Turn the Paige Podcast

56: New Genres from Bed

• Tajuana Paige & Sheree Paige-Barber • Episode 56

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The reading life doesn’t wait for perfect conditions, so I hit record from bed and opened the door to a TBR that just did a plot twist. I used to swear I wasn’t a fantasy person. Now I’m racing through A Court of Thorns and Roses, loving the romance inside the magic, and comparing notes with my work book club on a modern witch story that feels like found family. That pivot didn’t erase my old favorites—memoir, self-help, and historical fiction—it gave me new ways to find the same heart: complicated love, moral choices, and characters who want to be better.

I break down how I keep reading alive with kids, work, and a calendar that never sits still. Libby fuels my audiobook habit with library holds; Spotify lets me jump straight into new titles, even if I have to watch the monthly hour cap. Paperbacks anchor bedtime, ebooks live on my phone for surprise five-minute windows, and audio powers errands. That format mix stops momentum from dying when a hold expires, a nap ends early, or a book light goes missing again. Along the way I add heritage reads—Things Fall Apart and The Shadow King—to deepen my connection to African and African American history, and I shout out Awfully Hilarious, a collection of period and menopause stories that lands with humor and truth.

If you’re juggling multiple books, you’ll hear how I keep the worlds separate and why I think bookstores are still the quietest rooms on earth. I also preview our November mystery pick, talk about nine-week library waits, and share where to find more recs, including Sheree's Bookstagram, BookishAndBusy_. Come for the fantasy conversion, stay for the practical reading hacks and the community energy that makes stories stick.

Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reading spark, and leave a quick review. Then tell me: what’s the one book I should add to my nightstand this week?

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SPEAKER_02:

