospital, but she didn't survive. And my grandmother, she wouldn't. Not only would she not like, wear short sleeves, but she wouldn't talk about it. She never. She. It was not something like, it just. It was like, it was something that was just so, so traumatic for her that she couldn't even share it with her family. When really you think, like, from my perspective, well, first of all, as a child, I remember thinking, like, that's really sad. But I never, like, as an adult now, thinking back, I realized, like.

That'S.

Like, that's not sad. That's traumatic. That it is traumatic.

That's.

That's life changing.

Right.

And you think about why there. Why she. She didn't want to talk about it and how sometimes people just have things from their past that are just. Because in my mind, I think this is what I was going to say. In my mind, it's like a. I think more highly of her. I'm like, you survived that. Like, you went on living. You have scars from where you tried to save your mother's life, but for them, it's just something that they couldn't. That they couldn't share. And I don't know. What do you. What do you think? Why do you think she didn't share?

I mean, when you were saying that, I remember. I don't remember who it was, but years ago, I heard somebody say, say, if you get really good at keeping secrets, your secrets end up keeping you.

Yeah.

So I think there's a continuum. You know, I was talking to a friend of mine who's just started counseling, and he started to share something with me. And I said, hang on, hang on. I said, you just kind of discovered this about yourself today. That's really, really precious. I said, so why don't you just hold that for a while that, you know, God gave you that for you today. Don't. Don't share that too quickly because it almost like sullies it. But then on the other end of the continuum, there's this. If you process, you can get well. And so, like, because I fell so in Love with Alina, I think she didn't talk about it, partly because of the trauma associated. I mean, she lost not just the love. Well, I don't. I'm not spoiling it. She lost so much, you can spoil it.

It's 8:40, so if you don't want a spoiler alert, you might get off now.

It's like she and Tamas, you just almost knew she's not gonna get to keep him. There's too much loss. There's too much ancillary loss with their family and her brothers. And the loss was just, you know, after a while, you almost go, how much more can she take and still survive? Even psychologically? How can the goodness in her still survive with all the horrors she's seen? But then at another level, there's part of me that thought she also was respecting Saul because for her to tell her story was to tie him to his, and his was even more traumatic. And she did have that love for season. So, I don't know, I just found myself thinking, because I liked her so much, I want to go to the redemptive end of the continuum and say she kept the treasure that she could in the secret. But then at the very end, she still wanted any. Any more growth that could come of it and not hurt Saul. She shared. But I totally would have told you. I. I totally would have told.

I mean, I can't keep a secret. Like. I mean, I keep important secrets, sure, but, like, something like. Something like that. I don't think I could have kept it because that shift, especially after you're like that.

Yeah, that's exactly right. I might have kept it because we've had some things in our family that. There have been some things in our family that weren't my story to tell. They affected me, but I was the second or third, you know, kind of ripple in the pond. And so I just thought that would be. That would be disrespectful, me to share it. I'm not the genesis of the story. It affected me. And there's still some. Some things in my family of origin, where I go that's not mine to share. And what would be the motive for me sharing that? But if it starts with me, then I'm gonna at least share it with the two or three people in my life who I do life with. Or I'm gonna pay 120 bucks an hour and share it with my counselor.

Right, Exactly.

Okay. So before you leave, I gotta ask you just.

I miss you.

I have to tell you, I Miss you. Makes me happy just to see you.

I know. We should FaceTime without people. Yeah, we should.

We should.

I want to know what your favorite book is. And by favorite book, I'll preface it by saying a book that you wish you could read again for the first time. Like, that you could just experience that story again. What would it be?

There's so many. Holly. The first one that came to mind was the Invention of Wings.

Great book.

I think because of Missy. I remember crying so hard on a plane reading that book. I hadn't brought Missy home from Haiti yet, and somebody thought, like, really thought I was in trouble. I wept so much in a plane.

And then.

And then I'll go that the total opposite. I'm going to cheat and do too, which. This is so cornball. But I laughed so hard on a plane. Like, I had leakage there too, only from a different area. And it was the Divine Secrets of the YADA Sisterhood. Do you remember that? I.

Well, I haven't read the book, but I saw the movie.

Oh, the movie. Movie's nothing compared to the book. That book. There's one line. You have to read it because it's a fast read. It's really funny. I don't know if it's great writing or not, but it is hilarious. There's one line in that book that I laughed so hard it was uncontrollable. And it's kind of like Jesus wept. It's just two words. You have to read the book and find the two words and tell me.

Okay, I'm gonna read it. Done. I think my mom read that book and loved it. Yeah, she just said, yes. Love that book. I don't know if you can see the comments, but that's my mom.

I also love Eli Weasel's Night. And I also love recently Beautif. Beautiful Boy. You know that they made a movie out of.

Oh, yeah, I saw the movie.

Yeah, that was. That book was amazing. I like. There's so many books I love, it's hard to limit it.

I know. Me too. Okay, so you already told us the last book that made you cry. And are you saying that Jodi Picoult is Pico? Is that how you say her name?

Well, I don't know.

After she said it, I was like.

I've been saying Picol, so I've been massacring it, so I'm just gonna call her.

I was saying Picol, too. But is she your favorite author? Do you have another favorite author?

No, I'd say probably my favorite. All Time author would be either Friedrich Buechner or. I really love the Desert Fathers. You know, Stephen Furtick is way up there, but I'd say probably. Probably Friedrich Buechner or C.S. lewis or Dorothy Sayers.

Okay, Friedrich Buechner. Is he the one that wrote that one you told me to read that I haven't read yet. About water or something.

Listening to your life. Oh, no. Oh, I. I can't even believe I forgot about that. The color of Water.

The color of Water.

Oh, no, that.

I got that on my list to.

Read The Color of water. James McBride. Oh, he wrote another book that's. That's. It's historical fiction, but it's like Jody's stuff. It's based on such history that it could really be called History on the. The Underground Slave Railroad. And I can't remember the name of it. It's James McBride. And that book is one of the best books I've ever read in my life, too. But the Color of Water should be on everybody's reading list. James McBride, the Color of Water.

Okay, it's on my list. I'm gonna get to it. But I think I'm gonna read the Yaya Sister at first.

I love you, Holly Furtich.

I'm so happy.

I'm so with you. Face to face.

Face.

Like. Like in the same room.

Thank you for coming on. And we need to actually see each other soon.

We will. We will soon. Love you. All right.

Bye.

Bye.

Okay, guys, this has been so much fun, and I've just had the best time. I really enjoy talking with Lisa Harper. Lisa, thank you for joining. Yes, I have read where the Crawdads Sing. I didn't pick it for book club because I feel like too many people have already read it. So I like to pick books that maybe you have not read. But thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Kelly. So much fun. Love you guys. I hope you have a great night. It's going to be fall soon. It's going to feel like fall. I just know it and. Okay, have a great night. See you later.