Hi guys, welcome to Page Podcast. This is one of your co-hosts, Tawana Page. This is another solo episode. Full disclosure. I am sitting in bed right now because I am getting my period this week and I feel it all in my body, and I'm working from bed today. So here I am working from bed. Shri is working now during this time at like 11 a.m. So she couldn't join. But I am currently working from my bed and I still need to show up for you guys. So here I am in bed, fully feeling all of my feelings and emotions. But that's not what we are talking about today. Today we are talking about my reading life and new genres that I'm loving. So we've done quite a few episodes in the past on books and what we're reading and um the versions of like format of books you like to read, whether audio or physical or Kindle. But I think I did one by myself a few months ago um about the books I was reading at that point. So I'm here to update you on what I've been reading. So everything on my nightstand, which is essentially all the books that I have not read yet, we're not talking about that. We're talking about the books that I am actively reading right now. And I have audio. I haven't picked up my Kindle in a couple of months, but that is okay because I have a million other ones going on. But the first book that everyone has talked about probably for years, which I just got onto this, is A Court of Thorns and Roses, which is the first book in her series of that series. I actually just ordered the second one because I'm almost in the first one. But that is a physical book, so that is paper, paperback. And also, side note, I uh haven't really been into fantasy like ever. Well, actually, I take that back. I read Twilight like way, way, way back in the day when it was really popular. And to be honest with you, I didn't even know it was fantasy. I just read it and I enjoyed it. I read the series and I also saw the b the movie. So that was like high school? No, college, I can't remember. No, it wasn't high school. It was in my twenties, so it was a bit ago. Many, many moons ago. And then I just like didn't pick up any more fantasy after that. I just wasn't interested. I always thought it was like weird and like, oh, that's so like why would you want to read that? So I have read I like personal development books like self-help books and self self-growth books. Like this is just like historically speaking, speaking of, I like historical fiction. I've read a few memoirs of people, I've read Viola Davidson's memoir, I've read Michelle Obama, Michelle Obama's memoir. So that's essentially what I like. I've also well also back up because I used to like hate reading because I hate being forced to read. Like this is in school. I used to hate it. But since I've graduated school, you know, high school, college, grad school, I found that reading can be like a leisure and pleasure thing. So I've like honed in on that. I'm like, oh, I can actually read what I want. Like no one's telling me to read XYZ. I can do whatever I want. And then during COVID, Cherie told me about Libby, this free app that links to your that you can link your library card to. And it's audio books and also ebooks, which you can pull up in your Kindle or your tablet or however you or your phone or wherever you read your ebooks. But got into Libby and I finished so many books during COVID, guys. So I was just whipping through them. And my youngest wasn't born yet, and my oldest was like seven months old. So I was just like whipping through them. I was also um like had them playing all the time because I was just whipping through them and I guess other people were too because they were always available. So people were just like going through them. Which understand like because it was like locked down, like we didn't know what was going on, so it's like why not just read or listen to audiobooks if you can't get out of the house to get to the library. So that was really great, and I loved that. I finished so many of those books. Like I would have to pull it up, see exactly like what I have read. But oh man, I just have so many. And there's also each month we have our monthly newsletter and we share books that we've read and like our own book reviews of those books that we've read. And they're usually like full disclosure, all of Cherie's books, but I have added some in the past and I really do enjoy that. But yeah, so back to what I'm reading now. A Court of Florence and Roses, and that's some paperback. And then this other book that I'm reading audio with a book club at work is called When a Sorcerer Calls. It's a fantasy book, guys. A fantasy book. Very secret Society of our Regular Witches. I may have said that wrong, but because I looked at the title really quickly. But that is a fantasy book. It's a witchy book, but it's super good at set in modern times. Um I have started a book club, and that was the first book of October. We had our book club meeting last Saturday. It was amazing. The November book is a sobby summer in sweet potato crime. So it's not a fantasy, it's a mystery thriller. But if you are going to read that book, guys, I would say get on it now because it's November. Because I am I have it on hold on Libby through the library, and it's a nine-week hold. I've been like frantically trying to find it because I obviously want to read it and finish it before November 15th as the book club meeting. It's like 30 bucks a barn number, but I found it used on Amazon for like 11 bucks. I have to hop on that. But and I ran out of my hours on Spotify for the month for listening because also Shri also told me she's such a great, she's amazing. She recommends all the amazing things. Spotify's audiobooks are like on demand. So you find it, you search for it, and you can listen to it right away. But that's a beaver premium subscription, which I do, and I think you only get like 15 hours a month to listen, and then it resets each month. I'm not sure if it resets on the first of every month or like whenever your bill date isn't during the month. So I will be going back to Spotify to find the book for November if it resets November 1st. I'm on it, which is next Saturday, because I want to finish this book. It looks so good. Um that this other book I got, it's called The Love We Found, which is a second book of the first book that I read, which is The Light We Lost, which is so good. It's one of my favorites, and also so a Slow Dance. Oh my gosh, Slow Dance is one of my favorite books. I read it on Kendall. It was so, so good. And then The Light We Lost and The Love We Found, those are two books in the same series of Duality. I just ordered that that just came. I'm gonna start that at some point. And then I was talking to my hairstylist, also a great person for recommending things and talking about things with that you wanna do books you want to read. She is um starting to get into like studying like African history, like her African heritage and like, you know, bla African American heritage and all of that. So I wanted to look at books on that because African heritage, African American heritage over here as well. Um and I found two really great books um that I just ordered from Rift Books. It's a website that my sister told me about, obviously. And a coworker. I ordered three books from there. Well, one of them is A Court of Mist and Fury, which is the second book in the series of Accord of Thorden Moses. The other books I ordered, which have to do with African history, are Things Fall Apart and The Shadow King. Um, super excited about that. And can't wait for those to arrive. I said that they shipped, I think a couple days ago. Yeah, so I'm excited to receive those. Then yeah, I'm listening to When the Sorcerer Calls or A Sorcerer Calls, it's called on Libby for now, because I had it started on Spotify and ran out of hours for the month. So I've picked it up on Libby and it's super good. It's like a fantasy slash like thr mystery. It's really good. So don't know why I was never really into fantasy, but I'm happy that like I gave it a chance. My coworkers, um, I not blame it on them, but I thank them for working with me through this trying time of like shitting on fantasy books, and then finally I was like, you know what, I'm gonna start. And they came with like a whole list of books I should start with and like eventually read. So it's like different like sub-genres of fantasy. Not gonna get into that because one coworker went through the whole like a lot of the sub-genres with me, and I can't remember any of them except one, and she is more of the expert to talk about about that, and I learned so much, but I am not the one to recite that because I don't remember. But one of them is romantic, which is r romance and fantasy. So this is what a court of thorns and roses is. Um, and there's like another term that people use for, but I'm not gonna say it on here, but you guys know if you know what I'm referring to. But uh yes, I'm into romance, like in life, you know, and then also in reading. But I didn't realize there was like romance and like fantasy, it's like love, and there's like fairies and like witches and dragons, and oh my. But super excited about finishing this. I think there's five books in this series of Claire of Thorns and Roses. I think this is like her second or third series. So there's other ones, like two other series, I think, and maybe one I think that hasn't been finished yet that she hasn't finished yet. So looking forward to that. And oh, I do have another book that I'm currently reading. One of our community members, Heather Hendry, wrote a book called Awfully Hilarious. It's period pieces. So, well, yeah, she put the book together, but actually it is stories of women and girls and their experiences with their period. How fitting, because I just said them in bed because of mine. Experiences with their period and menopause and um perimenopause. But it's good so far. I'm still in the beginning, but the back of it, I love it. It says you're ovary acting. Yeah, that plan lords. Overreacting, but ovary. But I'm excited to finish that. Shout out to Heather. But yeah, so I'm excited about my reading journey. It definitely I wish I had read more before kids because obviously I would have more time. But I do find like time here and there. Like we have soccer practice, so I'm not really reading doing soccer practice because I'm chasing behind the three-year-old. But at night, sometimes I ordered a book lamp, but of course, they've my children lost the one that I ordered. I have to order another one. But this one we can't keep nice things, guys. Um, at night, like if we get to the doctor's early, I can like read in the car, or like I'm in the habit now of just like bringing books with me wherever I go. And I always thought that was so weird when people did that because I'm like, what are you doing? Like you're going to like eat, or like you're going to the doctor while you have a book with you. Obviously, I was judging, I didn't know. It has been so beneficial for me. And then whenever my sister also told me about this, um, thank God for her. She does her ebooks on her tablet and also her phone. So you can download the Kendall app on your phone and you can just whip it out, like if you're in an appointment early or wherever. Um, so that's been helpful when I have been reading books on Kendall, which I have not done in like a month or so. I have a book that I started on there, I think it's called When We Are Younger, but I had started too many other books and I just that fell off. My one chronic issue that I do have with reading is that I can't read just one book at a time. And if I am reading one book at a time, it means that all the other books that I've been wanting to read are currently on hold and I'm like at a standstill, and I'm like hoping that when I'm done, one book one of the books will be ready. But I just I always need to be doing something. And people have asked me, like, does it make it confusing switching back and forth between the books? And I'm like, not really, because like on Spotify and Libby, it leaves where you left off. So if you you know, if your hold lapses and you don't read it in like the hold for like 21 days and you have to like re put it on hold and like you have to return it, but like it'll keep it at that place when it's returned back to you. And same with Spotify. If you're on out of hours and then you pick up pick up your pick up your hours again next month, it'll stay where it left off. But like with paper books, I just have a bookmark. I'm really into like cute bookmarks now. Or just you don't need a bookmark, but I just like the sort of like holding the pages. They don't want to um ruin the pages, but it's cheaper than a bookmark. Or like you can get a piece of paper. But I'm just like always carrying books around and I love it now. I'm sure I feel like I'm such a nerd, but like not in like a nerdy make fun of way. Just like a oh, okay. So like you're smart if you read. So I'm just really enjoying that. I really love reading. I haven't watched everything about this, I don't think I've watched TV in like months. Like I don't even know what is on. I don't know what peop what apps people use to watch TV. Um my children watch YouTube on the TV sometimes. Their dad does like Hulu and Amazon Prime for football, and like he'll do Netflix more than I do. Like I have not watched a TV show or like a movie in months, and I want to keep that up. It wasn't has not been intentional. It's just that I've had zero time with the kids, and I've just been like whipping out reading, or I'm scrolling social media, or when I'm not scrolling social media, I'm working and doing stuff for the podcast and blogging and all of that. But yeah, so that is my reading journey thus far. Reading like a thousand books at a time, but that's cool. So not a quick reader, like I am a quick reader, but I don't comprehend things when I read quickly. Free is a fast reader and can also bonus points comprehend what she read. So I'm like a medium reader. So I like paper books because I can just flip back and be like, oh, what did that page say? Let me just read that again to make sure I understand it. Um I try to read fast because I talk fast, but then I have to like slow myself down in my head. What am I reading? Oh, book that I also finished before I finished The Witch Book um is the eighth. It was another book from the book club at work. It was super good. I started that from the library, then I had to return it because my time is up, and then I picked it up on Spotify, I finished it on Spotify. It was excellent. Please don't ask me any authors. I don't know. You can just Google and the names will be in the show notes, and you can just put it in Google and it'll pop up. But you have probably heard of most of these books I've just said, but I also love going to bookstores and barn and noble and just like walking around just feels so like when life gets hard, I just want to go to a bookstore and just walk around because it's like life just stops in a bookstore. Um yeah, that is my take on books I'm reading, guys. And please share with us what you are currently reading as well. You can DM us on TurnThePage Pod on Instagram, you can email us, turn the page five two one at gmail.com, and page, as you know, is P-I-G-E. Or you can post it on Instagram and do hashtag turn the page reading and just let us know what you're reading. And Sherie also has a books a bookstagram. It's an Instagram with books, like she shares all the books that she's been reading. And before I butcher that, let me just tell you what it's called. So if you are interested, it's called Bookish and Busy underscore. And she's 156 posts. And she has over like 38,000 followers, which is so funny. Um, she's so cute, sorry, I was looking at her. But she started when did she start those? Two years ago. She's amazing. Obsessed with my sister. But anyway, anywho, yeah, so B-O-O-K-I-S-H A-N-D-B-U-S-Y underscore. And it's all the books that she's read, like thus far. Like she'll post it and write like a little synopsis and stuff of it. And a lot of them have been in our um monthly turn the page newsletters. But yeah, so please join our book club. I will put that information in the show notes. And also please join our email list for our newsletter. Both of the book club and the newsletter are free to join, and they're free. Um we believe just in sharing information. Like we don't need to charge you to receive the information from us. Yeah, guys, just let us know what you're listening to. And don't forget to like, listen, subscribe, and review. And I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

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Sheree Paige-Barber

Co-host
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Tajuana Paige

Co-host